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What you will learn

How to dispatch a WhatsApp campaign safely: the eligibility funnel, sending in waves, and the guards that pause on their own if something goes wrong.

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Before you start

In Campaigns, click New campaign and choose WhatsApp campaign. There are five steps: Set up → Message → Audience → Delivery → Review. You can stop halfway with Save draft — the draft is saved in this browser.

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Step 1 · Set up

Give it an Internal name (only you see it; it’s how the campaign shows up in the list and in reports) and choose the Campaign goal: Sell (the report measures revenue from people who clicked and bought within 7 days) or Notify (the report focuses on delivery and reads, without charging revenue). The Sending number shows the number’s Meta rating and today’s limit. Tags let you filter the campaign list and compare results.

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Step 2 · Message

Choose an approved template — only Meta-approved templates can be sent, and these are the messages Meta charges for. If the template doesn’t exist yet, Create new opens the approval request right there (how to create a template). Then:
  • Template variables — for each variable, choose First name, Full name or Fixed text (e.g. a coupon that is the same for everyone). With a name, fill in If missing, show (e.g. “Customer”): without it, contacts with no name on file don’t receive the message.
  • Where the button leads — when the template has a tracked link button, enter the page address (starting with https://). Each person gets their own link, and that is how the sale comes back attributed to the campaign. The UTMs for Google Analytics come pre-filled and can be customized.
  • Send test — send it to your own number: the screen shows the real path (sent to Meta ✓ → delivered ✓) and explains any error.
A template whose button has a fixed URL can’t be sent: the screen warns that the button can’t be measured.

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Step 3 · Audience

Pick lists and segments, like in an email campaign — and, if you want, exclude groups from the send. The screen shows the eligibility funnel: from the total selection, how many drop out for having no number, an invalid number, a +1 number (US/Canada, where Meta doesn’t deliver marketing), no opt-in (or having blocked you), a repeated phone, and resting — down to the count that will receive now. Watch for the warning when the chosen segment only looks at email. Resting is an account rule, in Settings › WhatsApp › Rest between campaigns: anyone who got a WhatsApp marketing campaign is left out of the next ones for a few hours (48 h by default). For a specific campaign, turn on Ignore the rest period for this send.

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Step 4 · Delivery

When to send: Send now or Schedule (date and time). Smart send isn’t available yet — it shows as COMING SOON. Send pace:
  • In waves (recommended) — you set the size of the First wave (with shortcuts for 10%, 25% or half of the audience), and the next waves are the same size. The Wave plan shows how many waves and over how many days, respecting the number’s daily ceiling and the sending window. By default, You release each wave; or choose Continue on its own from the 3rd wave, with an interval from 15 min to 4 h. When scheduled, only the 1st wave goes out at the scheduled time.
  • All at once — no stop in the middle; only for small, warm audiences.
And the guards (Stop on its own if things go wrong — they don’t switch off, only tighten):
  • Pause if more than X% block you (0.5% by default, with a minimum of 5 people, so it doesn’t stop on noise). Spam failures and people who reply SAIR after receiving the campaign both count as blocks.
  • Pause if the number’s quality drops to medium or low.
  • Only send between 09:00 and 20:00 — the window is adjustable, but it can’t be turned off. Outside it, nothing goes out: the send is held until the window reopens (when you release each wave, you have to release it again).

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Step 5 · Review

The Send summary shows one line per step — message, audience, delivery and goal — each with Edit, and at the bottom the sending number and the Daily limit. Right below comes the Before sending checklist (opt-in, opt-out instruction, coupon with a deadline); alongside, the test send. Click Check who will receive: Cliqo recounts the audience against the base rule (nothing is sent yet), shows who dropped out in the check and the Estimated cost of this round, from Meta’s rate table. The final button states the exact number — Send wave 1 · N, Send · N or Schedule N · ….

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After the dispatch

Once you send, you land on the campaign page, with the report and the send progress. You can close the screen — sending continues on the server.
  • Wave N · waiting for you — when you release each wave, the Release wave N button opens Check who will receive it: the audience is recounted on the spot, anyone who already received is skipped, and the wave only goes out when you confirm. Holding is simply not confirming.
  • With Continue on its own from the 3rd wave on, you confirm the first two and the rest go out on their own at the chosen interval, if the guards allow it.
  • The guards still apply: outside the window, a high block rate or a bad rating hold the wave even after you confirm — and the screen says nothing went out and why.
If a campaign stops halfway, opening New campaign › WhatsApp campaign shows the notice You have a WhatsApp campaign in progress, with Continue this campaign (sends only to people who haven’t received yet) and Stop campaign (what went out stays in the report; the rest of the audience doesn’t receive). After the first dispatch, the audience is frozen — to change the audience, create another campaign.