Role: Product Designer
Product: Meta Ads Manager
Focus: Connecting messaging audiences to Ads Manager workflows
Status: Shipped
Product: Meta Ads Manager
Focus: Connecting messaging audiences to Ads Manager workflows
Status: Shipped
Overview
Businesses using WhatsApp marketing messages often manage their messaging audiences outside of Ads Manager, which can create friction when launching campaigns.
This project focused on making it easier for businesses to bring their existing messaging subscribers into Ads Manager, enabling faster campaign activation and broader audience reach without additional setup or manual work.
Product Context
Ads Manager
Meta’s platform for creating, managing, and measuring advertising and messaging campaigns.
Meta’s platform for creating, managing, and measuring advertising and messaging campaigns.
Marketing Messages
Opt-in promotional messages that businesses send to customers on WhatsApp.
Opt-in promotional messages that businesses send to customers on WhatsApp.
Subscribers
Customers who have opted in to receive messages from a business on WhatsApp.
Customers who have opted in to receive messages from a business on WhatsApp.
Problem
Many businesses already had messaging subscribers, but:
• Subscriber data lived outside of Ads Manager
• Businesses had to re-upload or manually recreate audiences
• Campaign setup felt fragmented and error-prone
• New advertisers struggled with a “cold start” when launching their first campaigns
• This resulted in slower time-to-launch and underutilized messaging audiences.
Goal
Enable businesses to seamlessly connect their existing messaging subscribers to Ads Manager, so they can:
• Activate campaigns more quickly
• Reach a larger, ready-to-engage audience
• Reduce setup complexity during onboarding
All while maintaining clear consent, transparency, and user control.
Key Insight
Although businesses had many different technical setups, their mental model was consistent:
“I already have messaging subscribers. I want to use them in Ads Manager.”
This insight allowed us to design a simple, unified experience that supported different backend configurations without exposing that complexity to the user.
Solution
We introduced a streamlined experience that allows businesses to:
• Connect existing messaging subscriber sources during setup
• Clearly understand what data is being used and why
• Maintain control over consent and subscriber management
The design prioritizes:
• Plain-language explanations
• Progressive disclosure for advanced options
• Familiar Ads Manager patterns to reduce learning curve
During onboarding, businesses can connect their existing messaging audience while setting up WhatsApp marketing messages.
This reduces setup friction and allows campaigns to be launched immediately after activation.
Businesses can later manage and refine their messaging audience from Ads Manager settings.
This gives teams ongoing control without requiring additional setup or reconfiguration.
Experience Highlights
Clear entry point
Businesses are introduced to messaging subscriber setup at a moment when it’s most relevant, reducing confusion and decision fatigue.
Transparent consent
Consent language is surfaced clearly and consistently, helping businesses feel confident about compliance and control.
Flexible audience setup
Businesses can bring together subscribers from multiple sources without needing to understand the underlying infrastructure.
Impact
This work helped:
• Reduce friction in messaging campaign setup
• Improve advertiser confidence during onboarding
• Enable faster activation of messaging campaigns
Specific performance metrics are available in interview discussions.
What I Learned
This project reinforced the importance of design judgment and restraint.
Rather than adding more controls or options, the most effective solution was:
• Simplifying the primary path
• Hiding unnecessary complexity
• Designing for clarity over completeness
By focusing on what most businesses needed to do first, we were able to support advanced use cases without overwhelming new users.
What I’d Do Next
• Explore clearer guidance for first-time advertisers launching their initial messaging campaign
• Continue refining how advanced configurations are introduced over time
• Measure long-term retention and repeat usage of messaging audiences
Additional work and detailed metrics are available upon request.