How to use buttons and quick replies in a Facebook ads chatbot

In the previous article, we’ve been exploring the basics of setting up the Facebook Ads chatbot (please check it first if you didn’t). Now, let’s dive deeper into advanced features that are available only in the Activechat platform thanks to our advanced chatbot events framework that we use and the flexibility of the tool.

Messenger templates in Facebook Ads settings allow you to add multiple “Customer Actions” – either buttons or quick replies. Each of these buttons or quick replies can trigger a specific skill in your chatbot so that the conversation is tailored to your customer’s response to the Facebook Ads chatbot greeting.

Let’s check a simple example, based on our “Marketing agency” chatbot template.

Multiple chatbot skills can be triggered right from the Messenger template in ad settings

There is a simple gallery-based menu in this chatbot and the “Services” card in this menu contains three buttons that trigger different chatbot skills – “Social media”, “Content marketing” and “Local SEO”. We will re-create a similar structure in the “Messenger template” part of Facebook Ads settings so that customers who interact with the ad can immediately choose the service that they need.

So, instead of a single quick reply in our Messenger template, we’ll use three buttons, each triggering a specific skill in the chatbot.

Example Messenger template with multiple buttons for different chatbot skills

Don’t forget to build your chatbot skills first, and deploy the bot to the cloud by clicking “Run”.

Now, when customers start interacting with your Facebook ad and see the Messenger template, they can immediately proceed to the skill that best serves their needs.

Clicking the “Content marketing” button in Messenger template triggers the “content_marketing” skill

Clicking the “Social media” button in Messenger template triggers the “social_media” skill

If you prefer quick replies instead of buttons, the setup will be exactly the same. When adding new quick replies to the “Customer Actions” settings in the Messenger template, click “Connect your bot” and type your skill name (preceded with “/”) in the “Bot Payload” box next to the quick reply.

Setting up specific skill names for different quick replies

ℹ️ Please keep in mind that “skill name” refers to the name of the event triggering that skill. It’s used in the CATCH block that listens to that event and starts the skill when the event happens. You can read more about chatbot skills and events.

Here’s the resulting Messenger template after clicking the “Send Message” CTA button in the ad:

Quick replies in the Messenger template trigger different chatbot skills

If you do not specify the event name in the “Bot Payload” box (or do not click “Connect your bot” to open it), the “default” skill will be triggered when the customer clicks that quick reply.