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Building a WhatsApp campaign

One page you go through step by step: the template with the campaign's name, then the recipients, then the content, then the send; beside it the phone shows the message as it reaches the first three recipients, with their own values.

What it is for

To build the campaign and see what it does before it goes: how many it reaches and who is left out and why, and the message as each recipient reads it, so no placeholder goes empty and no message is longer than WhatsApp takes. Once sent, the page becomes the campaign's report.

Who uses it

The page opens for whoever holds “View WhatsApp campaigns”, to look only, or “Send WhatsApp campaigns”, to work in it. In the built-in roles: Owner, Manager. They are granted to any role under Settings → Roles and permissions.

Step by step

  1. One step shows at a time, and the step bar on top shows which are complete and which is current. “Next” and “Previous” move between the steps, and “Next” stays off until the step is complete, saying beside it what the step lacks. The bar opens a complete step or the current one, and a later step only when every step before it is complete. A draft you come back to opens on its first step not complete.
  2. In the first step type the campaign's name (required) and choose the template by your name for it; its description, category and header show beside it. A marketing template goes as “Optional” only.
  3. In the second, choose the recipients: your registered audience with its filters, the staff by job title, or drop an Excel file on the box; then “Next”, which prepares the recipients if they are not ready (“Prepare the recipients” does it alone too). The counters show: in all, those who will receive it, those left out, and “Show the list” with each line's reason.
  4. In the third, the content: upload the header file if the template has a picture, a video or a PDF, and choose for each placeholder “From the recipient's data” or “Text I write”. Typing in the box chooses the text.
  5. In the fourth, the send: check what is missing, choose “Now” or a set time, then “Send to…” and confirm. Everything on the page goes with the confirm: the sources, the text and the file. “Save as a draft” saves everything without sending.

How it works

The draft and its recipients are written on the server at “Prepare the recipients”, so the counters and the list of those left out are the server's truth, not an estimate; changing the template, the type or the audience afterwards asks for a new preparation, which writes a new draft. A placeholder named like a field starts on it, except a file's column empty in every row, which starts on “Text I write”. At the confirm every placeholder is checked for everyone it would be sent to: empty for any of them, the send is refused, naming it with how many rows (“the placeholder message is empty in 12 of 300”); “—” goes only for a value lost between the confirm and the send, and the report counts it. The text you write is kept as you wrote it, never cut; WhatsApp's limit for the whole message is 1,024 characters once filled, counted as you type with the longest value among the recipients, and past it the send is refused with the count. WhatsApp takes no new line inside a placeholder, so lines arrive joined by spaces, as the preview shows; for a long or lined announcement, “Make a template from this text” opens a new template with the same text, as marketing. The header file goes to Meta with the save or the send and only its id stays, and a document's name; Meta keeps it about 30 days. The office's name in messages (the placeholder tenant) is the “Name in messages” of the messaging connection's settings. Numbers on the page are whole for a holder of one of the three keys and partly masked for anyone else, and the read is recorded.

On the page

  • The campaign's four steps: the template with its name, then the recipients, the content and the send. A complete step or the current one opens when pressed, and the ones after wait for the ones before.
  • The campaign's name, to know it by in the list; required to go on.
  • The template by your name for it, its description, category and header, and the campaign's type.
  • The recipients, then “Prepare the recipients”: in all, those who will receive it, and those left out with each one's reason.
  • The header file, and each placeholder's source: the recipient's data or a text you write, the message counted up to 1,024.
  • What is missing, now or a set time, and “Send to…” with a confirm that saves everything with it.
  • “Next” and “Previous”: “Next” stays off until the step is complete, saying beside it what the step lacks.
  • The phone at its real size: the message as it reaches the first three recipients; an empty value in red.

Questions

Why is “Next”, “Prepare the recipients” or “Send” off?
Every button that is off says why beside it, in a short line: the campaign's name, the template, a type the template does not take, the list's file, preparing the recipients after a change, the header file, a placeholder's source, a value empty for some recipients, a message longer than 1,024, or the time to send. The fourth step's list names all that is missing.
I wrote an announcement with lines and emoji. Why does it arrive on one line?
WhatsApp sends a placeholder's text on one line. Make the announcement a template of your own with “Make a template from this text”, and it arrives formatted once Meta approves it.
I changed the template after preparing. Where did the first draft go?
It is kept cancelled and shows on no list; a new draft is prepared with the new template.