Broadcasts

Who can do what

Everyone in the workspace can open Broadcast and read the reports. Creating, sending, scheduling, cancelling and deleting broadcasts and re-subscribing contacts are meant for org admins and supervisors. That limit is being rolled out and isn’t enforced yet, so today anyone who can open the page can do them. Downloading a broadcast’s report as CSV is enforced: only org admins and supervisors can. See Roles and permissions.

Templates only, and why

A broadcast always sends an approved WhatsApp template. WhatsApp only lets a business send free-form messages to someone within 24 hours of that person’s last message to you, and most people on a broadcast list are outside that window. A template approved by WhatsApp is the only message that reaches them. The template picker lists approved templates only. You can submit a new one from the wizard with + Create new template. It shows up in the picker once WhatsApp approves it.

When a recipient replies, their 24-hour window opens and your team can carry on the conversation in the inbox as normal. Every recipient’s conversation is created in the inbox when their message is sent.

Meta charges for delivered template messages by category (marketing, utility, authentication), and those charges come out of your wallet. See Billing & wallet for what is charged and how a broadcast reserves its estimated cost while it runs.

Create a broadcast

Open Broadcast in the sidebar and click New broadcast. The wizard has three steps: Template, Recipients, Review & send.

1. Template. If your workspace has more than one WhatsApp number, pick the one to Send from first (see Sending number). Give the broadcast a name and choose an Approved template. The preview on the right shows the message as the customer will see it.
2. Header and buttons. If the template has an image, video or document header, upload the file. If it has a location header, enter the place. If a button needs a value (the end of a link, or an offer code of up to 15 characters), fill it in.
3. Variables. Give every {{1}}-style placeholder a value (see Template variables).
4. Recipients. Choose who gets it (see Choose recipients) and click Preview recipients to see the exact list.
5. Review & send. Check the name, number, template and recipient count. Optionally click Send test to me. Then choose Send now or Schedule for later, and click Create & Send or Schedule.

If you close the wizard partway through a new broadcast, it is saved as a draft in your browser. Next time you click New broadcast it says Draft restored and picks up where you left off.

Template variables

Each variable is either:

Type	What it does
Static text	The same words for everyone.
Lead field	Filled in for each recipient from their details: first_name, last_name, name, phone, company or email. When recipients come from a CSV, every column of that file can be picked too.

For a name field (first_name, last_name, name) left empty, the recipient’s contact name is used instead. For any other field, type a default in the box under it. If a recipient has no value for that field and you set no default, that recipient is skipped, not sent a message with a blank in it. Skipped recipients show in the report with the missing field as the reason.

Choose recipients

The Recipients step has four tabs. Only the tab that is open when you click Next is used. Selections on different tabs are not combined.

Tab	Who it sends to
Contacts	Contacts you search for and tick, up to 500. Or click Select all contacts to send to every contact that has a phone number.
Segment	One or more saved segments (the list is headed Saved lead filters). The recipients are everyone in any of them, each person once. Build segments under Contacts → Segments. See Contacts & segments.
CSV	A CSV file you upload. It needs a phone column, named phone, phone_number or number. A name column (or first_name and last_name) gives the contact name. Download sample CSV shows the format.
Inbox	Existing conversations you pick from your inbox, up to 500.

If your workspace is connected to the Zetta CRM, the Segment tab also lists the CRM’s segments under From the CRM.

A phone number written as a bare 10-digit number gets the country code of the number you are sending from. The same person picked twice (say, in two segments) gets the message once.

Preview recipients opens the full list with search and sorting, and shows how many unique people will receive the broadcast.

Sending number

When your workspace has more than one WhatsApp number, the first thing on the Template step is Send from. A broadcast starts conversations, so you choose which number it starts them on:

• Every recipient’s conversation is created on that number, and their replies land there.
• Templates belong to the WhatsApp Business Account of the number, so the template list changes with the number. Switching numbers clears the template you picked.
• The Review step shows From and what the customer will see the message come from.

On the Broadcast page, the From chips (or dropdown, with many numbers) filter the list by the number each broadcast was sent from. With only one number, none of this appears and everything goes from that number.

Send a test to yourself

On the Review step, Send test to me sends the exact message (template, header, buttons, variables) to your own WhatsApp number before the real broadcast goes out.

• The test goes to the number in Your WhatsApp number on My Profile (open your account menu, then My Profile, and click Save number). Use international format. Without one, the test is refused with Add your WhatsApp number first.
• A test has no contact behind it, so Lead field variables use their default value (phone is your own number). Give them a default, or the test has nothing to send. A name field (first_name, last_name, name) has no default box, so a template that uses one can’t be test-sent.
• A test goes out like any other message, so Meta charges it as one.
• Test sends don’t appear in the broadcast list.

Schedule a broadcast

On the Review step, choose Schedule for later and pick a date and time in your local time. The earliest you can pick is a couple of minutes ahead. The broadcast is listed with a SCHEDULED badge and its send time, and goes out on its own at that time.

Until it goes out, open the ⋮ menu on its row to:

• Edit time: choose a new send time in the future.
• Cancel schedule: stop it from going out.

Once it has gone out, the detail page shows Sent on schedule and the row shows Scheduled · sent, each with the time.

Repeating broadcasts

A scheduled broadcast can repeat. Under Repeat, choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly, then pick the date it runs Until. An end date is required, and a series can run for at most a year. Repeating rows carry a ↻ daily / weekly / monthly tag.

Each run is a broadcast of its own, with its own report. The next run is set up when the current one goes out, and its recipient list is built again at that point:

• Select all contacts picks up contacts added since the last run.
• Each contact’s current details (name, fields) are used.
• The unsubscribed list is checked again.
• Contacts, conversations, segment members and CSV rows chosen in the wizard stay the same people for the whole series. A segment’s later joiners are not added.

To stop a series, open the ⋮ menu on its scheduled run:

• Skip this run cancels only the upcoming run. The series carries on with the one after it.
• Cancel entire series cancels every run still scheduled.

If a run can’t be prepared (for example, none of its recipients has a usable phone number any more), the series stops there and the stop is recorded in the workspace’s audit log.

Cancel, retarget, delete

The ⋮ menu on each broadcast row also has:

Action	What it does
Cancel	On a broadcast that is sending: stops it. Recipients not sent yet are skipped.
View details	Opens the report. Clicking the row does the same.
Duplicate / Retarget (the Retarget button on the row does the same)	Opens a new broadcast prefilled from this one: name with “(retarget)”, the same number, template, variables and header, and the original’s recipients (up to the first 5,000) on the CSV tab. If your privacy setting hides phone numbers, those come back hidden and can’t be sent to, so choose the recipients again. Preview them before you send.
Delete	Removes the broadcast and its recipient list. This can’t be undone.

Unsubscribes (STOP)

A contact unsubscribes by sending you a message that is exactly one of: stop, stop promotions, stop all, unsubscribe, opt out, optout or unsub (any capitals, surrounding punctuation ignored). The whole message has to be the keyword. “Please don’t stop messaging me” does not unsubscribe anyone.

Unsubscribed numbers are left out of every broadcast and every re-engagement rule. In a broadcast’s report they show as Skipped with the reason Opted out.

They resubscribe by sending start, unstop, resume or subscribe.

The Unsubscribed Contacts section at the bottom of the Broadcast page lists everyone who has unsubscribed: contact, number, the date, and the word they used. Search it by name or number. Re-subscribe removes someone from the list. Only do that if they asked you to: messaging someone who opted out puts your number at risk.

Checked when the list is built

The unsubscribed list is checked when a broadcast’s recipient list is built: when you click Create & Send or Schedule, and for a repeating series when each run is set up. Someone who sends STOP after that point can still receive that one broadcast. For a broadcast scheduled far ahead, cancel it and create it again closer to the time if that matters.

Opt-in is your responsibility

Broadcasts don’t check whether each person agreed to hear from you. Marketing templates need the person’s prior opt-in under WhatsApp’s rules. A contact’s Opt-in status field does not filter a broadcast by itself. To send only to people who opted in, build a segment with Opt-in status is Opted in and send to that. See Contacts & segments.

Delivery report

The top of the Broadcast page totals the listed broadcasts. Each row shows the same figures for that broadcast. Click a row for its full report, which updates live while it sends.

Figure	Meaning
Recipients	People the broadcast is going to (skipped recipients aren’t counted).
Sent	Accepted by WhatsApp for delivery.
Delivered	Reached the recipient’s phone.
Read	The recipient opened it. People who turned off read receipts never show as read.
Replied (Engaged in the list)	The recipient replied, or tapped a button, after receiving it.
Not on WhatsApp (Not in WhatsApp in the list)	The number isn’t registered on WhatsApp, so it can’t be delivered.
Rate-limited (Frequency Limit in the list)	WhatsApp has capped how many marketing messages this person receives for now. It wasn’t delivered, and it isn’t something wrong on your side.
Failed	WhatsApp rejected it for another reason.

Below the figures on the detail page:

• Button clicks: which quick-reply button people tapped. Each person counts once, for the first button they tapped, as a share of delivered messages.
• Top failure reasons: the three most common reasons for failures.
• Download report (CSV): one line per recipient with name, number (as your workspace’s privacy setting displays it), status, sent, delivered and read times, whether they replied, the button tapped, and the error. Up to 100,000 recipients per file.
• Recipients: everyone on the broadcast, with tabs for Sent, Delivered, Read, Failed, Skipped and Pending, and the reason for each skip or failure.

Skipped means nothing was sent to that person: they had unsubscribed, or a variable they needed had no value. Failed means it was sent and WhatsApp refused it.

Failed sends are not retried

There is no “retry failed” button, and that is on purpose.

• A failure can hide a delivered message. If sending is interrupted at the wrong moment, the message may already have reached the customer even though the report says failed (“delivery status unknown”). Sending again could give them the same message twice.
• Most failures don’t change with a second try. A number that isn’t on WhatsApp, or a person WhatsApp has rate-limited for marketing, fails again if you send straight away.

To reach people who didn’t get it, use Download report (CSV) to see who failed and why, then send a new broadcast to the ones you want, for example by uploading them on the CSV tab.

Wallet and limits

• Send now checks your wallet before anything goes out. A broadcast your balance can’t cover won’t start: you see Insufficient wallet balance, and the broadcast stays in the list as a draft. Top up, then create it again.
• A scheduled broadcast isn’t checked in advance. If the balance runs out while it sends, the rest are marked failed with Not enough balance to send this message. Top up before a large scheduled send.
• Messages go out in paced batches, so a large broadcast takes a while to finish. That is pacing, not a stall.

The chip next to the Broadcast title shows Ready to send when your number can send, or the reason it can’t.