Recently Facebook announced that it would be changing how Messenger / Messages campaigns run within the European Union space. The reason for this being General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which apply within the EU states.
You may have found that your Facebook Ads Campaigns which had Messenger as their destination have been paused late last month or at the begining of December. This is because Facebook eliminated the option to optimize the ads that click to message for conversations.
Here is what Facebook has officially announced so far:
“Due to new privacy rules in Europe, some messaging campaigns have been paused. This means that certain messaging-related ads, targeting, and audiences for ads delivered to and from Europe will be unavailable.“
So what can you do to continue to run Messages / Messenger campaigns? Well there are 2 issues you need to solve.
Switch the conversions / optimization objective
Whether your ongoing campaigns got paused/disabled or you set up a new campaign which keeps getting rejected, the first step is to switch to the new conversion objective.
“You can still run ads that click to message using the following substitutions. Changes to your campaign may affect performance.
- The Link Clicks optimization can be used instead of the Conversations/Leads optimizations.
- The Start Conversations template can be used instead of the Lead Generation template.“
We used to run click to message campaigns with the Conversation objective. Now that isn’t allowed any more. So this is the reason you will receive your first error, which sounds like this:
“Optimization Unavailable: The Conversations optimization is not available right now for messaging campaigns that target Europe. To continue with this optimization, remove European locations. Or, select a different optimization. (#2446670) “
Now the obvious solution would be to just switch to the new allowed objective of Link Clicks. But that isn’t allowed either.
SOLUTION: What you need to do is to create the campaign all over again. Duplicating it doesn`t work, you will get the same error!
Create a new message template
Even if you recreated the campaign and switched to the new allowed conversions objectives you might find that your Facebook Ads Messenger campaign will still get rejected.
The new error message has to do with the ad itself this time and sounds like this:
“Invalid Page Welcome Message for Messenger Destination Ads: The Message Text (page_welcome_message) is invalid for ads with Messenger as destination. (#1815471)”
Apparently this had been an issue before and was related to custom Message Templates that we’re using custom JSON code. Here is a thread about it on Stack Overflow from 2018.
And the solution which was working back then:
But this time around the error is shown even for templates created within the Facebook Ads Manager platform, without using any JSON code or chatbots.
SOLUTION: In order to fix this you need to create a new Message Template and make sure that you have selected “None” for the Customer Actions. Do not edit or duplicate preexisting templates, or you will get the error again!
If you ecountered other errors with click to message campaigns or found other solutions, please leave a comment.
Good luck!
Marele Diminutiv 
I’m in the Argentine Republic, what I don’t understand is why, if the limitation is in the European community, in South America, specifically in Buenos Aires, I still get this error message in the optimization
The messages campaing error spread to everyone apparently. By now everything should be working fine. I spoke to a Facebook representative today and managed to confirm everything is resolved. You can even set Buttons and Quick Replies in Messages Template now.
Nothing has been resolved. The campaigns with optimization “messages” does not work and the text of the European community appears. If with other optimizations they can send messages but it is not the same, in quantity and quality. A shame, in a pandemic, they take away an important channel of contact from potential customers and that worked best. Disappointed with facebook. And little or nothing hopeful
I don’t know how to solve it and have an important flow of messages again
Yes, the ability to set conversations as optimization objective for Messages campaign is not available in the EU. When I said everything should be working fine now, I meant that the error messages described in the article don`t show up anymore.
The issue is still the same . I’m in Asia but can still work out messaging ads even my target audience is within my country.
I am still getting the same error for just one specific page and for a local campaign in Brazil. Tried contacting Facebook support twice and they told they would look at it, but they did not solve it. I have two pages in the same account and in one page it works fine, but the other gives me that error.
Hi Vlad, I already back to Malaysia 2 months ago from Ireland, but my ads manager keep showing the conversation optimization is not available because I am in Europe. How can I do without changing the conversation to link click. Is there anyway to change my location for Facebook detection?
I encountered this issue on 19th May 2021… Even changing optimization or message template don’t help.. My ad account has been stop running to 3 weeks… Still waiting FB to revert with the solution…
broke as of today, got this error and ruined my only good ad
tried to make a new ad set but now they wont let me use detailed targeting, smh
Hola, pudo resolver el problema? Me pasa lo mismo y me gustaría saber si tiene solución
I still can’t run Messenger ads in because of the same issue.
I have all the time issues with Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram targets.
Success, it worked!!!! Didn’t realize it was necessary to switch customer action to “none”. Thanks!!
Glad to hear that!
Can you help me where to find it?
merhaba müşteri eylemini bulamadım nasıl değiştirebilirim
Thank you so much for your blog post !!!
My old campaign doesn’t restart (I’m based in France). Am I obliged to create new campaigns? (Messenger)
Your problems might be with Campaign Objective. Use Link Clicks, instead of Convesations. And yes, you need to recreate the campaign. Editing or duplicating doesn`t work.
Thank you Vlad for your quick response:-) my old campaigns were very good since I recreated them, it costs me five times more. I had hoped to get back to my old campaigns in February. Are they definitely lost? (My old campaigns).
If there are no changes to EU GDPR policy, then it`s higly unlikely that we will ever be able to optimize Messages campaigns for Convesrsation again.
Hi. The messaging services does not work. I’m based in the U.K. and want to link my ad to only my Instagram.
Any advice thanks
I am not sure what you are trying to do… Please give me more details.
Unbelievable… it worked!
Thank you
Glad to hear that! Good luck!
thanks for the article, my campaign is for US, I set the FAQ as none, I didn’t duplicate the campaign and created it from scratch… the error (#1815471) still showing, any recommendation?
Try using a template with text only and don`t add the name tag.
From Australia and had this problem. The error is still there. but this solution managed to resolve it. Thanks!
Glad to hear that!
Hello,
I am really struggling with that for a client! Could you help me in private?
Because I want to put Messenger Ads with Generating Leads Template as it is for a client in real estate in France…
BUT I have always this error :
“To continue using the Generate leads setup, you can do one of the following: 1) If you’re creating a new ad set, choose the Leads optimization, or 2) If you’re editing an existing ad set, create a new ad set and select the Leads optimization. (#2490163)”
BUT I CAN’T do that in the adset section, I can only select link click or impressions, the edit button is grey.
I am so down and frustrated…
if you could help me I will appreciate it so much
Hello Axel. Please sens me a message through the contact form and I’ll get back to you shortly.
I have the same issue, is there a solution for this one?
Conversations optimization isn’t available for WhatsApp numbers from your location: WhatsApp numbers from your location cannot be used for the Conversations optimization. Please select a different optimization or another messaging app to continue. (#2446921)
Hi, i´m from México and even putting none in Costumer Actions the error stills. Is any other tip that you could have? i’ll really apreciate it Thanks 🙂
Hi, i´m from México and even putting none in Costumer Actions the error stills. Is any other tip that you could have? i’ll really apreciate it Thanks
Make sure that you create a new template. If you still get the error, try using text only (with none customer actions).
Hi! I tried doing this but nothing happened. I still got the error. Optimization Unavailable: The Leads optimization is not available right now for messaging campaigns in Japan. To fix this, select a different optimization. (#2446756) I’m running ads for Australia and I don’t have any idea why I’m detected in Japan?
Is there another way to fix this? Hope you can help me! TIA!
I am not sure what the region specific changes in campaign optimization are for Australia and/or Japan. Please send a message through the contact form in my website. I’ll reply via email so that you cand send me some printscreens in order to better understand the issues you are facing.
Hi im from Mexico, It worked for me, setting the action to none, but if I want to put the JSON code the error appears again
Hi!! I Keep getting this error after I changed the optimization to Link Cliks.
Ad Type Unavailable: Multi-destination ads are not available right now for messaging campaigns in Europe. To fix this, please select a single destination. (#2446659) Learn More
Hello. You are probably trying to run Messenger ads with catalog destination.
Why I located in Malaysia but still come out this message? please advice, thanks
Probably because you are targeting countries in the EU.
Hello iam from egypt and got error Optimization Unavailable: The Conversations optimization is not available right now for messaging campaigns in Europe. To fix this, please select a different optimization. (#2446669) i tryed to make new temp but its same error any help how to fixed it ?
Hello Sarah. You can only optimize for Link Clicks. Read my article on how to do that. Good luck!
Hola, muchas gracias por ayudarnos. Lamentablemente lo intenté pero no me funcionó! 😦 No sé si haya alguna otra manera de arreglarlo.
Realice la plantilla de mensajes como lo mencionaste pero sigue apareciendo el error: “Optimization Unavailable: The Conversations optimization is not available right now for messaging campaigns in Europe. To fix this, please select a different optimization. (#2446669)”
My apologies if this is off subject but I used to be able to receive messages in my inbox and see which post/advertisement the sender was referring to. I can no longer see this so if asked a question about a specific post, I have to ask which post it is they are enquiring about before I can answer their question.
Have facebook made changes to this effect? Is there something I need to do?
Conversations optimization isn’t available for WhatsApp numbers from your location: WhatsApp numbers from your location cannot be used for the Conversations optimization. Please select a different optimization or another messaging app to continue. (#2446921)