How to Set Up Ads that Click to WhatsApp for Success

Ranked the third most popular social media network in the world, WhatsApp is a force to be reckoned with. With two billion monthly active users and counting, it has grown from a simple app to help you chat with loved ones to one that is taking the business world by storm.

The introduction of the WhatsApp Business Account has allowed businesses of all sizes to reach customers better. From providing updates to answering enquiries, WhatsApp for Business is a great messaging channel to help you improve customer experience.

But how do you reach more potential customers, engage and nurture leads and build customer relationships? Running Meta (previously Facebook) ads that click to WhatsApp will help you get more out of your marketing investment from the top to the bottom of the funnel.

Ads that click to WhatsApp are a type of ad format used to promote products and services, leveraging the reach across Facebook and Instagram on Meta platforms to drive user-initiated conversations at scale. It encourages people to directly contact your business on WhatsApp by clicking on the ad. This type of ad format is especially effective for businesses that want to build a direct and personalised connection with their customers.

Once a conversation is initiated, brands can request opt-in from a potential customer to send them relevant updates, offers and recommend products based on their preferences. Moreover, the WhatsApp Business Platform (previously WhatsApp Business API) enables you to leverage marketing automation like AiChat to send AI-powered automated messages while featuring rich conversational experiences.

For many enterprise businesses, spending money on digital ads has become a thing of a norm. Between 2021 and 2026, ad spending worldwide has increased and it is now hitting almost 800 billion dollars.

If you’re spending that much on ads, you definitely want returns. Using the WhatsApp Business platform, you can get the most value for your ad spend by capturing more qualified leads on a platform that’s already so popular worldwide.

In April 2022’s Business Messaging Usage Research conducted by Kantar, it was found that 66% of online adults globally are more likely to do business with/purchase from a company that they can contact via messaging. Studies have also shown that 38% of customers will make a purchase after a good chat experience with a business and customers who chat with brands spend 60% more per purchase than those who don’t.

It goes without saying then. Using ads that click to WhatsApp is an effective way to reach potential customers, as it allows them to easily and quickly contact you.

It also helps your enterprise business to:

• Increase engagement via personalised interactions with customers.
• Boost conversions as customers are more satisfied with instant replies.
• Reduce marketing costs by directing customer enquiries to WhatsApp instead of creating separate landing pages for each promotion.
• Identify contact details and retain chat history for re-engagement strategies.

Ads that click to WhatsApp work for different goals, too. Directing traffic to WhatsApp lets you get to know your customers better through conversations. You can also offer shopping assistance, take orders (or even pre-orders) and recover abandoned carts with ease.

Ready to set up your ads that click to WhatsApp? Let’s go.

If you want to run ads that click to WhatsApp most effectively, ensure that your WhatsApp account is a Business one (and not personal). If you haven’t done so, you can read all about setting up your WhatsApp Business account here.

To connect a Facebook Page to your WhatsApp, make sure you have admin access to the page and follow these steps:

1. Click Settings on your Facebook Business page.
2. In the column on the left-hand side, click WhatsApp.
3. Choose your country code.
4. Enter your WhatsApp Business phone number.
5. Click Continue.
6. Input the confirmation code that you receive.
7. Click Confirm.

Let’s create the Ads that click to WhatsApp campaign in Meta (Facebook) Ads Manager.

• Campaign name

At the very first step, you will then be asked to name your campaign. Creating a naming convention for all of your ad campaigns, ad sets and ad creatives will help with performance analysis and optimisation in a later stage.

For example, we name our campaign with the following template: CampaignType_CampaignTime(MMYY)_CampaignObjective_CampaignName

• Campaign objectives

When you create a new campaign, you will be asked for the objective of the campaign. Choose any one objective that suits your business goal. However, please note that the message templates aren’t available in the Traffic objective at the moment.

• Campaign advanced settings

Meta also recently launched advantage campaign budget in July 2022 (formerly campaign budget optimization) which automatically manages your campaign budget across ad sets to get you the overall best results. This is best suited for campaigns with at least 2 ad sets.

Great, you have finished with the campaign setup! Now let’s move on to the ad set level.

• Conversion

After naming your ad set, ensure that the conversion location is messaging apps, which in this case is WhatsApp. Set ad type to Click to message.

• Budget & Schedule

You can then decide your campaign budget (daily or lifetime) and schedule.

• Audience

Next, define your audience. Pay attention to the different demographic options like location, age and gender and select which matches best with your target audience. You can also select lookalike audiences.

• Placements

With placements, you can either let Meta decide the optimal placement of your ads with Advantage+ placement or you can select your preferences manually. These are the placement options available:

• • Facebook news feed
  • Facebook marketplace
  • Instagram feed
  • Instagram explore
  • Facebook stories
  • Instagram stories

• Optimisation & Delivery

Optimise delivery of ads for more conversations on WhatsApp via the messages, leveraging algorithms that enable campaigns that perform better over time. Alternatively, you may also choose the link click objectives.

• Ad setup

Set up your ad assets – name your ads, and define your formats and creatives at this stage. Engage audiences via carousel, video, images or Instagram stories and drive discovery and demand with engaging creatives.

As a best practice, prepare at least two versions of the creatives to test which can perform better and refresh them every two to three weeks to avoid ad fatigue that could cause higher cost per conversion.

• Message Template

Here’s where it gets interesting. Set up your conversation templates to easily respond to your customers and preview the chat conversation after users click on your ad.

You can also save the template for future use.

Once all this is done, review your ad and publish it. Facebook will need to approve it before it goes live.

Implementing the WhatsApp Business Platform with AiChat means you will be able to engage your customers at scale and maximise conversions with WhatsApp marketing automation. It is challenging to monitor interactions on the WhatsApp Business app, so integrating with a chatbot to quickly follow analytics and see drop-offs help.

Plus, with AiChat’s chatbot integration, you can guide customers to fill in a conversational form on WhatsApp, quickly capture leads and drive conversions.

Keen to integrate the WhatsApp chatbot and set up effective ads that click to WhatsApp for your business? Here are top 5 reasons why AiChat will be a great marketing partner for launching your ads that click to WhatsApp campaigns:

• Create and manage your official WhatsApp Business account
• Capture WhatsApp phone numbers and chat history on AiChat’s CRM once users initiate the first message
• Leverage AI capabilities to nurture leads upon entering the lead funnel
• Utilise customer profiling and chat analytics to gain 360 insights for campaign optimisation and segment retargeting at a later stage
• Automate follow-up for lead form abandonment

Want to learn about the superior benefits of capturing leads with conversational form? Read more here.

No matter the size of your business, AiChat provides end-to-end partnership solutions to enhance your customer’s experience with your business. Improve your conversations and conversions through ads that click to WhatsApp today. Contact us for more details.

AiChat is a leading A.I-Powered Conversational Customer Experience platform designed to help brands automate business processes in customer service, marketing and commerce via popular social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram and Google Business Messages etc. We are proudly trusted by Bayer, TESCO, Marina Bay Sands, MR D.I.Y, Mondelēz, Petron, Unilever and many other enterprises and SMEs across South East Asia.