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Announcements
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September 16, 2021

Introducing Products for the Next Era of Personalized Experiences

We recently shared how we’re evolving our business to usher in the next era of personalized experiences. In this new era, people will want to easily discover products and services, get support and ask questions right from chat, and conduct transactions, all while having more control over their personal information.

We want our family of apps to be the best place for businesses, especially SMBs, to run their business online. That’s why we are announcing new products to help businesses connect with their customers and simplify day-to-day management.

For businesses, time is as important as budget. We want the best dollar they spend each day to be on Facebook, and that requires more than just better tools to buy ads or post updates.

Today, we’re introducing new ways to improve business results with business communications, new tools like Work Accounts, as well as supporting businesses with new cost savings and discovery experiences.

Innovating Business Communications

People’s preferences for how they want to talk with companies are evolving. In this digital era, 75% of adults globally say they want to communicate with businesses via messaging, in the same way they communicate with friends and family.1

We are investing across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, in business messaging tools as well as omni-channel communication tools such as email. We're using our expertise in person-to-person messaging to simplify person-to-business communications. These new tools are built to drive better business results across the customer journey – from higher-quality leads, to incremental sales, to higher customer satisfaction at lower cost.

Start Conversations with a Business Across Our Apps

  • Start valuable conversations with ads that click to message: Businesses can already buy ads that encourage people to message them, whether in Messenger, Instagram Direct or WhatsApp. For example, Organicwa, a Thai restaurant, leveraged click to message ads to scale up its delivery operations. Now, businesses can choose all the messaging platforms where they’re available to chat, and we’ll default the chat app in your ad based on where a conversation is most likely to happen.
  • Start a WhatsApp chat from an Instagram Profile: For many small businesses, Instagram is the virtual storefront for customers to discover brands, and WhatsApp is the counter to discuss products, answer questions and close sales. To make it quick and easy to start a conversation on WhatsApp, we're now making it possible for businesses globally to add a WhatsApp click-to-chat button to their Instagram profile — and, starting soon, the option to create ads that click to WhatsApp directly from the Instagram app — so people can start a chat with just one tap. These updates are meant to help small businesses find new customers and get business done.

Lead Generation and Customer Acquisition

  • Quote Request on Messenger: Currently testing with select advertisers, this product allows businesses to select 4-5 questions to ask consumers prior to starting a conversation. Consumers are then able to easily and quickly request a quote from a business on Facebook by completing a short questionnaire on Messenger.
  • Lead Generation on Instagram: We plan to begin testing paid and organic tools to help small businesses find and qualify leads directly within the Instagram app. Advertisers use lead generation ads to connect with customers and connect leads in a more personal way, while reducing costs — like Seoul Spa, a Vietnamese beauty clinic, did with their Messenger campaign, lowering their cost per lead by 72%.

Managing Communication Efficiently

  • Updates to Facebook Business Suite: We’re investing in new technologies, like automation, and simplifying how businesses manage their digital presence. This way, they can focus on what matters most — reaching their customers and growing their business. In addition to managing messages across Messenger and Instagram, we will test the ability for businesses to manage emails through Inbox and send remarketing emails from Facebook Business Suite. We’re also introducing File Manager, a new feature that allows businesses to easily create, manage and post content within Facebook Business Suite. Lastly, we’re making post testing available in Facebook Business Suite to let businesses test and compare multiple versions of a post to see which one people are more likely to engage with.

Greater Control with Work Accounts

Business owners routinely tell us that they are looking for access to business products with separate credentials from their personal Facebook account. To simplify this, we’re testing Work Accounts, which will allow business users to log in and operate Business Manager without requiring a personal account. Businesses will be able to manage these accounts on behalf of their employees and have access to enterprise-grade features like single sign-on integrations, giving them more control over the security of their employees’ accounts.

We will test Work Accounts through the remainder of the year with a small group of businesses, and we expect to expand availability in 2022. (Update on July 20, 2022 at 9:00AM PT: Meta Work Accounts continues to be a priority for our teams. After completing testing, we now expect this product to become available to a limited number of businesses in the first half of 2023. Timeline subject to change.)

Supporting Businesses with Cost Savings

We will soon begin testing a new way for businesses to become more successful with the help of Facebook. For example, we will start to allow some small businesses to access a bundle that will include valuable tools and benefits, such as a Facebook ad coupon, along with free access to QuickBooks accounting software for three months or free access to creative tool Canva Pro for three months.

Helping People Discover Relevant Businesses with Facebook Business Explore

We’ll soon expand Facebook Business Explore to people in the United States and internationally in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom. By putting more businesses in front of interested people who are actively looking for them, Facebook Business Explore will help connect people with new and relevant businesses — all in one, easy and centralized place. This will also help businesses reach new customers and drive deeper consideration that can lead to purchases.

Finally, in addition to continuing our tests with ads, as we shared in our previous update, we plan to incorporate more content from creators and local businesses, and introduce more features to give people more control over the content they see.

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Today is just a step towards the future we’re building for and with businesses in this next era of personalization and we’ll share more on this as it progresses.

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