WhatsApp messaging campaigns in Meta Business Suite: promotions and automatic order and booking updates, without a developer

Meta's article About messaging campaigns in Meta Business Suite says businesses can use messaging campaigns to create and manage two kinds of campaign and send them to their WhatsApp customers: marketing campaigns and event-based campaigns. The page opens with a warning that this product or feature may not yet be available to you.

Marketing campaigns

A one-time message to many customers at once, to engage or reengage them. Meta's examples are a promotion, a new product announcement or a special offer, sent to your audience list on a budget you set. You can only send marketing messages to people who've opted in to receive them.

Event-based campaigns

Automatic messages sent when something happens in the system where you keep your customer records, such as an order confirmation. Your records system is linked to your messaging account through an outside integration service.

Not the Ads Manager route

Meta says marketing messaging campaigns in Meta Business Suite are different from marketing messages in Meta Ads Manager, and do not require developer skills to create or manage.

Meta's article Create a WhatsApp messaging campaign in Meta Business Suite says you need full access to the messaging account. If you don't have it, ask someone with full access to the business portfolio to assign it to you in Settings. Then, on a desktop computer:

Start

All tools, then Messaging campaigns. Click + Create, select Promotional under Marketing, click Continue and enter a Campaign name.

Identity

Select a verified WhatsApp number to send from. Meta says to make sure it has a high enough messaging limit.

Audience

Select a customer list, or click Create to upload a new one using the template Meta provides.

Schedule & budget

Set your Maximum price, the most you're willing to pay per message across regions, which Meta uses to make the most of your budget. The screen also shows a Default cost per message for the region of your number; Meta suggests setting a maximum price above that default cost if you want to reach more customers. Enter a Campaign budget and the start and end date and time.

Creative

Select a language and write the message body. A header, footer, image or video is optional.

Buttons

Optional. Up to 10 quick-reply or Visit website buttons, each with text of up to 25 characters. A website button can use a fixed web address or one that adds a detail from your customer list to the end.

Tracking

Optional. If you track customer activity on your website with a dataset, select it here, or click Create dataset.

Publish

Meta then reviews your message template. Once it is approved, the campaign starts sending on or around the scheduled date.

Meta warns that messages may not go out on the exact scheduled date, and that delivery may vary by a few hours to a few days if your template hasn't been approved yet. Replies arrive in your Meta Business Suite inbox. To see how a campaign did, go to Messaging campaigns and click on it.

The Create a WhatsApp messaging campaign article sets it up in two parts. First, click + Create in Messaging campaigns and pick Order tracking, Appointment booking or custom automation. Enter a Campaign name and a Language; the pre-written templates come in that language. Under Identity, select your WhatsApp number. Under Integration platform, select your automation service and click Connect (you may need to log in), review the permissions you're giving and click Allow, then choose the records system to connect.

Then, for each message in the campaign:

The message

Order tracking and appointment booking show 3 pre-written templates in the Message order pane. You can edit them, add one from the templates already in your WhatsApp Business account, or create a new one.

Select a trigger event

Choose the event in your records system that sends this message. Optionally, click Add filter condition to narrow when it fires.

Specify message recipients

Choose which field in your records holds the phone numbers of the customers this message goes to.

Tailor your message to each customer

Personalise the header, body text and buttons with customer details taken from your records.

Meta says you can only publish the campaign once all its message templates are approved; until then you can keep it as a draft. You check approval in Messaging campaigns by clicking on the campaign. Once it is published, you can pause or delete it, but you can't edit it. To see how it did, open Messaging campaigns, hover over it and click Details.

Meta's article About messaging campaigns in Meta Business Suite says Meta charges per message for each WhatsApp message a business sends, and only when it is delivered. The bill goes to two different places:

Marketing campaigns

Billed to the payment method saved on an ad account that Meta creates for sending marketing messaging campaigns.

Event-based campaigns

Billed to the payment method saved on your messaging account.

Two payment methods

Meta says you must add a payment method to each account separately. In Messaging campaigns, the Billing tab links to both: Marketing campaigns and Event-based campaigns.

Can't see billing?

If you can't view or add a payment method, you may not have full access to the account.

Meta's article About customer list custom audiences says a customer list is made of information you've collected about your customers, such as email, phone number and address. Before using it, Meta hashes this information, which the formatting guidelines describe as a type of cryptographic security method, and matches it with profiles on Meta technologies. The article says Meta doesn't learn any new identifying information about your customers from hashed data.

The Get started and Create articles both say you must have your customers' permission to send them marketing communications.