A conversation ad is a type of digital advertising that allows brands to have personalized, interactive conversations with potential customers. These ads are designed to mimic the experience of chatting with a salesperson or customer service agent, enabling brands to provide tailored information, recommendations, and offers.
Conversation ads represent a major evolution in digital advertising, moving beyond static display ads or generic messaging. With conversation ads, each user can have a unique interaction with the brand, fostering deeper engagement and relationships. Major digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google have introduced their own versions of conversation ads in recent years.
Key Features
Conversation ads have several defining features:
- Interactive interface – Users can respond to questions, click options, and type messages.
- Natural language processing – The ad understands and responds to unstructured text input.
- Personalization – The conversation is tailored based on each user’s responses and preferences.
- 24/7 availability – Users can interact whenever it’s convenient, outside of business hours.
- Instant answers – Questions are answered immediately instead of waiting for an email or call back.
These capabilities allow brands to mimic conversational experiences digitally, engaging customers in an intuitive new format.
Types of Conversation Ads
There are a few main formats that conversation ads take:
Chatbots
Chatbots allow users to interact with an automated bot that can understand questions and requests typed in free-form. It provides relevant responses, recommendations, and information. Chatbots can guide users to products, answer customer service inquiries, or provide interactive brand experiences.
Interactive Display Ads
Display ads with interactive elements allow users to engage right within an ad unit. This could include clicking buttons, watching videos, taking quizzes, browsing products, or any interactive experience. These ads often adapt based on user choices.
Messaging Apps
Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp enable conversational ads within their interfaces. Users can chat one-on-one with a bot representing the brand using natural language. Bots can provide information, deals, customer support, and more.
Voice Assistants
Voice assistants like Amazon Alexa allow brands to create “skills” that users engage with conversationally. For example, a weather skill might involve asking questions aloud and getting verbal weather reports. Brands can develop branded skills that provide useful information and recommendations.
Benefits of Conversation Ads
There are many potential benefits that make conversation ads highly appealing for marketers:
Higher Engagement
By making ads feel more human and interactive, conversation ads tend to achieve much higher engagement rates. Rather than passively viewing or ignoring an ad, users choose to have an ongoing dialogue.
Deeper Personalization
Each user has their own unique conversation based on their interests, needs, and responses. This creates personalized experiences that feel tailored.
Stronger Relationships
Conversations allow brands to make emotional connections and build relationships with customers, rather than just broadcast impersonal messages.
24/7 Availability
Bots never sleep, so customers can get quick answers at any time of day. This improves customer service and satisfaction.
Lower Cost
Once conversation ad platforms are set up, they can automate interactions at a low cost compared to human agents.
Lead Generation
Interactive conversations allow brands to qualify leads and identify potential customers. Those users can then be retargeted.
Valuable Data
The choices and responses of each user provides extremely valuable data for brands to improve targeting and personalization.
Creating Effective Conversation Ads
Here are some best practices to create high-performing, effective conversation ads:
Define the Purpose
Are you driving sales? Building awareness? Providing customer service? Be clear about the ad’s purpose early on.
Map the Conversation Flow
Plan the dialogue branches, interactions, questions, and content that make up the conversations.
Personalize the Experience
Tailor the conversation using relevant user data like demographics, location, interests, purchase history, etc.
Build in Value for Users
Make sure users get something useful out of the interaction, whether it’s discounts, entertainment, advice or recommendations. Don’t make it purely promotional.
Be Concise
Keep content and interactions short, simple, and scannable for the small screensconversation ads are typically viewed on.
Test and Optimize
Use data on conversation completion rate, clicks, messages, and conversions to refine the conversational experience.
Conversation Ad Platforms
Here are some of the major platforms that enable conversational ads:
Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram have powerful platforms for creating conversational ads:
- Messenger – Chatbot ads within the Messenger app.
- Messaging – Sponsored messages within the Instagram Direct inbox.
- Dynamic Ads – Interactive display ads that update based on user actions.
Google Ads
Google offers conversational formats across its advertising products:
- Smarter Messaging Ads – Clickable messaging ads with emailed receipts.
- Discovery Campaigns – Interactive display ads that tell brand stories.
- Dynamic Search Ads – Automatically optimized product listings ads.
Amazon Alexa
Skills ads let brands promote conversational Alexa skills to relevant audiences. Users engage through voice commands.
Pandora Voice Ads
Interactive voice ads run on Pandora’s audio streaming platform. Listeners can respond to brand messages aloud.
| Platform | Ad Types |
|---|---|
| Facebook & Instagram | Messenger, Messaging, Dynamic Ads |
| Google Ads | Smarter Messaging, Discovery Campaigns, Dynamic Search |
| Amazon Alexa | Skills Ads |
| Pandora | Voice Ads |
Creating a Conversation Ad Strategy
Here are some tips for developing an effective conversation ad strategy:
Identify Campaign Goals
What does your brand want to achieve from conversation ads? Lead generation, sales, brand awareness? Define this early on.
Determine Your Target Audience
Which customer segments are most likely to engage with your conversational ad? Factor this into ad targeting.
Map the User Journey
Plan the optimal conversation flow to move users through different stages from awareness to consideration to conversion.
Integrate With Your Technology Stack
Connect conversation ad data with your CRM, analytics, marketing automation, and sales software to create full lifecycle experiences.
Create Engaging Conversation Content
Hire conversation designers to script dialogue interactions optimized for personalization, natural language, and your brand voice.
Test and Iterate
Continuously A/B test different elements of your conversation ads to optimize performance – interactions, content, targeting, etc.
Measuring Conversation Ad Performance
It’s crucial to analyze data and key metrics to understand the impact of your conversation ads. Here are some key performance indicators (KPIs) to track:
Impressions
How many times your ads are displayed or heard. This measures exposure.
Reach
The number of unique users who interact with the ads. Indicates how broadly they’re seeing users.
Clicks/Taps
How often users tap or click elements in the conversational ads. Shows engagement.
Messages Sent
On platforms like Facebook Messenger, the number of messages sent by users.
Session Time
How long users interact with the conversation on average. Longer is better.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of users who take a desired action after seeing a conversation ad. i.e. purchase.
Cost Per Conversion
What you pay on average for each conversion event. Lower costs per conversion are better.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
The revenue generated per dollar spent on conversation ads. Aim for a high ROAS.
Conclusion
Conversation ads represent an exciting evolution of digital advertising, but require thoughtful strategy and execution to succeed. By providing personalized, interactive conversations, brands can deepen engagement and relationships with customers in a scalable way. However, conversation experiences must be mapped carefully and optimized based on data insights. When executed successfully, conversation ads can become a valuable channel in the digital marketing mix.
