Update to the Facebook Messaging Platform: What Facebook Admins Need to Know about the Upcoming Subscription Messaging Deadline

June 2019 update: If your Facebook Business Page is not approved for subscription messaging, then beginning July 31, you can no longer send chat blasts with the non-promotional subscription messaging tag. Read this guide and download the cheat sheet to get your business page subscription messaging permissions approved by Facebook.

December 2018 update: Facebook Messenger marketers rejoice! The deadline to apply for subscription messaging has been extended! Read more about the critical details and what that means here.

There’s a deadline on the horizon that affects and requires action by Facebook Page admins.

Starting July 31, 2019, Facebook Pages will need to have successfully been approved for subscription messaging permissions in order to send the free messaging type called non-promotional subscription messaging.

If you’re a Page admin and this news sounds like it affects you, read on for everything you need to know about the change, how to apply, and tips for getting approved.

What’s inside:

• What’s subscription messaging?
• What’s the benefit to sending subscription messages?
• How do I apply for Facebook subscription messaging?
• What should I do if my application for subscription messaging wasn’t approved?
• What will happen if I don’t apply for subscription messaging?

And when you’re ready to apply, download the Customers.ai one-page cheat sheet for subscription messaging applications to help you get approved.

Read on for all you need to know about subscription messaging for your Facebook Page as you prepare to apply — or reapply!

What’s subscription messaging for Facebook?

Subscription messaging gives a Facebook Page the option of sending regular content to a person on Messenger.

Subscription messaging is one of the 17 types of messaging defined by Facebook — specifically news updates or integrations with a productivity or fitness app.

Here’s what Facebook’s documentation says on subscription messaging:

Eligible Use Cases

• News: Integrations whose primary purpose is to inform people about recent or important events, or provide information in categories such as sports, finance, business, real estate, weather, traffic, politics, government, non-profit organizations, religion, celebrities, and entertainment.
• Productivity: Integrations whose primary purpose is to enable people to manage their personal productivity with tasks, such as managing calendar events, receiving reminders, and paying bills.
• Personal trackers: Integrations that enable people to receive and monitor information about themselves in categories such as fitness, health, wellness, and finance.

Usage Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to usage of the Send/Receive API for subscription messaging:

• Subscription content may be sent outside of the 24-hour messaging window that applies to standard messaging.
• The recipient must opt-in to subscription messaging.
• Subscription messages will have limited functionality compared to standard messages.
• Subscription messages cannot contain promotional content.
• Subscription messaging is only intended for specific use cases. Businesses and developers will need to indicate which use case their experience falls under when they submit their Messenger Platform integration.
• If a user responds to a subscription message via an eligible action, the conversation will be considered standard messaging and must comply with standard messaging policies.

Examples of promotional messages that Facebook gives are daily deals, coupons and discounts, or sale announcements.

What’s the benefit to sending subscription messages?

So why would you want to send a message under the non-promotional subscription tag?

Facebook Messenger marketing is the channel with the highest engagement today.

A 70% open rate and 20% click-through rate in Messenger far exceeds the 15% open rate and 2% click-through rate in email.

Sending regular updates to your audience using the internet’s most engaging channel is the stuff of unicorns. And industry news updates are hugely valuable to people who are interested in your specialty.

When people opt into subscription updates from your Page, they’re a highly engaged member of your audience who’s raising their hand and saying, “Let’s stay in touch, please keep me in the know.”

You can provide a ton of value in this type of relationship by publishing and linking to news that impacts them on a personal, professional, intellectual and emotional level.

Through regular content updates, your Page can become a trusted source of information that helps your subscribers learn new things, stay informed, and get more from life.

This level of engaged customer relationship pays business dividends. Your audience will be reminded of your expertise, and indirectly, your products or services.

Staying in contact with your Messenger audience is a great way to maintain awareness and nurture relationships.

How do I apply for Facebook subscription messaging?

Sound good? Now you’re going to have to apply.

Here’s an expanded guide to how to apply (and get approved) for Facebook subscription messaging with screenshots of the whole process.

Here’s a quick run-down.

Applying is easy and quick (woohoo!) — you should just know what you’re going to say going into the review. More on that in the tips section below.

Get to the application from Page settings > Messenger Platform and click the link “Request” under Advanced Messaging Features.

The application has three questions:

1. Select the type of messages your Page will send from the three options: news, productivity or personal tracker.
2. Provide additional details, describing the information and update services your chatbot provides.
3. Give 2 examples of subscription messages your Page will send.

It’s the third question, examples of subscription messages your Page will send, that stumps people.

Things to know:

• Your subscription messaging application is being reviewed by a real human.
• Your examples should fit the type of message. Most of Pages will be applying to send news updates.
• If you’re applying to send news updates, make sure that the examples you give are news updates!

Download our subscription messaging approval cheat sheet for examples of bad, good and better message examples.

What should I do if my application for subscription messaging wasn’t approved?

In the Customers.ai community, there have been lots of Page admins reporting that their application was denied and seeking advice for what to do next.

So what are the options for Facebook Messenger messaging if my Page is not approved for subscription messaging?

First, don’t fret. As far as we know, there’s no limit to how many times you can apply.

Apply again, as many times as needed.

Most Page admins we’ve talked to needed to apply several times before they were approved.

Another thing to note is that you can still send any of the other messaging types.

There are 17 message types and non-promotional subscription messaging is just one of them.

1. Promotional update
2. Community alert
3. Event attendee reminder
4. Non-promotional subscription
5. Pairing update
6. Application update
7. Account update
8. Payment update
9. Personal finance update
10. Shipping update
11. Reservation update
12. Issue resolution
13. Appointment update
14. Game event
15. Transportation update
16. Feature functionality update
17. Ticket update

Of course, most business won’t have a reason to send most of the messaging types, which is why getting approved for subscription messaging is so important.

What will happen if I don’t apply for subscription messaging?

If you don’t apply and get approved for subscription messaging, then on July 31, 2019, you won’t be able to send non-promotional subscription messages for your Page in Customers.ai.

Today, Customers.ai’s permissions for Facebook subscription messaging are applied to all our users.

But when the deadline passes, individual pages will need that permission level in order to do subscription based messaging.

It’s important that you apply for subscription messaging in order to get the advantages of Facebook Messenger’s 1.4 billion active users, mobile-friendly conversational interface, push notifications and unicorn-level engagement.

If you’ve applied and been rejected, that’s OK. Apply again.

If you need help, download Customers.ai’s cheat sheet for examples that will help you get approved.

Important Next Steps

• Get Customers.ai, Facebook Messenger marketing platform and chatbot builder, for FREE.
• Sign up for occasional chatbot marketing and Facebook Messenger news updates via Facebook Messenger.
• Download the Facebook Messenger Subscription Messaging Cheat Sheet and get ready to apply for subscription messaging before the July 31, 2019, deadline.