Question from Reddit:
Hello everyone,
Just for some background information, I only have a Facebook page, so no website, where customers currently make their payments with a bank transfer to my bank account through Messenger. I basically send them my banking details and once the payment is received, I send out their order.
So here I am, wondering which kind of Facebook campaign matches best for my store.
Looking at the options that Facebook is providing, there are a few that sound promising:
- Message: Show people ads that allow them to engage with you on Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct.
- Conversion – Show your ads to people most likely to take valuable actions, like making a purchase or adding payment info, on your website, app or in Messenger.
The Message option looks interesting, but this means Facebook won’t target people that have made an actual purchase. So, that’s where the Conversion comes in to play.
Once we go deeper in the Conversion campaign, we can see the following setting on the ad-set level:
“Conversion Event Location: Messenger – Send people from ads into Messenger conversations with your business. Your ad will be shown to people more likely to open messenger”
My actual questions regarding the above statement are written here are as follows:
- What’s the difference between a Message campaign VS a Conversion campaign with event location “Messenger” ?
- Let’s assume Facebook can track payments through Messenger, how would Facebook know? I have seen the option for “Facebook Payments“… Could this be the way for Facebook to track conversions through Messenger?
- Let’s assume “Facebook Payments” is out of the question, I have seen the “Mark as Paid” option in the business manager when chatting with the customer. Would this have any effect on how Facebook tracks conversions through Messenger?
Please enlighten me!
Thanks in advance,
Tuubzzz!
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
The key difference is that a Message campaign optimizes for starting a conversation, while a Conversion campaign with the “Messenger” event location optimizes for a specific, valuable action, which is usually either a purchase or a high-intent custom event, but the challenge is that Facebook cannot automatically track your bank transfer payments.
Facebook only auto-tracks actions that happen within its platform, such as using Facebook Payments or interacting with automated Messenger experiences.
Since your conversions happen offline (bank transfer), the only way for Facebook to properly optimize for purchases and attribute them correctly is for you to manually or systematically tell Facebook that a conversion occurred.
The superior, scalable solution is to use the Facebook Conversions API combined with a server-side tagging solution like Stape or Google Cloud Platform, which allows you to send the purchase data directly to Facebook’s servers when the bank transfer is confirmed, bridging the gap between your offline conversion and Facebook’s ad platform.
The long answer is:
Your question hits on a crucial distinction in Facebook’s ad system and a common challenge for businesses that operate primarily through Messenger with offline payment methods.
Regarding the difference, a Message campaign is focused on the messaging_conversation_started_7d objective.
It’s designed to show ads to users most likely to open a chat with your business, which is a top-of-funnel engagement metric.
Conversely, a Conversion campaign with the event location set to Messenger optimizes for a lower-funnel, high-value event, such as a Purchase or a Custom Event you define.
Facebook’s algorithm shows this ad to people most likely to perform that specific valuable action within the Messenger environment.
The problem is that your conversion process – bank transfer – is entirely outside of Facebook’s ecosystem, meaning Facebook has no way of knowing a purchase occurred, regardless of the campaign type.
This leads directly to your next two questions.
First, regarding Facebook Payments, yes, if you were using Facebook’s native payment system within Messenger, Facebook would automatically track the Purchase event, and your Conversion campaign would work perfectly.
However, since you are using bank transfers, this is out of the question.
Second, the “Mark as Paid” option in your Business Manager chat inbox is purely an internal organizational tool for you; it is a user interface feature and does not send a tracking signal back to the Ads Manager for conversion optimization or attribution.
Therefore, your Conversion campaign is currently optimizing for the next best thing it can auto-track, which is likely a generic high-intent message or a default Purchase event that is never actually being fired.
The solution is to create a reliable bridge between your bank transfer confirmation and Facebook Ads Manager using the Facebook Conversions API.
You can use a server-side GTM setup on a platform like Stape or Google Cloud Platform.
When you receive the bank transfer confirmation – which serves as your final conversion signal – you would trigger an action to send a Purchase event directly to Facebook’s servers via the Conversions API.
This event would include details like the purchase value and, critically, customer data parameters (email, phone number, etc.) that Facebook uses for advanced matching to attribute the conversion back to the original ad click.
This approach is highly robust because it’s not reliant on browser cookies or third-party tracking, ensuring your Conversion campaign is optimizing for the real, high-value purchase event.
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