How To Connect a Facebook Ad to ManyChat in 3 Steps (2025)

Want to turn your Facebook Ads into high-converting Messenger chat funnels?

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to connect a Facebook Ad to ManyChat in just 3 simple steps.

I will show you:

1. How to set up the ad in Facebook Ads Manager
2. How you can connect that Facebook ad to a specific Manychat flow
3. And the 5 best practices when connecting a Facebook Ad to a Chat Funnel

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Set up the Ad in Facebook Ads Manager

The first step is to create a Facebook Ad campaign inside Ads Manager.

Head over to the Facebook Ads Manager and click on Create Campaign:

And then we need to determine the campaign objective and I recommend going with either traffic or engagement.

Common Mistake: Don’t choose Leads as your campaign objective. Lead forms don’t integrate with ManyChat, and you’ll end up optimizing for the wrong outcome.

In this tutorial, we’ll use Traffic. Click Continue:

Once you’ve done that, choose the Manual traffic campaign option and click Continue:

This will take you to the campaign-level setup. There will be quite a lot of options here.

But, for the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll only focus on how to connect a Facebook ad to ManyChat. So, for now, just click Next:

This will take you to the ad set level. Here, it’s important to make sure that the Conversion is set to Messaging apps:

Next, click on Performance Goals, then click Other goals, and choose the Maximize number of conversations:

And then you should select Messenger as the only Messaging app:

I actually recommend setting up separate ad campaigns per channel. In this tutorial, I will only be covering Facebook, so make sure WhatsApp and Instagram are not checked.

Step 2: Design the Automation in ManyChat

Now it’s time to build the Messenger automation that your ad will connect to.

Inside ManyChat, click Automation → New Automation:

First, click on the automation options icon and choose Rename. 

For this tutorial, we’ll rename the automation to “Facebook Ad > Free Ebook” and then click Rename again.

Next, add a trigger. To do that, click the New Trigger option:

Since we’re connecting an ad, the trigger for this automation will be User clicks a Facebook Ad:

And click on Save to continue:

Your first message can only contain text and quick replies/buttons. You cannot use variables (like First Name) here due to Meta platform restrictions.

Pro Tip: Use buttons instead of quick replies. They look better in messenger and boost click-through rates.

Let’s say, we are doing a Facebook Ad where we give away a free ebook.

Then, we can add the following as the first message:

Are you ready to sky-rocket your Instagram engagement, generate more leads and increase your revenue? 🚀

Just click the button below and I’ll send over my free guide “How to Generate Leads & Customers on Instagram” 💰

And under the message, you can add a button with “Yes, send it over“:

And we will connect this button to another message in Messenger:

And normally, this would go to a complete Chat Funnel in Facebook. But in this tutorial, I will just show you how you can create the connection between the Facebook Ad and Manychat.

Now, we can click on Set Live:

Step 3: Connect the Facebook Ad to ManyChat Automation

Now, you need to go back to your Facebook Ads Manager page and refresh it.

Once you have done that, scroll down to Message template, choose Partner app, and then click Select flow.

From here:

• Under Partner App, select ManyChat
• Under Message Flow, choose the automation you just built

Once you do that, you’ll see a preview of what the message will look like.

From here, you can choose to preview it in the Messenger app or click Finish to publish your ad.

And that’s how to connect a Facebook ad to ManyChat in three simple steps!

Tips for Connecting a Facebook Ad to a Chat Funnel

When you are connecting a Facebook Ad to Manychat, you must use these best practices:

Only works with Traffic, Engagement and Sales Objectives

It only works with Traffic, Engagement and Sales ads. It does not work with the other objectives.

You Cannot Change Anything if the Ad Is Active

You cannot change the Manychat flow if the Ad is active and you cannot turn off the Ads trigger of your flow.

If you want to change the flow or remove the Ads trigger, you first need to disable the ad itself. Then you can do all the changes. And then after that, you can enable it again.

Set Clear Expectations About Messenger in Ad Copy

It’s really important that you mention inside the copy of your Facebook ad that someone is going to Messenger.

Most people are expecting a lead form or a landing page when they click on an Ad, but now they are going to Messenger, so you need to tell them that.

Align Facebook Ad Copy with Messenger Conversations

The copy of the ad needs to be aligned with the first message in Messenger.

So for example, if you do an ad about giving away a free ebook, then the first message in Messenger needs to be something like “Do you want to get the free ebook? Just click the button below”.

What I’ve often seen businesses doing is having misalignment between the ad and the first message in Messenger.

So for example, the ad will be about getting a free ebook. And then the first message was “Hey there, do you want to get started?”.

That’s a great of example of misalignment and it highly impacts the conversions you will be getting from your Facebook Ads.

Testing Messenger vs. Lead Forms and Landing Pages for Optimal Results

You always need to test out conversations.

What I mean by this is that I’ve had clients where we did the same ad with a lead form or landing page, and one with Messenger.

And the results were that Messenger cost much more money for the same number of leads. So it’s really important you test out whether this works better than landing pages or lead forms.

On the other hand, I must say that because we’re using a messenger conversation, you always also have some benefits.

1. We already know information from the user, such as their first name and last name.
2. We can retarget users for free.

You can automatically remind them for free in the Messenger chat, not with retargeting ads.

So let’s say we are giving away a free ebook in our Messenger conversation. Then, we can automatically send a follow-up reminder with “Did you like the free ebook?”.

And that can eventually result in upselling one of your paid products.

Now, It’s Your Turn! 

You’ve learned the necessary steps, and you also know the best practices! Now you can drive paid traffic to your chat funnel.

But, you can also drive organic traffic! If you want to auto-reply to comments on Facebook, click on the tutorial below to learn how to create a Facebook Comment Bot:

How to Create Auto Facebook Comment Bot for Free in 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Manychat work with Facebook Ads?

Yes, Manychat works with Facebook Ads. In Manychat, you can add a Facebook Ads trigger to your automation.

Then, when someone clicks on the ad, they will directly go to your Manychat automation in Facebook Messenger.

Here’s how to set it up in three steps:

1. Create the Ad in Facebook Ads Manager
2. Set Up the Automation in Manychat
3. Connect the Facebook Ad to ManyChat Automation

How to connect Manychat to Facebook Ads?

You can connect Manychat to Facaebook Ads in three simple steps:

1. Set up the Ad in Facebook Ads Manager
2. Design the Automation in ManyChat
3. Connect the Facebook Ad to ManyChat Automation

Can you connect Facebook Lead Ads with Manychat?

No, Manychat doesn’t have a Facebook Lead Ads integration. So you cannot connect Facebook Lead Ads with Manychat. This is a platform limitation from Meta itself.

You can only connect ad campaigns with Traffic, Engagement or Sales objectives to Manychat.

How can I improve conversions using Manychat with Facebook Ads?

To get the best results from ManyChat Facebook Ads, follow these tips:

• Align your Facebook ad copy with the Messenger flow. For example, if your ad offers a free guide, the first Messenger message should mention it.
• Set clear expectations in the ad, letting users know they’ll interact in Messenger.
• Test Facebook Ads ManyChat flows against lead forms or landing pages. See which performs better.

What if I get the error “You cannot use Variables (like First Name, Gender, Bot fields, etc) in JSON GT Opt-In due to platform limitations”?

If you get this error, you’re using a variable (like the First Name) in the first message of your automation.

You cannot do this, because of Meta platform limitations.

So you can solve this by removing all variables from the first message in your automation. Once you do that and publish your automation, the error will disappear!