Once you've built a template that contains the content, design, and images you want your users to receive in a WhatsApp message, you can schedule or send the message in a campaign. This article explains how to set up and launch WhatsApp campaigns.
WhatsApp campaigns differ from other message mediums because WhatsApp facilitates instant, rather than asynchronous, messaging. Because of this, Meta imposes some sending restrictions that you should consider as you implement this messaging channel.
Your business can only initiate conversations with users through an approved message template (see Submitting business-initiated templates to Meta for approval). Users can initiate conversations with your business at any time.
NOTE
To add WhatsApp Messaging to your Iterable account, talk to your customer success manager.
In this article
Required permissions
To send WhatsApp campaigns, you'll need the Manage and Launch WhatsApp Campaigns permission for your project.
Sending standalone campaigns
You can schedule and send a blast or triggered standalone WhatsApp campaign from the Campaigns page. To do this, go to Messaging > Campaigns, and click + New Campaign. Select WhatsApp, then configure your campaign details.
You can also send standalone WhatsApp campaigns using Iterable's API.
To learn more about sending campaigns, see Sending or Scheduling a Blast Campaign and Activating a Triggered Campaign.
Sending journey campaigns
The WhatsApp tile sends a specified WhatsApp campaign to users who pass through the tile, allowing you to automatically deliver WhatsApp messages to eligible recipients at just the right time.
Setting up a WhatsApp tile
Open or create a journey, and go into Draft mode to edit the journey’s tiles.
Drag a WhatsApp tile onto the canvas, and place it at the desired point in the journey flow.
Double-click the WhatsApp tile to edit its settings.
Give the campaign a name.
Select the WhatsApp template you want to use for the campaign.
Adding users to a journey when they reply to a WhatsApp campaign
The Event Occurs entry source in the Start tile lets you specify two WhatsApp-related events: WhatsApp Reply and WhatsApp Click. With these events, you can automatically add users to a journey as soon as they reply to or click a link in a WhatsApp campaign.
WhatsApp sending limits
Meta imposes limits on how many business-initiated WhatsApp messages your brand can send in a rolling 24-hour period. (There is no limit for user-initiated conversations.) Companies are initially able to send 250 business-initiated messages per 24 hours, but you can increase this limit by maintaining a high quality rating for your business’s phone number and getting verified.
Sender status & quality ratings
Your sender’s quality rating may decrease if customers block the messages they receive from your brand and select a block reason such as No longer needed, Didn’t sign up, Spam, or Offensive messages. To avoid this, be sure to follow best practices for sending WhatsApp messages, such as obtaining user opt-in and sending high-quality templates.
Sender messaging limits
When you maintain a high quality rating for a sender, its messaging limit can be increased to the following:
- Tier 1: 1K business-initiated conversations
- Tier 2: 10K business-initiated conversations
- Tier 3: 100K business-initiated conversations
- Tier 4: An unlimited number of business-initiated conversations
To learn how to request an increase for your brand’s messaging limit, see Meta’s support articles Messaging Limits and Scale Your WhatsApp Business Account Capabilities.
Reaching your messaging limit
If you reach your messaging limit for one of your brand’s senders in a 24-hour period, the number will be temporarily restricted — you won’t be able to send new business-initiated messages from the restricted sender until one or more active conversations ends. To learn more, see Meta’s support article Reaching Your Limit.
When you send a WhatsApp campaign, if the number of intended recipients exceeds
the sender's sending limit, some users won’t receive the message. For
example, if the volume of sends associated with a phone number is at 950/1000
of its sending limit for a 24-hour period, and you send a WhatsApp campaign to
70 users, 50 will receive the message and 20 won’t. The 20 users who didn’t
receive the message will have a whatsAppSendSkip event logged on their user
profile for the campaign. If this happens, you can use Iterable’s
segmentation tool to
identify which users didn’t receive the campaign.
Template status & quality ratings
Meta evaluates the quality of your sender based on feedback received from your customers within the past 7 days. There are three possible quality ratings:
- High quality
- Medium quality
- Low quality
To learn more, see Creating WhatsApp Templates.
Frequency capping
To prevent users from receiving too many marketing messages from various brands,
Meta recently implemented frequency capping. Under these new rules, users can
only receive marketing WhatsApp messages from a limited number of businesses
during a rolling seven-day period. (Messages are delivered on a first-come,
first-served basis.) When a user’s frequency cap is reached, any additional
WhatsApp messages they’re sent during the frequency cap time frame aren’t
delivered, and a whatsAppBounce event is logged on their Iterable user profile.
Want to learn more?
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