How do I send a message to many customers at once?
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
- Write it directly. Follow step 1 below. Best for text, optionally with an image, using variables.
- Use a template that is already approved. At the top of the "New broadcast" page there is an option marked "Already have an approved template?". Templates from the Templates page, including ones with buttons, whether quick reply or open link, are ready to send with no further review. Deleting the broadcast card does not delete your template.
- ✨ Ask the AI to draft it. Need buttons, or stuck on the wording? Describe what you want in a sentence or two in the AI box, present on both the Broadcast and Templates pages, for example "end of month promotion, address the customer by name, button opening the catalogue at https://...". The AI drafts it into the designer for you to review, then you submit in one click.
Step 1: write the message
- Open Broadcast, then New broadcast.
- 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}."
- 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.
- Optional: upload an image (JPG or PNG, up to 5 MB), which appears above the message. Good for event posters and illustrated announcements.
- 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
- 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. - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- Progress bar — how much of the queue has gone out.
- Sent — accepted by WhatsApp for delivery.
- Delivered — WhatsApp's official receipt that the message reached the recipient's phone.
- Read — the blue-tick receipt. Recipients who switch blue ticks off are not counted, so treat this as a floor — real readership is almost always higher.
- Replies — recipients who wrote back within 7 days, with the list of numbers and when. Every reply also lands in your inbox as a normal conversation — that is where the sales happen, so answer quickly.
- Failed — rejected numbers (inactive, not on WhatsApp, etc.) with the reason.
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
- Test on yourself first. Paste a single row containing your own number, send it, look at it on your phone, and only then send to the real list.
- A new number is limited to around 250 new contacts per day by WhatsApp, and the system warns you when your list exceeds it. See how to raise the limit.
- Send less, and send it more precisely. Message only the customers who are actually overdue rather than everyone. Relevant messages do not get blocked, and your number rating stays healthy. See why that matters.
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.