Rank4AI · Palladium Competitions · 16 September 2026

The whole thing, stage by stage

Everything we are doing on Facebook and Messenger, in the order it happens. Ten stages, five phases. Each one says what happens, what it is waiting on, and where the detail is written up.

Facebook Page and Messenger ManyChat account dormant since Aug 2025 Nothing posted yet

Where we are today

Four things to hold in your head before reading the stages.

1
The system worked in 2025. It stopped, it did not fail.

Messages to people who had just commented were delivered 84.6% of the time. Only 2 of 18 planned posts ever went out, so nothing about the approach was ever really tested.

2
The account needs clearing before it is switched on.

About a dozen duplicate triggers are still sitting there and will fire unpredictably on the first new post.

3
One rule changes how the freebies work.

Meta's spam policy prohibits offering cash giveaways in exchange for engagement. That is enforcement, not lost reach. Stage 3 deals with it, and it needs Skye's decision.

4
Nothing below needs a big build.

The software already exists and is paid for. The work is cleaning it up, posting properly, and connecting purchase data so the messages can be personal.

Phase A

Before anything goes out

Roughly week one. Nothing is posted until these three are done.

1

Check the account

Half a day of looking, before touching anything.

  • Does the Page carry a country or age restriction? If it does, comment automation does not work at all, and everything else is pointless until it is lifted.
  • Any warnings on the Page or in ManyChat.
  • How many contacts are still reachable, and what delivery looks like now.
  • What is still switched on and quietly running.
  • Which ManyChat plan the account is on and what it is costing.
Needs account accessUsDetail: the plan, Part one
2

Clean and rebuild the plumbing

Two or three days. This is the work that makes everything after it reliable.

  • Screenshot the old numbers, then pause every legacy trigger.
  • Rebuild the entry flow the right way round: any comment triggers it, the reply carries buttons, the button tap is what opens the messaging window.
  • Ask for the follow-up opt-in during that flow, because it is the only way to message someone about the draw they entered.
  • Tag people by the button they tap, so the answers are usable later.
Ready to buildUsDetail: the plan, Part seven
3

Settle the freebie question

A decision, not a build. Meta prohibits offering cash or cash equivalents in exchange for engagement, and "comment to win £100" is that.

  • Move to physical prizes, filmed on the desk, rather than cash.
  • Or take the entry off the comment: enter by messaging the Page, on the site, or live on the draw.
  • Or keep cash and accept a known risk, with the lowest-risk version of everything else.
Skye's decisionDetail: the week page
Phase B

Start posting

Weeks one and two. The Page starts working again.

4

Post the week

Seven days with a shape, instead of the same prompt every day.

  • Ask questions people would answer even if there was no prize attached.
  • Film the business: cars arriving, prizes being prepped, staff arguing, winner calls.
  • Two freebies a week at most, never on consecutive days, never the same style.
  • Somebody works the comments for the first hour. Replies are what turn a wall of one-word answers into a conversation, and Facebook measures that.
Ready to runSkye and the teamThe 7-day planThe playbook
5

Make draw night a programme

The draws already run live. At the moment the audience watching is not being captured.

  • A running order: prizes, the physical prize on camera, audience question, comments read out, the draw, the winner, the reaction, a tease for next week.
  • The trigger has to be set up before going live, because it cannot pick up earlier comments.
  • Cut the best moments into next week's posts.
Ready to runSkyeDetail: the playbook
Phase C

Prove it works

Weeks two to six. Replace every assumption with a number from this Page.

6

Build the baseline

There is no baseline to compare against, so it has to be created.

  • Re-run two of the 2025 posts exactly as they were written, against today's audience.
  • Judge on opt-ins per 100 comments, not comment count.
  • Separate first-time commenters from the regulars, or later posts look worse than they are.
  • Watch delivery rate weekly. It is the early warning for everything.
Ready to runUsDetail: the plan, Part four
7

Connect the purchase data

The one piece of building work worth doing, and the thing that makes the rest possible.

  • Push every purchase back from the website into the messaging system: which draw, how many tickets, when, and whether a basket was abandoned.
  • Without it there is no "never played", "lapsed" or "almost bought", so none of the personal messages can run.
  • If it all stopped tomorrow, Palladium still owns that database.
Needs their developerDetail: the plan, Part three
8

Switch on the personal messages

Once purchase data is flowing, the messages stop being the same message to everybody.

  • Never played: how it works, is it legitimate, previous winners.
  • Played and lapsed: the win-back, aimed at a segment rather than blasted at everyone.
  • Almost bought: they clicked, landed on the site and did not finish.
  • A draw that is underselling, pushed to the right people before it crosses break-even.
After stage 7Not written up yet
Phase D

Spend money

Only once the free version is proven to work.

9

Boost, then buy conversations

Same posts, same flows, bigger audience. Two steps, in this order.

  • Boosted posts first. The comment automation fires on boosted posts without any changes, so this proves the plumbing holds at volume.
  • Then ads that open Messenger. These skip the comment step entirely and are optimised for conversations started rather than engagement.
  • Retargeting first, warm audiences second, cold last. Cold is the most expensive and the slowest to learn from.
  • Tag paid and organic separately and judge them on what people spent, not how many turned up.
Blocked: three things firstDetail: the plan, Part three

Blocked on: gambling and gaming authorisation for the ad account (Meta Business Suite, Authorisations and verifications), unique or trackable discount codes on the site, and tracking that connects a message click to a completed purchase. Without the codes there is no attribution and this becomes stage 4 with a budget attached.

Phase E

Own the audience

Weeks five and six onwards.

10

Move retention to WhatsApp

Messenger brings people in. WhatsApp is where you keep them.

  • WhatsApp can send promotional messages outside the 24-hour window using approved templates. That is the thing Messenger has lost.
  • The sends a competition business needs are predictable: closing tonight, tickets running low, live draw starting, you have won.
  • It should be cheaper per message than the SMS they send now, but that gets costed against their real invoice, not an estimate.
  • The consent wording has to be right from the first opt-in in week one. Messenger permission does not transfer, and retrofitting consent is what kills these moves.
Needs their SMS invoiceDetail: the plan, Part nine
Reference

The four documents

Everything lives here. Each one has a job.

This page

The stages, in order, and what each is waiting on. Start here and come back here.

The plan

The account as it stands, the two angles, what changed on both platforms, how the flows are built, and what we need from the client.

Open the plan →
The posting playbook

The editorial system: why people comment, the formats, what to film, the comment desk, fifty ready-made posts and the testing programme.

Open the playbook →
The 7-day plan

The client-facing week: day by day, what to film, example captions, the Messenger reply for each, and how to run freebies with less risk.

Open the week →
Open

What we need from Skye

The short list that unblocks the rest.

  1. Cash or non-cash freebies? Stage 3. This is the one with a policy attached.
  2. Which night is the real draw night? The week is built around Thursday as an assumption.
  3. Access to the Facebook Page and the ManyChat account, so stage 1 can happen.
  4. Can the site issue unique or trackable discount codes? Stage 9 depends on it.
  5. What tracking is on the site now, and who the developer is for stage 7.
  6. The SMS invoice and monthly volume, for the WhatsApp case in stage 10.
  7. The draw calendar: closing times, ticket prices, live draw times.
If only one thing happens this week

Stage 1. Check whether the Page carries an age or country restriction, because if it does, none of the automation works and everyone would spend a fortnight wondering why the posts are not producing anything.