Facebook Subscription Messages — What they Are and How to Get Approved

Facebook Messenger has proven, time and again, that it’s one of the most engaging sales channels.

It’s beating out email and, when coupled with something like a social commerce strategy, massively outperforms general social media conversion rates.

As you’d expect, a lot of brands are trying to leverage Messenger in every way possible. However, unlike email or social media there’s an extra set of rules to consider with Messenger.

Rules which could see your brand’s Messenger privileges revoked and your page banned indefinitely.

A lot of the mistakes brands are making in particular come down to their approach to Facebook Messenger’s Subscription rules.

To help you avoid losing your privileges, here’s what you need to know about Messenger’s subscription rules to stay on Zuckerberg’s good side.

The Absolute Basics of Facebook Messenger’s Subscription Rules

Messenger has been open to brands for marketing since 2016.

Countless brands and services have integrated the channel into their marketing, often to great effect.

Through the Facebook API you’re able to send numerous different message types. However, all you really need to be aware of are the three main buckets and how the rules differ across them.

Those buckets are:

• Standard Messages
• Subscription Messages
• Sponsored Messages

Facebook Messenger Standard Messages

Standard messages are what most brand will be using. You’re allowed to send pretty much anything within Facebook’s terms of service.

That means you could send something as simple as an answer to a question or a hard sales message promoting your new product.

However, and this is a big thing here, you’re limited to who you can send this to and when.

For standard messages, the user has to open the conversation. That means these messages are purely responsive.

Also, you’re only allowed to send them within 24 hours of the user’s last message to you.

Beyond the 24 hour period, you’re allowed one extra message. If you send more than one message outside of that 24 hour window, you risk getting your privileges revoked.

Here’s Facebook’s official wording on the rule.

I’m going to skip number 2 on the above list and come back to it. Let’s take a look at sponsored messages.

Facebook Messenger Sponsored Messages

Sponsored messages are paid ads.

They’re the perfect solution to sending promotional content outside of the 24+1 window.

You’re able to send them to anyone who has an open conversation with your business and they’ll show up on their Messenger with a little “sponsored” notice above them.

You can set these messages up from your regular ad business account. Just choose the Messages objective and change the option from “click to Messenger” ads to “Sponsored Message”.

Now onto the area that’s experiencing the most changes. Subscription Messaging.

Facebook Messenger Subscription Messaging

Subscription messages include things like newsletters, frequent notifications, and automated updates.

To send a person subscription messages, they must have opted in to hear from you.

However, due to the nature of these kinds of messages there’s a high risk of spam. So Facebook have implemented a number of rules and regulations to ensure that the service isn’t abused.

One of the biggest changes was moving the permissions from tools like Jumper to your individual page.

Back in the day you just had to make sure that the tool you were using was approved to send these messages. However, over time Facebook shifted the burden of responsibility to the page owner.

We’ve written about it before but it seems like there’s been a few changes and a reiteration of those rules. This time coming into full-effect at the end of July 2019.

Every page who wants to send subscription messages has to be approved to do so (more on that coming up).

But you should also know that even if you do get the permissions, you’re limited in what you’re allowed to send.

In particular, you’re not permitted to send any promotional messages (that’s what sponsored and standard messages are for). Facebook explains what you can send as:

• News: Integrations whose primary purpose is to inform people about recent or important events, or provide information in categories such as sports, finance, business, real estate, weather, traffic, politics, government, non-profit organizations, religion, celebrities, and entertainment.
• Productivity: Integrations whose primary purpose is to enable people to manage their personal productivity with tasks, such as managing calendar events, receiving reminders, and paying bills.
• Personal trackers: Integrations that enable people to receive and monitor information about themselves in categories such as fitness, health, wellness, and finance.

What if You Want to Re-Engage Old Users with New Promotions?

This is the million dollar question.

If you’ve built up a substantial user base on Messenger then these rules are almost preventing you from making money.

Or rather, they’re preventing you from running promotions without paying for them.

Is there a way to get around the rules?

Yup. There kind of is. However, there’s a few things you’re going to need to do.

First up is get your page approved for subscription messages.

Here’s how I applied with one of my test stores. It’s the process I’ve used for multiple other pages and has (so far) always been approved.

How to Apply for Page Level Subscription Messaging Permissions

Head to your page’s settings and click on the Messenger Platform sub heading.

Scroll down until you see the area detailing subscription messaging. You’re going to need to click on the “request” text in the top right of the box.

This will bring up a popup asking you for more details.

Fill this out with relevant information. Don’t try to game the system here. It’ll only come back to bite you later on.

For eCommerce, the most likely area will be news. To let people know of developments, improvements, or worthwhi.e news they should know about in your area of operation.

My test page is built around chef’s knives so I might write something like the below.

With that done, scroll down. You’ll now be asked to fill out some actual example messages you might want to send.

Remember, this is about giving people factual, news type updates. Don’t try and sneak a promotion in there.

What I like to do is check out what sort of news stories are being covered in the niche and then write out examples that fit that industry.

Here’s some examples I wrote out.

As you can see it’s focused on reports and developments in the niche. However, it’s also focused on providing the user with free information they’ll value.

Information that will help them get the most out of their knives.

After you’ve done that, just submit for review.

Rinse and Repeat

It takes up to 5 days to get the decision back. And it’s not uncommon to be unsuccessful the first time around.

Don’t worry though, there’s nothing to stop you from amending your message types and trying again.

If anything, this is a great way to test the messages and see if they fall within Facebook’s guidelines.

Once you are approved, what then?

Resetting the 24+1 Rule

If we take a look back at the standard messaging, you’ll note there’s a number of entry points.

Or rather, actions users take which reset the 24+1 rule.

It’s the first one that’s important here.

If a user sends your business a message the 24 hour promotional period is reset.

So, we can run a little magic here and use the subscription messaging to solicit a response, thus resetting the promotional period.

However don’t do this in an underhanded way.

Don’t use it only to be able to blast people with a hard sell of everything you’ve got.

Instead, look at how you can build on the value your subscription messages create. Not only will this be more within Facebook’s need for a better UX, but it’s also something that your users will better engage with.

Take for example the sample message I wrote above, in particular about sharpening you’re knives.

Notice how I ask the user if they want to read more?

That means they’d have to respond yes/no to the question.

If they respond yes, then maybe 2–3 hours after they’ve received the link you follow up with something like;

“Hey {{NAME}}, hope you enjoyed the piece on sharpening your knives.

If you want to check out the tools they used in the piece…”

The ellipses could be followed up with a CTA that takes them to your sharpening stones and hones or could be the start of a social commerce checkout.

This way the relevancy is high, the rules aren’t broken, and you’re able to use long time subscribers in your promotional messages.

How to Send Subscription Messages

OK so, subscription messages are the lynchpin of this.

You need to be able to send subscription messages to reset the promotional period.

This is something that’s super simple within Jumper.

In your dashboard you’ll find the broadcast option under the customers heading.

From there, you’ll be able to create a broadcast message around the news items you outlined in your subscription message request.

Once the user has replied, you’ll be able to follow up with one of your very own automated chatbot checkouts which convert at a much higher rate than any channel.

If you want to learn more about setting up those checkouts, check out this piece right here.