One of the secrets of Facebook Messenger bot marketing is that it is a great platform for capturing additional user data, like emails addresses, phone number or whatever else you need to grow your business. (In fact, here's a case study on how we use Facebook Messenger to grow the email list and drive organic traffic for a publisher.)

As of 2016, more people actively use messaging bots than social networks. This represents a massive opportunity for marketers to reach people where they are. So it’s no big surprise that Facebook recently opened up its API to allow brands to create an owned presence on Messenger. While most brands initially used it as a customer service channel, businesses are increasingly expanding what they do on Messenger: broadcasting content, driving conversions, and engaging 1:1 with potential customers. To leverage Messenger in such ways, brands generally rely on Messenger bots. And with the emergence of tools like ManyChat, creating a Messenger bot has become a democratized process that doesn’t require knowledge of programming or artificial intelligence. Any brand can use ManyChat to create simple bots that capture email addresses, drive traffic to their websites, and create entirely new value propositions that take advantage of Messenger’s 1:1 nature. Today, we want to take the conversation one step further and talk about growth. Because if you create a bot but not an audience, you’re only going to be talking to yourself—and you’ll be missing a massive opportunity.

Here’s an unsurprising fact: Facebook is a digital behemoth, and it’s growing consistently among all age groups, per Pew data and also the lived experience of everyone reading this blog post. But here’s something that might surprise you: the most popular social media platform is also increasingly the go-to source for B2B senior executives and decision makers seeking business content, besting its closest competitor LinkedIn in a pair of recent surveys.

There's a wave of change sweeping through the ad industry right now. Creative talent is leaving corporate powerhouses to start their own shops. Established agencies are dealing with the structural challenge of creating content for both traditional media and emerging platforms. Programmatic, native, and social advertising each claim to be the next big thing. Agencies are lining up and placing their bets. Seasoned creative pros Eve Asbury and Tina Cervera, the co-founders of Wit & Measure, are building an agency from scratch in the middle of it all. We caught up with them to talk about creating a scalable infrastructure, how to compete with bigger agencies, and the biggest piece of advice they have for creatives looking to branch out on their own.

Facebook is estimated to generate $4.8 billion from advertisers in 2016. That’s because there’s never been a platform that allows advertisers to scale targeted campaigns so quickly, and brands big and small are seeing results. There are hundreds ways to target a user on Facebook, including where they live, their job title, their relationship status, and how much money they make. Want to hit single dentists who love the NBA in Wisconsin? No problem. You can be up and running in 15 minutes. In addition to its demographic and interest targeting capabilities, Facebook has been consistently improving its Custom Audiences product since its introduction in 2013. In a nutshell, advertisers can use Custom Audiences to introduce their first-party data into Facebook advertising campaigns. With this method, they can serve hyper-targeted ads against someone who visits their website, views a certain video or signs up for their newsletter. (Ever spend 5 minutes on an e-commerce site, and notice their ads following you around on Facebook? Yeah.)

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