Now businesses can advertise on Facebook Messenger too

Facebook has decided to introduce advertisements on its Messenger platform too, the social networking company has announced in a blog post. The site had been beta testing ads on Facebook Messenger in Australia and Thailand and after promising results in those  countries it decided to roll out the feature for businesses worldwide.

"We'll now offer businesses around the world a way to use Facebook targeting to extend their reach to people in Messenger. This means businesses of every size get a new tool for creating meaningful connections with customers and prospect," the company said in the blog post. "More than 1.2 billion people use Messenger every month, which gives marketers an opportunity to expand the reach of their campaigns and drive more results," it added.

Besides Messenger ads, Facebook also offers other features such as click-to-Messenger adverts, Messenger platform and sponsored messages to advertisers. The latest offering by the company is being seen as an attempt to bolster revenues as News Feed, its primary source of revenue, might see a slowdown in the months ahead.

The users will be able to see these ads in the home tab of their Messenger mobile app. Clicking on the ad will lead them to a destination the creator would have selected while making the advertisement. It can either be the creator's website or a Messenger conversation.

The ads will be shown between messages a user gets on his app, quite similar to how we see ads on Facebook, in between posts by our friends. Also they would be targeting a particular audience as done in Facebook and Instagram. After the introduction of ads on Messenger, WhatsApp remains the only Facebook property which is ad-free. However, there have been reports of Facebook looking at ways to profit from it too.