A WhatsApp campaign: one message to many

How a WhatsApp message is sent to the staff or to a list from a file: the connection, the approved template, the recipients, the send, and the report.

What it is for

A campaign is one message on a WhatsApp template Meta has approved, to a number of recipients: the office's staff, or numbers from a file (a list of those who signed up for an event, say). It is prepared as a draft, its preview checked, then sent now or at a set time, and each message's delivery is followed in its report.

Step by step

Make sure the office's WhatsApp account is connected under Settings → “Messaging connection”, and that the “Inbox” is on for the office.
Under “WhatsApp templates”, have a template Meta approved that suits campaigns; an optional campaign needs one with the stop-messages link.
Under “Campaigns” → “New campaign”: the name, the template, the type (“service” or “optional”) and the recipients: staff (all of them or by job title), or an Excel or CSV file of up to 5,000 rows.
The campaign is saved as a draft. Give every variable in the template its source (a field, a column of the file, or fixed text), upload the message's header file if the template has a header, and check the preview of the first three messages.
Choose “now” or “at a set time”, then confirm: the confirmation names the campaign and the number of recipients, and a message cannot be recalled once sent.
Follow the report: what was sent, delivered, read and failed, what was not sent and why, and who replied afterwards; “Resend what failed” is there too.

How it works

The system sends the campaigns that are due every two minutes, one message at a time, sharing the sending time fairly between offices, and never sends to the same recipient twice. Before each message it checks: a cancelled campaign stops; an invalid number, or one blocked in the chats, is left with its reason; a template no longer approved sends the campaign back to draft and tells its creator; a broken connection fails the message. A failure that may clear is retried up to five times, waiting longer each time: two minutes, ten minutes, half an hour, two hours. When nothing is left to send the campaign is marked “sent” and its creator told. Staff are the office's active staff at their primary phone, one message per number. A “service” campaign reaches everyone; an “optional” one only those who agreed to optional messages (in a file list: everyone who has not withdrawn), and never a number that stopped messages — the number's owner stops them with the link in the message or by replying “إيقاف” or STOP. This is checked at the moment of sending, not when the campaign is prepared. The report shows the first 500 lines, the Excel file has them all; numbers are partly masked except for someone holding “Manage people and staff”, “Reply to WhatsApp chats” or “Send WhatsApp campaigns”. “Cancel campaign” stops what has not gone yet, and a cancelled campaign can be restored as a draft.

The pages in this flow

Questions

Why is my template not offered for the campaign?: Only a template Meta approved, of a kind that suits campaigns, is offered; an optional campaign needs one with the stop-messages link.
Why did fewer people get the message than the recipients?: The report gives the reason for each message not sent: an invalid number, a blocked one, a number that stopped messages, or no agreement to optional messages.
Who sends campaigns?: Whoever holds “Send WhatsApp campaigns”; in the built-in roles only the owner, who can grant it to other roles under Roles and permissions.