Create a campaign
Build your audience, personalize a message template, and launch or schedule a WhatsApp campaign.
Create a campaign to send the same message template to several contacts, with personalized values for each recipient. The wizard takes you through Setup, Audience, Message, and Review.
Before you start
Connect an active WhatsApp account and phone number. Have an approved Marketing or Utility message template and an audience ready. Your available campaign recipients depend on your plan.
Who can do this: the workspace owner or members whose role includes viewing and managing campaigns. Choosing labels also requires viewing conversations. Creating message templates requires managing templates.
Steps
Open Campaigns and select New campaign. Enter Campaign name, from 1 to 120 characters, then select Create campaign.
Changes in the wizard save automatically. Wait for Saved before moving on. If saving fails, select Try saving again.
Setup
Check Campaign name (1). Choose an active WhatsApp account, then Sending number (2). The number picker shows the number's quality and whether it also uses the WhatsApp Business app.
Open Advanced to set Send rate per second. Use a whole number from 1 to 80. Numbers also used in the WhatsApp Business app send at most 20 messages per second. Select Next.
Audience
Under Include labels, select Choose labels to add contacts with any selected label. Under Exclude labels, remove contacts with any selected label, including contacts from CSV imports. You can choose up to 20 labels in each group. A label cannot be both included and excluded.
Add contacts through CSV imports if needed. Follow the upload instructions below. Wait until every import is Ready, then select Next.
Audience summary shows Eligible after you choose a message template. This is the number that passes the sending checks, after duplicate contacts are combined. Marketing campaigns exclude contacts who opted out of marketing and US phone numbers. Blocked contacts, contacts without a WhatsApp identity for the sending account, and missing variable values can also be excluded.
Message
Use Search templates and choose an approved Marketing or Utility message template. Media headers are not supported. A low-quality template can block sending or cause the campaign to pause.
For each variable, choose Source: Contact name, Phone number, CSV column, or Fixed text. For CSV column, choose the imported column. Enter Fallback (required) for every variable, even if you expect all contacts to have a value. Fixed text and fallbacks allow up to 1,024 characters each.
Check each variable's fill percentage and Message preview. Switch between the numbered samples to review actual eligible contacts. Until samples are available, the preview uses your fallbacks.
To send a real test, select Send test, choose Test recipient from the eligible samples (1), then select Send test in the dialog (2). Each test uses 1 recipient of your monthly campaign quota. You can send up to 10 tests per campaign.
After it is queued, you can select View conversation in Inbox. Select Next when the message is ready.
Review and send
Check Sending account, Template, Audience, and Send rate. Read Messaging limit and Cost estimate before continuing.
In When, choose Send now or Schedule. For Schedule, enter a future Date and time in the time zone shown beneath the field. This is your browser's time zone.
Select Launch campaign or Schedule campaign. Check the recipient count in the confirmation dialog, then select Confirm launch.
Upload a CSV audience
Select Upload CSV in Audience. Choose CSV file (1), then check Default country (ISO code) (2). Select the country used by local phone numbers in the file. Use international phone numbers when no country is selected.
Your file needs a header row with phone and, optionally, name. Extra columns become sources for message variables in Message; there is no separate column-mapping screen during upload. Use a column such as order_number or offer for values you want to personalize.
Confirm I confirm these contacts agreed to receive WhatsApp messages from us. (3), then select Upload CSV.
Use up to 5 imports per campaign, with each file no larger than 5 MB and no more than 50,000 data rows. Use up to 20 columns, unique nonempty headers of at most 64 characters, and cell values of at most 1,024 characters. The combined audience cannot exceed 100,000 distinct contacts after label exclusions.
Each import shows its row, valid, and invalid counts. Select View errors to see CSV row errors with line numbers. Errors include invalid or duplicate phone numbers, extra columns, values that are too long, ambiguous contact matches, and contacts that could not be imported. The displayed error list may not include every invalid row.
To replace an import, select Delete beside that file, correct the CSV, and upload it again. Wait for processing to finish before continuing.
Test and launch quota
A test sends a real message to the selected audience sample. Each test uses 1 recipient from your monthly campaign quota. You can send up to 10 tests per campaign. Launching or scheduling uses the full eligible count. Messages cannot be recalled after they are sent.
Understand the review estimates
Messaging limit shows the limit available to the sending number and an approximate duration when the eligible audience exceeds it. Meta shares this limit across the numbers in a business portfolio over a moving 24-hour period. Other sending activity can affect the actual duration.
Cost estimate groups eligible recipients by market and uses the template category's Meta rates in USD. It shows an approximate upper amount and the rate card's effective date. The estimate does not apply volume discounts or billing in other currencies. Its explanatory text also lists free utility messages in an open customer service window as excluded; do not treat this estimate as a billing quote.
Troubleshooting
- If Next is unavailable, finish the required fields, wait for saving or CSV processing, and check the message beneath the step.
- If no contacts are eligible, check your labels, imports, exclusions, and variable fallbacks.
- If no message template is available, check the search or create a message template and wait for approval.
- If launch fails, check the displayed error. Your remaining quota must cover the eligible audience, and the sending account and number must still be available.
Next: manage a campaign or read its report.