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The golden rule of Facebook Messenger is the 24+1 Rule. And if you’re reading this article, you’re probably in one of the following groups:
- You are a victim of the Facebook Ban Hammer; one of your page’s Messenger privileges got revoked.
- You’re new to Facebook Messenger Marketing, and you heard rumors of the “24+1” Rule.
- You’ve been utilizing Facebook Messenger Marketing for a period of time now, but still are confused by this rule.
Do any of those speak to your situation? If not… keep reading, because you can never be too careful with this Facebook rule.
The “24+1” window officially starts when a user responds to a business through one of the Messenger Conversation Entry Points.
Let’s break it down:
“24+1”
24 → 24-hour window
You have a 24-hour window to message a user as many times as you want, about whatever you want - promotional & non-promotional - and it is within Facebook TOS. Now, you technically could even send 1,000 messages to a person within this window.
But, you should think about this from the perspective of What is the least amount of messages I can send in order to lead users to where I want them to go, or to do what I want them to do?
The more that you send, the more your unsubscribe rates and block rates will go up. And if you consistently have a block rate above 3%, or anything significantly higher, Facebook won’t hesitate to revoke your messaging privileges based on the fact that you are spamming people.
So remember, just cause you “can” doesn’t mean you “should” send as much as you want inside of this window.
The 24-hour window refreshes each time a user interacts with your bot and the countdown starts with the last response. If that timer runs out, and a user does not continue to restart that window by interacting, then the window shuts.
The only chance you have at re-starting that promotional 24-hour window is to do the following, but not limited to:
- Use “Sponsored Messaging” Facebook Ads to send a message regardless of their 24+1 window status.
- Try to use other organic growth tools to re-engage a user → FB Comment Growth Tool, REF URL in an email, etc.
- Use your “+1” message.
If you are a ManyChat user, you’ve probably noticed that in LiveChat, with certain users, your ability to respond is hidden behind a message warning you that you’re outside of the timeframe to send messages, and should you wish to continue, you need to acknowledge that what your sending is Customer Service related.
ManyChat does its best to automatically toggle features on/off based on where users are inside of the 24+1 window with you, so you don’t need to worry about unknowingly breaking the TOS. If you are breaking it, chances are you’re well aware of it.
+1 - 1 Follow-up Message
This one message is the one and only lifesaver that Facebook gives you to send any sort of follow-up message - promotional or non-promotional - regardless of how far out of the 24-hour expiration window you’re sending it.
Just like email, if you’ve gone months without messaging a user, the likelihood of them unsubscribing or blocking you goes up. So make sure to use your +1 message wisely.
I know what you’re wanting to ask now: If a user responds to my +1 message, does the 24-hour window restart?
Yes. Yes, it does.
What about the +1 message, do I get another one if the 24-hour window restarts?
Yes. Yes, you do.
If your page is approved to send Subscription Broadcast Messages, then your case is a bit different - You can send out non-promotional messages whenever you’d like.
Conclusion
I hope that this breakdown of the 24+1 Window has helped you feel more confident about Facebook Messenger Marketing and your ability to fall within Facebook’s TOS when it comes to this golden rule.
If you haven’t noticed by now, a lot of changes have come to the Facebook Messenger Platform in their move toward a more simple user interface. A large overhaul of the system was done on August 15, 2019 - you can read more about what changed here.
