Click-to-WhatsApp ads: when they work, and what to have ready

Many businesses already sell over WhatsApp: the order, the booking and the question about sizes all happen in a chat. A click-to-WhatsApp ad sends people straight into that chat from Facebook or Instagram, with no website in between.

That makes it a good fit for some businesses and a poor one for others. It is worth knowing which you are before you spend on it.

What the ad does

The ad looks like any other on Facebook or Instagram. The difference is the button: it opens WhatsApp with your business number, usually with a first message already typed for the customer, so all they have to do is press send.

From there, the sale happens in the conversation, not on a page. That is the whole point, and also the whole risk.

When it works

It works when the customer's next step is a question. Is this in stock in my size? Do you deliver to my area? Is there a table on Friday? Which package suits a business like mine? If your customers usually ask before they buy, an ad that starts the conversation saves them a step.

It also works when you can answer fast. A chat that waits hours for a reply is a customer who has already asked someone else.

When it does not

If your product is easiest to buy on a page, with a clear price, a photo and a checkout, sending people into a chat adds a step instead of removing one. An ad that goes to the page may serve you better.

And if nobody can answer the chats, at night, at weekends or when it gets busy, the ad will fill your inbox with people who leave.

What to have ready before the first ad runs

• The number. A WhatsApp Business account on the number the ad opens, with your name, hours and a short description filled in.
• The first message. The message the ad types for the customer. Make it specific to the ad, so you know what they came for when it arrives.
• Your answers. The handful of questions you get every day, written down once, so whoever replies gives the same answer every time.
• Who answers, and when. Names and hours, and what happens outside them. A WhatsApp agent can take the first turn of the conversation and hand it to a person; Workzap pi, our own, says it is an AI in its first message. We explain how they work on our WhatsApp agents page.
• A way to tell which ad started which chat. Ask, or put a short word from the ad in its first message.

How to judge them

Count what happened in the chats, not how many started. A chat that ends in an order or a booking is the result; a chat that ends in silence is a cost. Read a sample of conversations every week: they tell you what the ad promised and what people actually wanted.

How we run them

We run ads ourselves on Meta, Google and TikTok, and we are paid a fixed fee plus a percentage of your ad spend. If a chat ad is the wrong tool for what you sell, we will say so before the first one runs. More on how we work on our performance marketing page.