Guides/Messages & templates

How do I send a message to many customers at once?

The Broadcast menu end to end, including preparing the recipient list in a spreadsheet. 7 min read

The Broadcast menu exists so you can send to hundreds of customers, each with a different name, amount, or date, without needing to understand a single technical term. You write the message and the system handles the rest.

Three ways to produce the message, pick whichever fits

Step 1: write the message

  1. Open Broadcast, then New broadcast.
  2. Write it the way you would write any WhatsApp message. For the parts that differ per person, use the + Name, + Amount, + Date buttons, or + another variable to invent your own such as Class or QueueNumber. The result reads like "Hi {Name}, your invoice of {Amount} is due on {Date}."
  3. Choose the type: Notification (reminders and confirmations, cheaper) or Marketing (offers, more expensive). Be honest here. Marketing disguised as a notification gets rejected by WhatsApp.
  4. Optional: upload an image (JPG or PNG, up to 5 MB), which appears above the message. Good for event posters and illustrated announcements.
  5. Click Submit for approval.

Step 2: wait for WhatsApp approval

Every bulk message has to be reviewed by WhatsApp. That is Meta policy, not ours, and it usually takes a few minutes to a few hours. Reload the Broadcast page to see the status. If it is rejected, the reason appears on the card. Fix the wording, see the most common causes, and submit it as a new broadcast.

Step 3: once approved, choose the recipients

When the status turns to "Approved, ready to send", click Send. There are two ways to fill in the recipients.

The fastest route: take them from Contacts

If your customers are already in the contact book, pick a group (a label), or all contacts, then match each part of the message to a contact column using the mapping dropdowns, for example {Name} from name, {Amount} from amount. The system guesses when the names are similar and you correct whatever it missed. Data is filled from the contact record, and anyone whose data is incomplete is reported rather than sent a message with a hole in it. No pasting at all.

Or: download the form, fill it in a spreadsheet, paste it back

  1. Click Download spreadsheet form. The file already carries the correct columns for your message, for example number, name, amount, date, plus one filled example row showing the expected format.
  2. Open it, replace the example row with your data. WhatsApp numbers go in the first column in international format. Local format is accepted and normalised, and invalid numbers are skipped and reported.
  3. Select the data, copy it, paste it into the box on the send page, then click Check and preview. If the header row comes along with it, that is fine, the system recognises it.
  4. Check the first three messages rendered with real values, so you can see the names and figures land where they should, along with the estimated cost, which is Meta's charge rather than a WACO one.
  5. Click Send now. Delivery proceeds in the background and you can open the report at any time: delivered, queued, or failed, per number.

Reading the campaign report

Once a blast is running, open the campaign from the Blast menu — the report is live and refreshes itself while sending:

The percentages next to Delivered/Read/Replies are computed against Sent — a quick way to judge how alive your recipient list is and how compelling the message was.

Making the first broadcast go smoothly

Where do the replies go? Into the team inbox as usual, as full conversations, so "already transferred, thanks" can be answered by your staff straight away.

Campaigns larger than Meta's quota (e.g. 1,000 contacts vs 250)

Meta caps the number of unique recipients of business-initiated messages per rolling 24 hours — 250 for numbers whose business is not yet verified, then 1,000, 10,000 and up as volume and quality grow. You do not need to split the campaign: WACO sends up to the remaining quota, the rest stays Queued (= not yet sent; visible and downloadable from the broadcast report), then continues automatically once the window opens. The "Meta 24-hour quota" panel on the report shows the tier, used, remaining, and the estimated resume time. If Meta still refuses because of a limit, WACO pauses for an hour and retries by itself. Meta business verification unlocks higher tiers sooner.

Still stuck after following this guide? Contact us from the dashboard — attach a screenshot if you have one, it speeds everything up.