The Rise of Conversational Ads: Creating Personal Connections That Drive Sales

Marketers are increasingly turning to innovative, personalized solutions to meaningfully engage audiences and build lasting relationships. Interactive content that drives conversions is now essential to shorten the path to purchase.

With the rise of platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant, consumers are engaging with brands in new ways and brands need a new approach to advertising that fosters personalized, one-on-one engagement. 

What is Conversational Commerce?

Conversational Commerce is when people and businesses connect through chat or voice assistants with the intent to drive the purchase of goods or services. This behavior presents brands with powerful opportunities to engage shoppers in new ways. Additionally, conversational commerce generates valuable insights, enabling brands to understand customer preferences, optimize interactions, and personalize offerings.

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The Future of Advertising is Conversational

To help marketers reach their audiences on these evolving engagement channels, Smartly’s new offering - called Conversational Ads - enables advertisers to quickly launch and scale personalized 1:1 interactions on messaging channels. As messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct grow in popularity, consumers increasingly seek one-on-one conversations that offer real-time responses and personalized product recommendations. Advancements in AI and privacy-safe messaging further accelerates this shift, making conversational ads essential for brands aiming to foster deeper connections.

Smartly’s Conversational Ads marks our launch into the Conversational Commerce space, offering an industry-first solution that integrates conversational ad experiences directly into the campaign setup process. 

Unlike third-party chat tools or customer care-focused platforms, Smartly’s Conversational Ads are fully marketing-focused, designed to simplify execution and maximize engagement across Meta's channels. This in-platform approach allows advertisers to create and manage interactive, personalized ad experiences seamlessly, all within a single, streamlined workflow.

And we’re seeing that marketers are ready to meet them there, in fact in our recent report we saw: 

• 70% agree conversational commerce is a focus for next year. Marketers whose budgets are growing in 2025 are 10% more likely to agree.
• 74% of marketers plan to use conversational ads in 2025, according to recent data from Smartly’s 2025 Digital Trends Report. 

This new, exciting channel offers many benefits to marketers, including the ability to:

• Shift from One-to-Many to One-to-One Marketing: Engage in real-time, personalized 1:1 interactions through messaging platforms, increasing relevance and driving faster conversions.
• Leverage Emerging Private Messaging Channels: Tap into the potential of underutilized messaging channels like Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct to automate scalable, tailored conversations, enabling more direct and personalized interactions that shorten the path to purchase.
• Optimize Through Continuous Learning and Re-engagement: Utilize zero-party data to continuously optimize and improve conversation flows, ensuring timely, personalized engagement to maximize conversion potential and performance over time.

Case Study Spotlight: Enhancing Conversions with Conversational Ads for a Travel Brand

A leading travel company sought to diversify and personalize their lower-funnel advertising, aiming to drive higher-quality leads for their offerings. They implemented Smartly’s Conversational Ads with a focus on catalog integration to create interactive, location-based conversations on Messenger.

Actions Taken:

• The travel brand adopted Smartly’s Conversational Ads solution, integrating their catalog with Click-to-Messenger ads to facilitate guided conversations and offer personalized recommendations to users based on their location and preferences.

Results:

• The CPL for these Conversational Ads was 15% lower compared to the brand’s average campaign performance in 2024.
• Driven by strong performance, the brand increased its month-over-month investment in this campaign type

Want to see how Conversational Ads can enhance your advertising strategy?

Book a demo to see it in action. 

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