The Facebook ads trigger is a feature that automatically initiates a conversation in Manychat when someone interacts with your Facebook ads.
With this trigger, you can engage users who click on your ads by sending personalized messages, collecting leads, answering questions, and guiding them through a sales funnel directly on Facebook.
This is especially valuable for businesses aiming to maximize their ad spend by turning ad interactions into meaningful conversations, building relationships, and driving more conversions.
How to set up a Facebook ads trigger
Create an automation and set up the initial message inside your Manychat account
First, you need to create the initial message inside your automation in Manychat. This message is what customers will see first after clicking on a Facebook ad. It should contain a single block of text or media and include at least one regular or quick reply button.
Add the Facebook ads trigger to your automation
Once you have finalized the content of your automation, add the Facebook ads trigger by clicking the + New trigger button, as illustrated in the screenshot below.
Select the trigger from the list, click Save, and then toggle the switch in the bottom left corner to activate it.
Note: If you deactivate the trigger within the automation, it will no longer be available in the list of automations for selection in Ads Manager.
Additionally, if you attempt to choose this automation for an ad before activating the trigger, it will not appear in the list. Therefore, it is crucial to activate the Facebook ads trigger in Manychat before proceeding to set up your ad in Ads Manager.
Set up the ad in Meta Ads Manager
After completing the steps above, navigate to Meta Ads Manager to create your Facebook ad. Choose a call-to-action button that says Send message to initiate a conversation with the user in Messenger.
In the Message template section, select the Partner app option. Then, click the Select flow button to open the setup pop-up window.
In this window, go to the Select message flow section to configure your settings.
From the dropdown list, choose Manychat as the Partner app. Next, select the specific automation in the Message flow section.
Once everything is configured, click Finish and proceed to publish your Facebook ad.
By following these steps, you’ve successfully set up your Facebook ad, which will send an initial message to your potential or existing audience when they click.
💡 We strongly recommend adding additional messages or actions to your automation, as demonstrated in our example, to keep the conversation going after the initial message.
Lastly, remember that Facebook users must click a button or type a response to your initial message to become a Manychat contact.
Known limitations
With the current objectives in Ads Manager, the Facebook ads trigger is only available for Traffic, Engagement, and Sales campaigns.
Due to platform limitations, you cannot use variables in the initial message (such as First Name, Gender, Bot and User fields, etc.). If any of these variables are included in your opt-in message, you will encounter the error shown in the screenshot below: "You cannot use Variables in JSON GT Opt-in due to platform limitations". To fix this, remove the variables from the first message in your automation.
If an automation is linked to an active ad, it cannot be modified. This means you cannot update or edit the automation, nor can you deactivate the Facebook ads trigger associated with it. To edit the automation connected to your ad, you'll first need to turn off the ad in Ads Manager. Then, update the automation in Manychat, reactivate the Facebook ads trigger, and turn the ad back on in Ads Manager.