Message Templates
Author one Click-to-Messenger welcome experience, apply it to every location's configuration, and let messaging playbooks deploy it automatically.
A Click-to-Messenger ad opens a chat instead of a landing page. What the customer sees in that first message is the message template.
You write it once at the Hub, apply it to each location's configuration, and every messaging playbook that inherits picks it up automatically. No franchisee has to author a greeting.
Open Social Media Ads, then Configuration, then Manage, then Build message templates.
The builder runs in three stages across the top: Build & target, Preview, then Results.
Pick a Path
Start Conversations
The default, and the right choice for most locations. You write a greeting and suggest up to five taps: frequently asked questions, quick replies, or a button to your site.
Best when you want volume at the top of the funnel and a human will answer.
Automated Chat
Everything above, plus lead qualification inside Messenger: a privacy policy, a reminder message, and tracking parameters.
Best when you want qualified leads rather than raw conversations, and nobody is watching the inbox all day.
Advanced Setup
Paste version 2 message-template JSON directly and load it into the editor.
Reach for it only when you are copying a template that already exists in Meta, or need something the visual editor will not express.
Write the Greeting
Name the template, then write the greeting people see after they tap your ad.
Use {{user_first_name}} to personalize it. The preview on the right renders exactly what the customer sees, including your quick-reply buttons, as you type.
Turn on Include phone number if you want people to be able to call instead of chat. Add a Follow-up message to nudge high-intent people who tapped but never sent anything after about a day.
Apply It to Every Location
This is the step that makes it real. A template that is not applied does nothing.
Choose the Configuration
Pick which audience configuration the template attaches to. The website URL resolves from it and falls back to the workspace default.
Select Locations
Check the locations to apply it to, or use Select all.
Watch the badges. No page means that location has no connected Facebook page and cannot run messaging ads at all. Incomplete means its configuration still has gaps. Fix those before you launch, not after.
Save and Verify
Once applied, the template appears on each location's Meta configuration. Open Configuration, pick that workspace, and confirm it is set.
Use It in a Playbook
Create a playbook with the Engagement objective, then choose Message Destinations as the conversion location.
Campaigns set to inherit deploy with the template already attached, so each location launches with its own localized greeting and no extra work. Franchisees can still rewrite their greeting and quick replies during opt-in if you allow it.
See Engagement Playbooks and Messaging Ads for the full campaign walkthrough.