A Comprehensive Guide into Facebook’s Click-to-WhatsApp Ads

For direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, the cost of acquiring customers could be staggeringly high, considering most businesses use Facebook and Instagram as one of their main acquisition channels. According to Statista, the number of people advertising on social media in 2023 has doubled since 2021, generally increasing the cost-per-click in each industry by 85%. So the pressure to attract new clients and maintain the cost at acceptable levels is more important than ever.

Keeping all those in mind, marketers need to stay alert to current trends and policies to be able to run successful campaigns. Leveraging customer data, connecting social media platforms to more cost-effective chat apps, and taking the consumer from awareness to purchase in one journey would be the solution to getting new customers at a lower cost.

That’s where Meta’s Click to WhatsApp comes in.

What are Click to WhatsApp ads?

Click-to WhatsApp ads are advertising initiatives that are designed to lead users to directly engage with your business on WhatsApp after seeing the advertisement. These advertisements can be found in almost all placements of Facebook and Instagram ads, typically in the stories and feed, and extending to the Facebook Marketplace.

By directing your advertisements to WhatsApp, you can effectively communicate with your potential customers and foster lasting relationships, starting from introducing them to your brand, converting them into customers, and nurturing them into loyal customers.

Utilizing Meta’s extensive targeting empowers you to pinpoint and engage with individuals at every stage of their customer journey. At last, you can make the most of your advertising budget and achieve the desired outcomes for your brand.

How do Click to WhatsApp Ads benefit businesses?

Generally, marketers leverage these ads to capture and nurture leads, gently navigating them in the direction of making a purchase, and all of these can be done easily via Click to WhatsApp Ads But how does this feature help you and your business to reach your goals?

1. Forge deeper connections with customers

Establishing more profound relationships with customers is the key advantage of using WhatsApp. WhatsApp enhances customer loyalty making sure that your brand remains at the forefront of your customers’ thoughts.

Additionally, WhatsApp offers the advantage of round-the-clock visibility and accessibility through automated chat services, ensuring that your brand is constantly within reach.

2. Boost product exploration, conversion, and sales

WhatsApp’s impact on sales is substantial, as it significantly elevates user experience by stimulating first-time purchases and driving repeat sales.

This is fortified since WhatsApp offers a unique, personalized, and interactive experience on the most used messaging platforms. This leads to a more fulfilling experience in exploring and shopping.

3. Reduce overall marketing expenses

Eliminating marketing costs can be feasibly achieved by shortening some processes and duration within the marketing funnel.

By incorporating Click to WhatsApp, brands are able to directly communicate with prospective buyers without having to make them come to your website and follow all the steps needed for them to purchase.

Cutting some processes helps businesses scratch the need to make calls to follow up leads, optimize the conversion rate on the website, and ultimately save up some budget on the overall process.

The prerequisites to start Click to WhatsApp Ads

Now that we’ve considered the advantages of using Click to WhatsApp, here are some requirements you need to have before starting:

1. Meta Business Manager and access to the Ad Manager to create ads
2. Admin access to the Facebook Page for your business
3. One phone number that connects to your Facebook Page

How to connect your WhatsApp number to the Facebook Page?

To create click-to-WhatsApp ads on Meta, it is essential to have a Facebook page that is linked to your WhatsApp account. Here are the steps to connect your Facebook page to your WhatsApp account:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy on your Facebook page
2. Open the Settings menu
3. Click Linked Accounts, choose WhatsApp
4. Select your country code and fill in your WhatsApp number
5. Tap Send Code to WhatsApp
6. Put in the OTP sent to your WhatsApp number and then done

How to set up Click to WhatsApp Ads?

Creating Click-to-WhatsApp ads is a breeze when you follow these simple steps from the Facebook ads manager:

1. Create a new campaign and choose Engagement as the objective. Click-to-WhatsApp ads can only be used for the objective of Engagement
2. Set your Lifetime or Daily budget within the Ad Set level
3. Under Conversion Location, select Messaging Apps
4. Under Ad type, select Click to Message
5. Then, choose only WhatsApp for the messaging apps that we want to use. Make sure you have already connected your WhatsApp number to your ads account
6. Under the Performance Goal, select Maximize Number of Conversations (due to the bug within Meta, for WhatsApp Cloud API users can only use Maximize Number of Clicks until the bug is fixed)
7. Choose Audience, Placement, Schedule, and Budget. Click Next.
8. Within the Ads level, under the Message Template, you can use the existing message template if you already have it or you can create a new message template
9. Customize your greetings under the Greeting menu
10.  Pick a Pre-Filled Message or Frequently Asked Question to customize how you want your customers to take action

What happens after the click? Does it affect WhatsApp price?

When you customize your ads with the Pre-Filled Messages, you can technically decide what happens after every click.

The best course of action is to employ a WhatsApp chatbot that jumps into action instantly, engaging in the conversation. But bear in mind that this functionality is exclusively available when using the WhatsApp Business API, as the integration of the chatbot is not supported with the ordinary WhatsApp Business app.

In the process of creating the ads in the Ads Manager, you can set up an automated message for users, allowing them to send us a pre-determined message. This convenient function can be particularly useful when your advertisement is part of a specific campaign or promotion, promoting a multitude of opportunities.

A combination of Click to WhatsApp Ads and WhatsApp chatbot simplifies the task of tracking precise sources of potential clients, giving you a deeper understanding of your ads performance.

Collaborating with Meta Business Solution Providers such as Mekari Qontak, not only you gain access to WhatsApp API, but also an array of advantages like the WhatsApp chatbot. What’s particularly noteworthy is that you can personally create a chatbot using a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface in under five minutes, eliminating the need for IT assistance.

Read more: How to create a WhatsApp chatbot in 5 easy steps.

Does using Click-to-WhatsApp ads affect the WhatsApp API pricing?

Absolutely not! When users come from the click-to-WhatsApp chat, you are not charged for the initial message or messages you send, you only have to pay for the costs related to the ad itself. Moreover, you can enjoy an extended time to respond to messages at no additional cost.

With click-to-WhatsApp ads, businesses are granted a generous 72-hour conversation window to communicate with users without incurring any charges.

You can estimate your own WhatsApp API pricing based on the type of conversation you make here: WhatsApp Business API pricing calculator.

Learn how companies leverage Click to WhatsApp

To effectively leverage the benefits of click-to-WhatsApp ads, it’s vital to understand the crucial phases in customers’ journey where interactions and engagement hold the highest significance and seamlessly integrate WhatsApp into your campaign. The following examples show this strategy which can readily be applied to various customer lifecycles for your business.

Product exploration: Anker leverages messages to share catalogs in e-commerce

Anker, a global leader in charging technology, started a campaign that promotes their products that are sold in e-commerce. Those who have visited their e-commerce but never put anything in the basket or checked out, are being targeted using collaborative ads on Instagram.

Anker then created a flow that lets users message directly to Anker via WhatsApp using click-to-WhatsApp ads. Anker uses pre-defined messages so that users can easily pick and learn more about the products.

Lead generation: 21K School provides swift responses for quick learning services

21K School is the first online school offering Indian, British, American, and other curriculums. 21K School made the strategic decision to incorporate WhatsApp into its effort to broaden the pool of potential students.

To achieve this, 21K School adopted click-to-WhatsApp advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, enticing prospective students to initiate conversations with the company’s sales team regarding 21K School services and classes through WhatsApp.

In addition to targeting a wide-ranging audience of potential students, these advertisements are specifically shown to individuals who have previously engaged with the company on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or their official website.

Sales and conversion: Modanisa creates a seamless buying experience from the first touchpoint

Modanisa is a leading fashion retailer in Asia offering modest women’s clothing. Modanisa uses click-to-WhatsApp to target website visitors who have checked on the specific product pages and categories but haven’t made any purchases yet.

When these potential customers came across a product of interest within Modanisa’s catalog and decided to engage further by clicking the Call to Action (CTA) button, this action automatically triggered the opening of a WhatsApp chat window.

To enhance the user experience, Modanisa established an automated welcome message to greet these prospects. In addition, a dedicated Modanisa customer service agent was readily available to provide assistance and facilitate a deeper understanding of the featured products.

Get started with Click to WhatsApp

For a seamless and advanced use of click-to-WhatsApp, you can achieve it by leveraging a professional omnichannel provider such as Mekari Qontak. With Mekari Qontak, there is no requirement for coding skills, ensuring a hassle-free implementation for the WhatsApp Business API and chatbot.

Moreover, the platform assures 100% data privacy, prioritizing the security of your business and customer information. This means you can easily kickstart your communication strategy with WhatsApp and other messaging applications without delay. Get started today!