Campaigns
Sending an approved template to many contacts, scheduling, throttling and reading the results.
A campaign sends one approved template to many contacts and reports what happened to each one.
Campaigns can only use approved templates — that is Meta's rule for messaging people who have not written to you recently. See Your first template.
Creating one
Campaigns → Create campaign.
1. Choose a template
Only approved templates appear. A template pending review or rejected cannot be used.
2. Choose the audience
Two ways:
- All contacts — everyone in the workspace.
- By tag — everyone carrying a particular tag.
The audience count updates as you choose, so you see exactly how many people will receive it before committing.
Contacts who opted out of marketing are never included. They are excluded from the count and from the send automatically — you do not have to maintain that list yourself.
3. Fill in the variables
If the template has {{1}}, {{2}} and so on, map each to either a contact field — so each person gets their own name — or a fixed value that is the same for everybody.
ONPAD pre-fills from the template's sample values. Replace them; the samples were for Meta's reviewer, not for your customers.
4. Media header, if the template has one
Templates with an image, video or document header need the actual file for this send. Upload it here.
5. Send or schedule
Send now, or pick a time. Scheduled campaigns run in your workspace's timezone — check Settings if you are unsure which that is.
Throttling and send windows
Two controls worth knowing about:
Throttle per minute limits how fast messages go out. Useful when you do not want a thousand replies landing in the inbox at once, and gentler on your quality rating than a sudden burst.
Send window restricts sending to certain hours. A campaign that would otherwise run at 2am waits until the window opens. Messages arriving at a sensible hour get better responses and fewer blocks.
Campaign statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
draft | Being built, nothing sent |
scheduled | Waiting for its time |
running | Sending now |
paused | Stopped partway; can be resumed |
completed | Every recipient has a final result |
cancelled | Stopped and will not resume |
A running campaign can be paused. Messages already sent cannot be recalled — WhatsApp has no such thing — but pausing stops everything not yet sent.
Per-recipient statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
queued | Waiting its turn |
processing | Being sent right now |
accepted | Meta accepted it |
sent | On its way |
delivered | It reached the phone |
read | The customer opened it |
failed | It did not go; the reason is on the row |
The campaign page shows the totals — sent, delivered, read, replied, failed — and lets you open the recipient list filtered by any of them.
Replied is the number that actually matters for most campaigns. Delivered means it arrived; replied means it worked.
Reading failures
The campaign page groups failures by reason, so you see the shape of the problem rather than scrolling a list.
| Reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| Invalid phone number | Fix the data. Usually a wrong country code on import |
| Not on WhatsApp | Nothing to do. That number has no WhatsApp account |
| Messaging limit reached | Meta caps new conversations per 24 hours. Send in smaller batches |
| Template paused or disabled | Meta paused it, usually for poor quality. Check Templates |
| Payment issue | Meta has no valid payment method on your account. Fix in Meta Business Manager |
Temporary failures are retried automatically. Permanent ones — an invalid number — are not, because retrying cannot help.
Before a big send
Send to yourself first. Create a campaign for a tag containing only your own number and run it. You see exactly what the customer will see, including how the variables filled in.
Check the variables rendered properly. A mapping mistake that leaves {{1}} in the message, or puts the wrong field in it, is visible only in a real send.
Start small on a new number. Meta's messaging limit begins low and rises as you send well-received messages. A new number cannot message everybody on day one.
Send at a sensible hour. Use the send window. Messages at 11pm get blocked and reported, and blocks cost quality rating, which costs you the number.
Things campaigns cannot do
Recall a sent message. WhatsApp does not offer it.
Send an unapproved template. No exceptions.
Skip the opt-out list. By design — this is a protection, not a limitation.
Message people who never gave you their number. Technically it will send; practically it is the fastest route to a red quality rating and a suspended number.