WhatsApp Ads: All info about click-to-WhatsApp ads

WhatsApp opens new doors for communication between businesses and consumers. From helping customers shop, to sending abandoned cart reminders, to running promotions and more, B2C businesses can leverage the various features of the WhatsApp Business API in a variety of ways to improve the shopping experience for their customers.

But for WhatsApp marketing to work, you need to attract attention and get customers to contact your business through the messaging platform. Adding a WhatsApp button to your website may be enough in some cases, but it's consumer-dependent and can result in slower sales growth.

This is where click-to-WhatsApp ads come into play! In this post, you'll learn everything you need to know about WhatsApp Ads.

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What are WhatsApp Ads or Click-to-WhatsApp Ads?

It is not possible to place ads in the WhatsApp app. Therefore, the term "WhatsApp Ads" refers to so-called Click-to-WhatsApp ads, which take users directly to the WhatsApp chat with the company with one click. Click-to-WhatsApp ads are similar to Facebook and Instagram ads that feature a "send message" button. However, instead of taking the consumer to the messaging area of the respective advertising platform (e.g. Facebook or Instagram), these ads open a chat in WhatsApp.

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Here you can see an example of how a Click-to-WhatsApp ad enhanced with a QR code looks like. Scanning is optional, even a click on the image is enough:

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Why should you run WhatsApp Ads or Click-to-WhatsApp ads?

Click-to-WhatsApp ads are still new to most marketers and advertisers. But here are a few reasons why we at Mateo believe it's a promising channel that innovative businesses should take advantage of:

Considering that there are over 60 million WhatsApp users in Germany, most likely the majority of your target audience (regardless of what industry you're in or what you sell) uses this messaging platform. If you sell internationally, you can even target the 2 billion WhatsApp users around the world. Studies have shown that over 55% of people feel more connected to a brand when they use messaging apps like WhatsApp to communicate. Get some more facts from the studies here (sources: invespcro.com, sendpulse.com)

Customers want to message and interact with businesses before making a purchase. 38% of consumers say they make a purchase after a good chat session with a company.
Chatters spend 60% more per purchase than non-chatters.
Maintaining a conversational relationship with customers helps increase customer loyalty and is 5-25 times cheaper than acquisition.
An average user opens the WhatsApp app over 30 times a day.
Businesses can recover up to 60% of abandoned purchases through WhatsApp marketing campaigns and automated reminders.
WhatsApp newsletters have an open rate of over 95%.

When companies look at WhatsApp usage and campaign performance across the customer journey, it often becomes clear why combining social media ad and WhatsApp marketing strategies is key to driving more conversions in a competitive market.

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Different ways to use WhatsApp Ads for your business

There are a number of ways that click-to-WhatsApp marketing campaigns are used in social media ads. Below are some of the ways you can use WhatsApp Ads:

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1. promote your WhatsApp business product / service catalog.

If you are an e-commerce business using the WhatsApp Business API, you probably have a catalog set up in your WhatsApp Business profile that displays the products/services you offer. You can promote this catalog via Facebook and Instagram ads, for example, with a special offer that can only be claimed through the WhatsApp message template stored in the Click-to-WhatsApp ad.

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2. take advance orders and appointment bookings

For products and services you also solicit pre-orders and appointment bookings via click-to-WhatsApp ads. This is a much more effective way to create consumer intent and interest in a product or service, share details about it, and initiate sales through conversation.

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3. offer shopping help

If you offer a new type of product or service, or help is often needed with certain products/services, click-to-WhatsApp ads are ideal. Use your social media marketing to promote the product. And instead of directing the consumer to your website, lead them to WhatsApp chat with your company to offer help. Once the feature is enabled in Germany, you can even close the sale via WhatsApp commerce!

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4. win back customers with abandoned shopping carts

Many businesses have set up retargeting ads on social media to bring back customers with abandoned carts. But instead of taking the visitor back to the page they left your site from, how about starting a conversation? Use click-to-WhatsApp ads to understand abandonment, offer help, and send product recommendations to secure the sale!

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5. accept customization orders

If you're in the business of product customization or service-on-demand, WhatsApp conversations can lead to a higher conversion rate for you. Instead of letting your customers peruse the options available on your social media page or website, you can start a conversation with click-to-WhatsApp ads. Lead the conversation with predefined questions and choices using the various interactive messaging features available through the WhatsApp Business API.

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6. use WhatsApp Ads as opt-in for WhatsApp newsletter marketing

Click-to-WhatsApp Ads are great for collecting opt-ins (signups) for your WhatsApp marketing newsletter. If needed, you can use special discount codes and offers to motivate prospects to opt-in.

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Simply put, there is no one way to use click-to-WhatsApp ads. You can use WhatsApp Ads in many ways to capture consumer intent and customer data, build a subscriber list, engage customers, and grow your business!

However, in order to set up Click-to-WhatsApp ads, you need to do some basics.

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Requirements for setting up WhatsApp Ads on Facebook and Instagram

1. set up a WhatsApp Business account

The very first step to get started with WhatsApp Ads is to create a WhatsApp Business account. To do this, you can either use the WhatsApp Business app or, if you want to take full advantage of customer communication and marketing via WhatsApp, contact a WhatsApp Business API solution provider like Mateo.

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Attention: The normal WhatsApp Business App is not GDPR-compliant. The only way for businesses to use WhatsApp in compliance with the applicable data protection regulations is to use the WhatsApp API interface. This saves you from frequent warnings, severe penalties and expensive legal costs against you and your company in the event of non-compliance with the GDPR.

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2. add WhatsApp business number to your Facebook business profile

Once you have created your WhatsApp Business account, the next step is to connect it to your Facebook account. This will also automatically connect it to your Instagram account, which should already be linked to your Facebook page. This is a mandatory step and can be done in the settings of your business page.

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To do this, follow these brief instructions:

Go to Facebook Business Page
Click on "Settings".
In the menu on the left, click WhatsApp
Choose your country code
Enter your WhatsApp number and click on "Send code".
Enter your OTP to confirm the number.

Once you have made the above settings, you can create Click-to-WhatsApp ads for your business.

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Create WhatsApp Ads and process requests automatically with Mateo

Diverse businesses have already found that adding WhatsApp as a communication channel with their customers has helped to significantly improve the customer experience and dramatically increase engagement, retention, conversion rates, customer lifetime value and revenue. We will now show you how to proceed to create WhatsApp Ads and professionally handle incoming requests with Mateo.

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1. define your goals

Just like with normal social media ads, you should have a clear business goal in mind before setting up WhatsApp Ads. This can be to increase brand awareness, generate more leads, increase customer engagement, collect customer feedback, qualify leads and so on.

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2. create a WhatsApp QR code and a WhatsApp link

With our handy WhatsApp QR code generator, you can create a QR code in a flash to make your ad appealing and enable contact even for desktop users without WhatsApp Web. You can store the wa.me link behind it in the call-to-action button, which will take users to the WhatsApp chat with your company with one click. In our generator, you can even define pre-formulated messages that are stored with the WhatsApp link.

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3. prepare your ad texts and graphics

The next step is to prepare your ad texts and graphics for the campaign. We recommend that you create at least two versions of your ad campaigns to keep users interested through variety and prevent lower conversion rates. Remember to make your ad texts crystal clear and meaningful and your ad graphics appealing.

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4. publish your WhatsApp Ads

Now you can finally publish your Click-to-WhatsApp ad. Use the platform of your choice for this. The following instructions are tailored for Facebook Ads.

Open the Facebook Ads Manager and go to the "Ads creation" item
Set the budget of your campaign
Select "Click to Message" for type of advertisement
Under "Messaging apps", select "WhatsApp".
Define the placement, target audience and schedule
Select the display format
Click on "Create" and create a dialog
Publish the advertisement

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5. Manage incoming customer requests on WhatsApp with Mateo.

Mateo's software offers customizable message templates and automated responses on WhatsApp, which can be used to handle customer requests highly efficiently. You can also make internal notes and employee assignments. Mateo's centralized inbox includes not only WhatsApp, but also Facebook and Instagram messages, SMS and email. With the integrated contact management you keep an overview of your customers and can divide your customers into segments and assign attributes. With Mateo and the WhatsApp newsletter, you can also conduct particularly successful marketing, increase your sales and thus ensure the long-term success of your company. Mateo uses the WhatsApp API interface and is therefore 100% GDPR compliant, unlike the normal WhatsApp business app.

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Mateo has much more to offer than just WhatsApp Ads

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Our customers appreciate the following features and benefits the most:

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Central user interface

In addition to WhatsApp Business API, Mateo bundles many other communication channels such as email, Instagram, SMS or Facebook Messenger in a central inbox. On the intuitive and clear user interface, you will find various helpful tools for particularly efficient customer communication. A web widget with the messaging channels you support is available for your customers for particularly easy contact.

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With Mateo's WhatsApp API solution, newsletters can be sent in a GDPR-compliant manner. Due to the first-class open rate of 98% for WhatsApp messages, marketing can thus be carried out significantly better than via email or other channels.

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Custom Message Templates

Thanks to various message templates that can be created individually, the amount of paperwork is minimized and the efficiency of customer communication is increased. This means that personnel resources in the service area can be deployed elsewhere.

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More positive Google reviews

With Mateo, you create an outstanding customer experience. Mateo can automatically request online reviews from your customers. The more reviews you have, the better you will be found on Google, for example. Reviews also create trust in your company.

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Privacy

Mateo's messaging tool is compatible with all German and European legally binding data protection requirements. If the law changes, the software will be revised accordingly. For absolutely secure customer communication, all messages are encrypted end-to-end. You can read all the info about the GDPR when using WhatsApp in our article"WhatsApp Business and GDPR". This will help you avoid the warnings, severe penalties and expensive legal costs that often occur in the event of non-compliance with the GDPR (= use of the standard WhatsApp Business app).

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Scalability for all company sizes

The scalability of the messaging tool has been confirmed by the large number of companies already using Mateo with a high level of satisfaction. Whether customers have just a few employees or many hundreds, the software works smoothly and, depending on the package, with an unlimited number of end devices, users and phone numbers. The fact that Mateo significantly reduces the workload in the customer service area opens up new growth opportunities for many companies.

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Low cost provider for WhatsApp Business API

With an entry-level price of just 79 euros per month, Mateo is a cost-effective provider for WhatsApp Business API solutions on the German market. Combined with the integration of additional communication channels and various helpful tools, Mateo offers excellent value for money. Mateo's personal customer support assists companies with every step of the integration, ensuring very low barriers to entry.

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