Click-to-WhatsApp ads

A click-to-WhatsApp ad is a Facebook or Instagram ad that opens a WhatsApp chat with your number when someone taps it. You create it, target it, fund it and track it in Ads Manager, without going to Meta's own Ads Manager.

Everyone who taps reaches you with their name and WhatsApp number. You can then answer them with a chatbot flow or your team.


Where	Ads Manager
Runs on	Facebook and Instagram
A tap opens	A WhatsApp chat with your number
Needs	Ads Manager set up, and enough ad credits. See Set up Ads Manager.
Media	One square image, 1080 x 1080
Budget	A daily budget and a duration
Answer with	A chatbot flow, connected to up to 20 ads
Improve with	Conversions API

Create an ad

In Ads Manager, click Create Ad.

Fill in the ad. See The ad.
Set the targeting. See Targeting.

Choose your per-day budget and how long the ad runs. You see a total estimated budget. Click Next.

Check the details and click Create to submit the ad for approval.

Meta reviews the ad before it goes live. Follow its status in Ads Manager. See After an ad is published.

What you can set

The ad

Field	What it takes
Advertisement Name	A name for the ad. It can be anything.
Advertisement Caption	The text people read on the ad. Do not use special characters, because Facebook restricts them.
Headline	Shown in bold beside the WhatsApp icon people tap
Media	The image people see. Upload a 1080 x 1080 square image to the Media Library.

⚠️
Follow Meta's ad policies
Avoid misleading or restricted claims in the caption. Ads that break Meta's advertising policies are rejected.

Targeting

Setting	What it takes
Locations	Where the ad runs
Gender	The gender of the people who see it
Age group	The ages it is shown to
Detailed targeting	Demographics, Interests and behaviours. Type a keyword and matching options appear.

The targeting options depend on Meta, and can vary by region and by ad account.

Budget

Setting	What it takes
Per-day budget	What you spend each day
Duration	How long the ad runs

Answer the chats with a flow

Link the ad to a chatbot flow, so everyone who taps gets an answer straight away, at any hour.

In the flow, select an active click-to-WhatsApp ad campaign and connect it. You can connect up to 20 ads to one flow, as long as they were all created in Ads Manager and are running.

See Chatbot flows.

How it is measured

Click an active ad to open its analytics.

Section	Shows
Ad Summary	Impressions, reach, clicks, spend and CTR
Engagement & Traffic	Clicks, outbound clicks and user interactions
Cost & Efficiency	CPC, cost per result and total spend
Conversions	WhatsApp conversations, and website actions where they apply
Performance Over Time	A graph of the ad's performance over the dates you pick

Use the date filter to compare days or periods.

The numbers come from Meta, so they can take a few minutes to update. Conversion and placement data depend on what Meta makes available.

When to use it

Use it for products people want to ask about before they buy: sizing, ingredients, gifting, custom orders. The ad starts a conversation instead of sending them to a page they have to work out alone.

Write the caption for the chat, not the click. Tell people what happens when they tap: "Tap to chat with our stylist" or "Message us for your size". A tap that opens a chat they did not expect is a chat they leave.

Answer every chat within minutes. People who tap an ad are ready to talk now. Connect a chatbot flow that greets them and offers a few choices, with a way to reach a person.

Judge by conversations and cost per result, not clicks. A click that never becomes a message is wasted. The Conversions and Cost & Efficiency sections tell you which ads bring real chats at a price that works.

Keep ads that work, pause the rest. Run two or three versions of the image or caption. After a few days, keep the one with the lowest cost per result and pause the others.

Tell Meta who bought. Add the Conversions API to the flow, so Meta learns which people became leads or customers and shows the ad to more people like them.