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Guide · Ads · For the owner running ads that open WhatsApp

Should your WhatsApp ads aim for leads or for purchases? Meta's two ad optimisations, its averages and where they are not offered

An ad that opens a WhatsApp chat can be set to find people who will start a conversation, people likely to become a lead, or people likely to buy in the chat. Meta calls the last two down funnel optimisations. Here is what its pages say each one does, the averages Meta publishes, where one of them is not offered, and what happens in the chat afterwards.

Published 6 October 2026 · Updated 8 October 2026

Conversations, leads or purchases

Meta's resource page explains the idea simply: an optimisation tells Meta which people to show the ad to, those most likely to take the action the business wants. Optimising for conversations finds people likely to start a chat. Meta offers two further settings for ads that click to WhatsApp, one for leads and one for purchases, so the ad is aimed at what happens after the chat opens.

The two settings

Optimising for leads
Meta shows the ad to people most likely to connect with the business and share their contact information. Its published average is a 24% lower cost per lead than optimising for conversations, from an experiment across 116,000 campaigns and 43,000 businesses in one week of November 2024.
Optimising for purchases
Meta shows the ad to people likely to buy within the conversation. Its published average is a 10% lower cost per purchase than optimising for conversations, from a week-long global study in the second half of 2024.
Where leads is not offered
Meta's lead generation page says optimising for leads is not available in the EU, the UK, Japan or South Korea.
What the averages mean
They are Meta's averages across many advertisers, not a forecast for one business. A single campaign can do better or worse.

Setting it up

Both pages start in Ads Manager with Create, but they describe different routes. The April page says to choose the Leads objective for leads, or Sales or Engagement with a manual campaign setup for purchases, then Messaging destinations with WhatsApp. The August page says to choose the Engagement objective, Messaging apps as the conversion location, WhatsApp as the app, and Leads as the performance goal. Meta adds that the option only appears once the account meets its eligibility criteria, which these pages do not list.

Meta's Business Help Center article on lead generation in messaging apps adds the next choice: with the Leads objective and WhatsApp as the message destination, you pick a chat template. It describes three. Start conversations offers a short list of common questions with instant answers, and then your team chats with the person directly; Meta recommends it for businesses that reply quickly. Automated chat asks a series of qualifying questions on its own, and the article frames it for Messenger and Instagram Direct. The third option hands the chat to a third-party app's message flow, for advertisers who already run their messaging through one. Meta says the first and third need the account to meet the eligibility requirements for the performance goal that maximises leads through messaging.

If you used to run Messages campaigns

Ads Manager now offers six objectives: awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, app promotion and sales. Meta's article on choosing one includes a table for rebuilding campaigns whose old objective no longer exists, and the old Messages objective is one of them. It lists four places it went: Traffic with Messenger or WhatsApp as the conversion location, Engagement with messaging apps, Leads with Messenger, and Sales with Messenger or WhatsApp. Our reading: the table names Messenger alone under Leads, while Meta's lead generation article describes the Leads objective with WhatsApp, so treat the table as a starting point and check what Ads Manager actually offers your account.

For purchases, Meta needs to know which chats ended in a sale. Our Conversions API guide covers how a connected system reports purchases from the chat back to Meta.

Not the same as lead ads

Meta separates lead ads that click to WhatsApp, which invite new people to start a conversation and grow a list of prospects, from optimising for leads, which aims the ad at people more likely to become qualified leads. The lead form guide compares Meta's form ads with ads that open WhatsApp.

Our reading: which template fits WhatsApp

The article's automated-chat examples all name Messenger or Instagram Direct, so on WhatsApp expect to choose between starting a conversation and a third-party app's flow. For a form inside WhatsApp itself, Meta offers Flows on ads, covered in the Flows guide.

The score Ads Manager gives you

Meta's own article on creating ads that click to WhatsApp points to opportunity score, and its Business Help Center explains two scores, each from 0 to 100. Campaign score appears while a campaign is being drafted: it predicts how well that one campaign is set up, rises as you apply Ads Manager's recommendations and fix errors and warnings, and does not change the account's overall score. Opportunity score covers the whole ad account, in Account Overview, the Campaigns tab and when creating an ad; it counts how many recommendations you have applied, weighted by how much Meta estimates each one is worth. Dismissing a recommendation leaves the score where it is. Meta is plain that neither score, even a high one, reflects actual or future performance, and that both are still in development. Our reading: a score of 100 means nothing is left to apply, not that the ad works; judge a WhatsApp ad on the chats it starts and the sales those chats end in.

Meta's list of recommendation types sorts them into seven groups: automated campaigns, objective and goals, audience, creative and placements, signals, budget and bidding, and a last group for errors, warnings and anything else. The example Meta gives in that last group is about messages: respond to unread messages within 5 hours of receiving them to help increase their value. Our reading: for an ad that opens WhatsApp, that is the recommendation to act on first, because a chat nobody answers cannot become a sale.

After the chat opens

  1. Answer quickly. Meta's lead page says leads answered within minutes are far more likely to convert, and suggests greeting messages and quick replies so every new chat is acknowledged at once.
  2. Ask a few qualifying questions. Meta suggests asking about budget, timing or the service wanted, to find the people ready to act. Doing that with Meta's AI agent is covered in the lead qualifying guide.
  3. End with a next step. Book an appointment, place an order, visit the shop or website, or receive a quote, with catalogues, pictures or documents shared in the chat along the way.
  4. Know what the ad already told you. What Meta passes on about each person who arrives from an ad is in the ad leads guide.

Writing the questions

Meta's page on lead ads that click to message gives tips for the automated questions such an ad asks: make the greeting carry on from the ad and say why answering helps, start with easy qualifying questions and leave sensitive ones for later, and end by saying who will get in touch, on which channel and when. It says six questions or fewer is usually best, and that question flows built in Ads Manager need no outside integration, chatbot or live support. Our reading: that page sets the chat up in Messenger or Instagram, but the same habits suit the first questions in a WhatsApp chat.

Questions

We used to run Messages campaigns. Which objective replaces it?

Meta's article on choosing an ad objective says the old Messages objective can be rebuilt four ways: Traffic with Messenger or WhatsApp as the conversion location, Engagement with messaging apps, Leads with Messenger, or Sales with Messenger or WhatsApp. Pick by what you want from the chat: just a conversation, contact details, or a purchase.

How many questions should we ask people who message us from an ad?

Meta's lead ads page says six questions or fewer is usually best, starting with easy qualifying ones and leaving sensitive ones for later. Our reading: the page is written for Messenger and Instagram chats, and the advice carries over to WhatsApp.

Does Ads Manager say anything about how fast we answer WhatsApp chats?

One of the example recommendations in Meta's list of opportunity score types says to respond to unread messages within 5 hours of receiving them to help increase their value.

Ads Manager scores our WhatsApp campaign 60 out of 100. Is the ad weak?

Not necessarily. Meta says the score reflects how many of its Ads Manager recommendations have been applied, weighted by its own estimate of their value, and that a score, even a high one, does not reflect actual or future performance. Apply the recommendations that make sense for your business, dismiss the rest, and judge the ad on the chats and sales it brings.

Which chat template should a WhatsApp leads ad use?

Meta's Business Help Center describes three: Start conversations, with a few common questions and instant answers before your team takes over; Automated chat, which the article frames for Messenger and Instagram Direct; and a third-party app's message flow. Start conversations suits a business that answers quickly. Our reading: on WhatsApp, choose between Start conversations and a third-party flow, or use a Flow on the ad for a form.

Is optimising for leads available in the UAE?

Meta's lead generation page lists the EU, the UK, Japan and South Korea as the places where it is not available. The UAE is not on that list, though the option only shows once an account meets Meta's eligibility criteria.

Will optimising for leads cut our cost per lead by 24%?

That is Meta's average across an experiment of 116,000 campaigns in November 2024, compared with optimising for conversations. It is not a promise for any single campaign.

Why can we not see the option in Ads Manager?

Meta says the option appears once the account meets its eligibility criteria. The pages do not list those criteria, so ask Meta's advertiser support or whoever manages your ads.

Should we optimise for leads or for purchases?

Meta frames it by goal: leads when the aim is people who share their details, purchases when customers can buy inside the chat. Purchases also need the chats that ended in a sale reported back to Meta.

Sources

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

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