WhatsApp campaigns

Send one approved template to every contact with the labels you choose, at a scheduled time, and see who received and read it.

Plan & access

• Chatwoot Cloud: WhatsApp campaigns are available on the Business plan and above. They are on automatically; you do not need to request them.

• Self-hosted: sending campaigns is not a premium feature. It works on Community Edition and is on by default.

• Campaign analytics: Business plan and above on Cloud. On self-hosted, it needs a paid self-hosted plan. Your installation's super admin turns on Campaign Analytics in Super Admin › Accounts › open the account › Edit, under Premium features, then clicks Save changes.

• Inbox: WhatsApp Cloud API only (Quick setup or manual). Twilio and 360dialog inboxes cannot send campaigns.

• Who: administrators.

See Pricing & Plans.

How to check you have it: open Campaigns in the sidebar. If WhatsApp appears under it, campaigns are available for your account.

Before you start

• At least one approved template in your WhatsApp Cloud API inbox. See Templates and the 24-hour window.

• The contacts you want to reach have a label, and either a phone number or a WhatsApp Business-Scoped User ID (BSUID) from an earlier conversation in this inbox. See How to add labels?, contact filters and segments, and WhatsApp usernames and Business-Scoped User IDs.

• Every contact you send to has opted in to receive WhatsApp messages from your business. See Meta's opt-in rules.

Create a campaign

1. Go to Campaigns › WhatsApp and click Create campaign.

   

2. Basic settings: enter a Title and pick your WhatsApp Inbox. The Account information panel shows the number's messaging tier, account status and quality rating from Meta.

   

3. Audience: choose one or more Labels. Contacts with any of the labels are included. Click View to see exactly who is included. The panel shows how many customers your WhatsApp account can message. Labels only select who receives the campaign. They do not record consent, so add only contacts who have opted in.

   

4. Template: pick an approved template and fill in its header, variables and buttons. Check the Message preview.

   

5. Click Schedule campaign, pick a time and click Create.

   

Test it: send the first campaign to a test label that contains only your own number. The Live test button at the top of the form is not available (its tooltip reads Live test will be available soon).

What to expect

• The campaign sends once, at the scheduled time. Its status moves from Scheduled to Processing to Completed.

• You can edit it while it is Scheduled. Once it starts sending, it cannot be changed.

• Chatwoot sends to the contact's phone number. If the contact has no phone number, it sends to the contact's BSUID for this inbox instead. A contact is skipped when:

  • it has neither a phone number nor a BSUID for this inbox

  • it has no phone number and more than one BSUID for this inbox (Chatwoot does not choose between them)

  • it has only a BSUID and the template is an Authentication template, or Chatwoot cannot find the template among the inbox's synced templates to check its category (authentication templates need a phone number)

  • the template variables cannot be filled in for that contact

• Only approved templates can be sent. Free-text broadcasts are not possible on WhatsApp.

• Meta charges for template messages, including every campaign message delivered. The rate depends on the template category and the recipient's country. Meta bills these charges to your WhatsApp Business account, separately from your Chatwoot subscription. Estimate costs with the WhatsApp pricing calculator and see Meta's current pricing.

• How many customers you can message in a day is set by Meta's messaging limit, shared across all numbers in your business portfolio. See Manage your WhatsApp number.

• When customers reply, a new conversation opens in the inbox and the 24-hour window starts.

• Campaign messages sent to a contact appear in their WhatsApp conversation, marked Campaign.

See results

Analytics is available on the Business plan and above on Chatwoot Cloud, or a paid self-hosted plan. Click View analytics on the campaign to see:

• Audience, Submitted to WhatsApp, Delivered, Read, Failed and Skipped

• The Deliveries table: each contact's status and, for failures and skips, the Reason. Filter it by status.

• While a campaign is still sending, the numbers are partial. Analytics may be unavailable for campaigns sent before delivery tracking was introduced.

  

Good practice

• Create a dedicated label for each campaign instead of reusing a broad one.

• Use Utility templates for updates and Marketing templates only for contacts who opted in.

• Watch your quality rating after each campaign. Many blocks or reports can lower your messaging limit.

Troubleshoot