Blog / Sales

WhatsApp campaigns: the complete guide to getting started (2026)

Emails pile up to be read "later"; WhatsApp messages get opened. It’s this asymmetry that makes WhatsApp campaigns the most direct tool for promotions, news, and reminders: the channel where your customers already spend their day. This guide covers the whole journey, from the technical choice to the first measured send.

What a WhatsApp campaign is

It’s a mass, personalized send to a list of contacts who have consented to receive communications: a promotion, a product launch, an event, a seasonal reminder. Unlike the groups or broadcast lists of the free WhatsApp Business app — limited to 256 contacts and meant for manual use — a sending platform manages thousands of recipients, personalizes each message (name, customer data), schedules sends, and measures deliveries and reads.

Step 1 — Choose the track: from your number or with the Meta API

There are two technical paths, and the choice depends on volume and starting point. The first: you connect the WhatsApp number you already use via QR code and in five minutes you send from the platform — zero verifications, zero per-message costs, ideal for getting started and for modest volumes. The second: Meta’s official WhatsApp Business APIs, with approved templates, the green checkmark, and high volumes; the messages are billed by Meta at its rates.

With SendApp you don’t have to choose forever: start from your number with Cloud and move to the official APIs with Official when volumes grow, without changing platform. And in both cases with no markup on the cost of messages.

Step 2 — Build the list (with consents)

The list is the asset: contacts must have given explicit consent to receive communications on WhatsApp (GDPR). The most effective ways to build it: a QR code in the store or window, a wa.me link on the website and on social profiles, a dedicated field in order forms, click-to-WhatsApp campaigns on Meta. Then import everything into a CRM that handles tags and opt-outs automatically.

Step 3 — Segment: the right message to the right people

• By behavior: active customers, inactive for 90 days, those who bought a specific category
• By source: those who arrive from the in-store QR have different interests from those who arrive from the e-commerce
• By value: the best customers deserve previews and dedicated treatment
• By consent: promotional and transactional are different permissions

Segmentation is what separates a campaign that gets read from one flagged as spam. On WhatsApp the tolerance for irrelevant messages is extremely low: better 4 targeted campaigns a month than 12 generic ones.

Step 4 — Write the message (and the template)

A good campaign message is short, personal, and with a single clear action: the customer’s name, a concrete benefit, a button or a link. On the official APIs the text becomes a template to get approved by Meta — approval usually takes a few minutes or hours, and from that point the template is reusable with variables. Photos and videos increase attention; discounts with a deadline drive action.

Step 5 — Schedule, measure, repeat

Send at the hours when customers are receptive (late morning and early evening often work better), set daily limits to stagger volumes, and look at the reports: delivered, read, replies, clicks. Replies are the most valuable hidden metric — every reply is a conversation that the AI or the team can turn into a sale.

Best practices (and the mistakes that cost you the number)

• Send only to those who gave consent: it’s rule number one, legal and practical
• Handle the opt-out automatically: anyone who writes STOP must receive nothing more
• Respect frequency: on WhatsApp less is more
• Always personalize at least the name: anonymous messages get ignored
• Don’t buy lists: cold numbers generate blocks, and blocks sink the number’s quality
• Mind the reply window: a campaign that generates unanswered questions burns trust

How much a WhatsApp campaign costs

It depends on the track. From your number via QR: the cost is just the platform subscription, zero per-message costs. With Meta’s official APIs: each conversation has a Meta fee that varies by country and category (in Italy, marketing conversations cost a few cents). Watch out for the platform’s pricing model: many apply a per-message markup on top of Meta’s rates — SendApp doesn’t, you pay Meta and that’s it.