I’m going to teach you in under 5 minutes how you can start passively growing your direct messaging recurring subscribers. But first - answer these two questions: 

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1. Do you care about growing your subscribers? 
   
   1. Yes: Great - move on to the next question.
   2. No: You should care - check out why direct messaging is the next big thing in nonprofit marketing.
2. Do you run lead generation ads using instant forms on Facebook? 
   
   1. Yes: Awesome. This is going to take you 5 minutes and you’ll start growing your subscribers immediately. 
   2. No: You should consider running ongoing lead generation campaigns on Facebook to promote your brand, attract new supporters, and fill your program funnels! 

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Step 1: Default Opt-in Facebook Lead Form

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The first step is to take a look at your Facebook lead form functionality to see if you have Messenger default opt-in as an option. 

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In Ads Manager - create a new campaign. Choose Leads as the objective. At the ad set level, choose Instant Form as the conversion location. 

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Next at the Ad level, go to the Instant Form section and hit ‘Create form’.

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Once in the form builder, go to the “Ending” section. At the bottom, you should see a new subsection called “Connect with leads in Messenger”, which has a checkbox that says “Start conversations in Messenger”. 

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If you don’t see this option, don’t worry! There is a workaround. 

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Workaround 1: 100% of NEW ad accounts have this functionality in the lead forms. So all you have to do is create a new ad account for your page. Don’t worry - you don’t have to add a payment method or really do anything besides create the account. Once you create it, go through step 1 above again and publish a “Template” lead form with that checkbox selected. Once you create the form with this feature, it will show up in your main ad account. Then you can duplicate that ‘Template’ lead form for any other use. 

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Workaround 2: Get in contact with us. Our team can help set this up for you at no cost. 

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Step 2: Create a Messenger Automated Follow Up (MAFU)

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Once you have the lead form default opt-in setup in place, you’ll start to see Messages populate in your Meta Business Suite inbox with every lead’s contact information who kept the checkbox selected - it appears that this is being sent from the supporter. You’ll also see the final page of the lead form populate in the message, this time from the organization. Here’s what it looks like (identifying information blurred): 

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Now here’s the rub: this person is not a subscriber…yet. The default opt-in lead form function just gets them in the door. Yes, you could directly reach out to these people from the Messenger inbox - but only for 24 hours. This next step we’re going to take will let you collect an NTN token from the user, allowing you to message them in perpetuity from your page on Messenger. 

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From within your Meta Business Suite inbox section, you’ll see in the top right corner a fun little ‘orbit’ looking symbol - if you hover over it, you’ll see a message about automations. Click this button. 

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From the next menu - hit “Create Automation” and then select “Custom keywords” as your automation type. 

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From the next screen you can name it whatever you’d like. Be sure to hit “Messenger” as the Channel. 

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For Keywords, use whatever standardized language comes through the lead form message from the supporter, for example: “First Name”, “Last Name”, or “Email”. 

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If you have multiple lead gen campaigns running and are worried about sending all leads into this automation, a good way to differentiate between sources is by adding a simple multiple choice question to the lead form. If done right, it won’t impact your CPL and it will allow you to put a customized piece of copy (the question itself), as a keyword-searchable way to identify which lead form is which. Our recommendation is to ask the person what their connection is to your cause.   

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For the Message, you can say something like “Join the [Organization Name] community by clicking the button below!”.

The link to use in the button is simply the following URL with your business page ID input where [PageID] is: https://m.me/rn/[PageID]?topic=nonprofit_name&cadence=daily

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For example: 

https://m.me/rn/105229062888132?topic=nonprofit_name&cadence=daily

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How to find your business page ID: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1181250022022158?id=180505742745347

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Here’s what the screen should look like: 

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Set up that automation and be sure it’s turned on. Then…viola: now your lead generation ads are driving recurring messaging subscribers.

The best part? This all happens in the background of your lead gen process flow. The user will only see the Message after they’ve finished taking whatever action you want them to at the end of the lead form.