WhatsApp campaigns and message templates

WhatsApp works like the other messaging platforms inside a campaign, with one difference: it has message templates, the only way to reach someone more than 24 hours after their last message.

What starts a WhatsApp campaign

• Someone messages a word: they send your keyword on WhatsApp.
• Someone opens your link or QR code: your WhatsApp chat link opens with a message typed in for them. See Start a campaign from a chat link or QR code.
• Someone messages you from an ad: an ad whose button opens a chat in WhatsApp.
• Send now: a message to people you pick by tag. See Send a message now.

WhatsApp has no comments, so comment triggers and public replies do not apply, and it has no followers to check.

Inside 24 hours: ordinary messages

For 24 hours after someone's last message, a campaign can send ordinary DMs, buttons and questions. On WhatsApp, taps past 3 show as a list of up to 10 choices, and every choice needs a different label. These replies are free on Meta's side.

After 24 hours: templates

A template is a message you write once and WhatsApp approves before you can use it. It can have blanks ({{1}}, {{2}}) for the parts that change, like their name or order number, and up to 10 reply buttons.

Write a template

1. Open Setup and find When someone messages you on WhatsApp, Message templates.
2. Pick the Number, and Name it, for example "Order shipped".
3. Under Kind, pick Order or account update (utility) or Marketing. Abandoned cart and win-back messages count as marketing.
4. Write the Message, fill in an example for each blank, and add Reply buttons if you like.
5. Click Send for review. WhatsApp usually reviews it within a day, and the list shows whether it was approved.

Use it in a campaign

1. Click the + and pick Send a WhatsApp template.
2. Pick an approved template under Template, and fill in each Blank. {name} fills in their name.
3. If the template has reply buttons, turn on Wait for them to tap a button to continue the campaign when they tap. A tap opens a new 24 hours for ordinary messages.

Who can get a template

• Utility templates go only to people who agreed to get messages from you. Someone who wrote to you on WhatsApp has.
• Marketing templates go only to people who agreed to get marketing messages from you. Record it in Messages, on their WhatsApp conversation, with They agreed to get marketing messages from you. If they tell WhatsApp to stop your marketing messages, that is recorded too, and they stop getting them.
• WhatsApp does not deliver marketing templates to United States numbers. Anyone with a US number is left out of a marketing template, whatever their opt-in. Utility templates still reach them. For a US audience, reach people inside their 24 hours instead.
• Your WhatsApp number has a daily limit on how many new people it can reach with templates, set by WhatsApp. People past it are left out and shown as such before a Send now goes out.

What it costs

Each automated message counts toward your plan's messages, like on every platform. On top of that, Meta charges your WhatsApp account for each delivered template, billed by Meta to the WhatsApp account, not by CommentGate. Replies inside the 24 hours are free on Meta's side. The board and the Send now confirmation remind you whenever a template goes out.