When DMs intimacy meets Meta commerce

Meta’s most recent update transforms Messenger DMs from a communication space into potential marketing real estate. The company has enhanced its marketing messages feature, allowing brands to slide into your DMs with promotional content—but this time, they’re promising to be more thoughtful about it.
Meta faces a fascinating challenge: how do you monetize the most personal space on social media without destroying what makes it valuable? DMs represent the last frontier of relatively unmonetized social interaction, where conversations feel genuine rather than algorithmic.
The new marketing messages feature acknowledges this tension by building guardrails around brand access. Users must explicitly subscribe to receive promotional messages, and businesses are limited to one marketing message per user per day. In addition, the enhanced features focus on relevance and timing rather than volume. Brands can now segment audiences using CRM data, personalize content, and track meaningful metrics like cost per delivered message.
This suggests Meta has learned from the evolution of email marketing. The most successful email campaigns aren’t those that reach the most people, but those that reach the right people, at the right moment, with the right message. DM marketing appears to be starting from that lesson rather than having to learn it through user backlash.
The subscription requirement isn’t just about compliance; it’s about the psychology of permission. When someone actively chooses to receive marketing messages, they’re more likely to engage positively with them. It’s the difference between an unwanted sales call and asking a store to notify you when something goes on sale.
Meta’s betting that this approach will create a higher-quality audience for brands, even if it’s smaller than what traditional advertising might reach. A thousand people who want to hear from you are more valuable than ten thousand who don’t.
You can read more here.