WhatsApp marketing messages inside your Meta ad campaigns: who they reach and how to set them up
Meta added marketing messages as a placement in Ads Manager, alongside Facebook and Instagram ads. The same campaign can reach one person as an ad and another as a WhatsApp message. This guide explains when it helps, who you can reach, and what to prepare before you switch it on.
What is the marketing messages placement?
You add marketing messages to your campaign as an extra placement, with the same creative, setup and budget. Meta's AI decides for each person whether to show an ad or send a WhatsApp message, based on which is more likely to achieve your campaign goal.
What you need before you start
- A WhatsApp Business account connected to your Meta business portfolio.
- A messaging customer base: people who agreed to receive promotions from you.
- Eligible businesses see a prompt in Ads Manager's Account Overview that starts a guided setup.
Who can you reach?
Messages reach only people in your messaging customer base. Unlike ads, you can't send promotions to anyone outside it. There are four ways to build the base:
Sign-ups inside Meta's apps
Customers subscribe to your promotions from within Meta's apps.
Contacts from WhatsApp chats
Starts with contacts you messaged in the past 15 days, then adds new contacts daily.
Website and app events
Contacts from your website and app events, updated daily.
Upload a customer list
Upload a file with a consent column. Lists uploaded before the placement was enabled must be uploaded again.
- One base serves all your campaigns.
- With several brands: one base if the parent company collects consent, or one per brand if each brand collects its own.
- Audience controls (location, age, exclusions, language) apply to ads and messages together, and messages stay within your base by default even when Meta expands the audience.
Message formats and handling replies
A message can be text, a photo, a video or a carousel, with buttons. Meta offers AI tools to adjust the tone and show catalog products.
| Reply option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Meta Business Agent | AI handles replies automatically |
| Inbox in Meta Business Suite | Your team replies manually |
| A provider you already use | Replies go to your existing platform |
To receive replies in Inbox:
Meta Business Suite › Settings › Accounts › WhatsApp accountsChoose the account, click Assign people, switch on Messages for each person, then click Assign. Replies then appear under the WhatsApp tab in Inbox.
How often messages arrive, and how to measure results
Working with an ad agency
Agencies can send marketing messages, but the business itself builds the customer base. It then shares its WhatsApp Business account and customer base with the agency's portfolio from:
Data Sources › Messaging customer basesGet your account and replies ready with Autorply
As an official Meta Business Partner, we help you connect your WhatsApp Business account to your portfolio and handle customer replies to marketing messages in the Autorply platform, with your team and your other channels.
Autorply gets you set up
As an official Meta Business Partner, we connect your channels, prepare your accounts and run them with your team from one platform.
FAQ
Can I send a marketing message to anyone who sees my ad?
No. Messages only reach people in your messaging customer base, meaning people who opted in to promotions.
How often can the same customer receive a message?
At most one message to the same phone number every three days.
Which campaign objectives support this placement?
Traffic, leads and sales.
I uploaded a customer list before. Will it work?
No. Lists uploaded before the placement was enabled must be uploaded again.
Official sources
- Meta Business Help Center: About marketing messages as a placement in Ads Manager
- Meta Business Help Center: How targeting works for marketing messages
- Meta Business Help Center: About messaging customer base
- Meta Business Help Center: How to build your messaging customer base
- Meta Business Help Center: Set up reply management for marketing messages in Inbox
- Meta Business Help Center: Marketing messages as an agency