Conversation Starters, also known as Ice Breakers in Facebook Messenger, are a valuable feature designed to help businesses engage with new users effectively. These prompts appear during a user’s first interaction with your page, providing users with a list of frequently asked questions and encouraging them to initiate a conversation with your business.
By offering clear and relevant options, Conversation Starters eliminate the uncertainty of "what should I say?" and create a smoother path to meaningful interactions.
This is especially important as some users hesitate to click the Get Started button, often unsure about what will happen next or concerned about sharing personal information after seeing the Facebook disclaimer.
Conversation Starters play a crucial role in improving the click-through rate (CTR) of organic traffic by providing an easy and intuitive way for users to engage with your page. They also act as a shortcut to relevant answers, reducing the time it takes for users to navigate through automations.
In this article, we’ll explore how to set up Conversation Starters in Manychat, why they’re essential for user engagement, and how they can help streamline interactions and boost customer satisfaction.
- How to set up Conversation Starters
- How to test Conversation Starters
- Limitations and troubleshooting
How to set up Conversation Starters
To configure Conversation Starters for Facebook Messenger, navigate to Settings → Messenger → Conversation Starters in your Manychat account.
Click the + Add Question button to begin configuring your Conversation Starters.
Each time you click, a new block will appear where you can enter the title of the Conversation Starter (the text users will see) and select an existing automation to trigger or create a new one.
Once you’ve set up all your Conversation Starters and linked the corresponding automations, you can preview how they will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.
If everything looks good, activate the toggle in the upper right corner to enable Conversation Starters and click Publish to make them live.
You can also configure Conversation Starters for Facebook Messenger in Automations → Basic.
By following these steps, you’ll ensure your Conversation Starters are active and ready to guide your audience effectively!
How to test Conversation Starters
Testing your Conversation Starters is simple! Grab your phone and send a message to your Facebook business page from your personal profile to see and test the Conversation Starters you’ve set up. You can also test this on the desktop version without any issues.
Keep in mind that Conversation Starters only appear during the first interaction. If there’s already an ongoing conversation between your Facebook page and personal profile, they won’t show. To test properly, just delete the existing conversation and start fresh — easy as that!
Limitations and troubleshooting
- A maximum of four questions can be set using the Conversation Starters due to Meta API limitations.
- Conversation Starters will appear on the user's side only when there is no ongoing conversation between the user and your Facebook business page.
- When users access Messenger through a Messenger Ref URL trigger and select a Conversation Starter, the automation linked to the Conversation Starter will be triggered instead of the one assigned to the Messenger Ref URL. This happens because Conversation Starters take priority over the Messenger Ref URL trigger.
However, the behavior is reversed on Instagram: the automation connected to the Instagram Ref URL trigger will take precedence over Conversation Starters as mentioned here.
By thoroughly examining these aspects, you can eliminate potential issues and ensure that Conversation Starters work seamlessly for your audience.
If you are experiencing any issues with the Conversation Starters in Facebook Messenger, please contact our Support Team.