Ever experienced that sinking feeling when your eCommerce sales aren't quite cutting?
Is that gut-wrenching pain similar to stepping on a Lego barefoot? 😫 Say goodbye to those stomach-churning days because we've got the antidote to cure your marketing woes: Click-to-WhatsApp Ads!
In this ultimate guide, we'll explore the ins and outs of these side-splitting ads and why your eCommerce business can't afford to miss out on them. We'll teach you how to use Click-to-WhatsApp Ads, share best practices, and even walk you through creating your ads, all while keeping the chuckles coming.
Before we get started, let’s quickly review what these ads are and how they work.
What Are click-to-WhatsApp Ads?
Click-to-WhatsApp ads are a type of advertisement that allows business owners like you to connect directly with potential customers through the popular messaging app WhatsApp.
What makes this ad unique is that it allows the user to initiate an interaction with your business, whether it's to learn more about you or to shop for products and services. Unlike many other types of advertisements, this one allows you to interact directly with the consumer.
When users click on a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, they are redirected to a WhatsApp conversation with the business or a predefined message template.
What else? You can engage with potential customers more efficiently and effectively than ever before. Click-to-WhatsApp ads are particularly useful for businesses targeting audiences in regions where WhatsApp is a prevalent communication tool. They can leverage the platform's popularity to drive engagement and conversions.
Why should you explore click-to-WhatsApp ads?
Click-to WhatsApp ads have multiple benefits, from engaging your customers effectively to upselling and cross-selling your products and services. The best part is that you don't have to spend a lot again on ads to re-engage those customers.
Here are the multiple benefits of click-to-WhatsApp ads:
1. Better engagement
Compared to static ads, click-to-WhatsApp ads have a much higher engagement rate. The reason behind this is that it allows your customers to interact with your brand and products in a more personal way. This increases their interest in the product or service you are advertising.
As WhatsApp is a two-way communication platform, it allows you to talk with your customers directly and answer their queries. This helps you build customer trust and loyalty, which is an essential factor in increasing sales.
2. Makes your brand unique
On average, a user is exposed to 36 ads from different brands daily. This makes it difficult for customers to differentiate between brands and purchases. Using WhatsApp to talk with your customers, you can promote your brand more interestingly and engagingly. This will help you stand out from other brands in the market.
And who will forget the brand that listens to customers' needs and recommends products?😉
3. Option to expand the customer base
When you use typical Facebook ads, you have to spend again on retargeting ads to re-engage with the customers who placed orders. But this is not the same with the click to WhatsApp. You can continue to communicate with customers and promote more products or services to them. In this way, you can expand your customer base without spending additional money on Facebook ads.
Isn't that something that's worth considering?
4. Reduce abandoned carts
With a typical ad, you can get better traffic and conversion, but you can't avoid abandoned carts, as the average cart abandonment rate is 70%. So even if they abandon the cart, you must spend again on Facebook ads to bring them back.
But with a click-to WhatsApp, you can reduce the abandoned carts and increase the conversion rates by communicating directly with customers using WhatsApp. This way, your customer satisfaction will increase gradually, eventually increasing sales.
5. Build trust with customers
Trust is a crucial factor in the customer's decision-making process. Click-to-WhatsApp ads help you build trust by offering personalized and instant communication. When customers can easily reach out to your brand with their questions or concerns, it demonstrates that you are a reliable and customer-centric business.
Research finds that 67% of consumers trust a purchase on a familiar online marketplace, even if the retailer selling the product is unfamiliar to them.
By integrating click-to-WhatsApp ads with the familiarity and trust of WhatsApp, your brand can significantly benefit from this existing trust, making it more likely for customers to choose your products or services over your competitors.
6. Improve customer retention
Customer retention is key to any successful business, and you can enhance your retention rates by utilizing click-to-WhatsApp ads.
Regular, personalized communication through WhatsApp keeps your customers engaged and informed about your latest offerings, promotions, and any changes to your products or services. This helps to ensure your brand stays top-of-mind and encourages repeat business.
According to SEMrush, the probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60% and 70%, whereas selling to a new customer is only between 5% to 20%.
And that's why retention is more important than acquisition.
By focusing on retaining your existing customers through click-to-WhatsApp ads, you can capitalize on this higher probability of selling and, in turn, increase your revenue while fostering long-term customer loyalty.
How Can You Use Click to WhatsApp Ads?
Now you know the importance of having click-to-WhatsApp ads for your business. It’s time to learn how you can use these ads effectively. Here are some ways in which you can use click-to-WhatsApp ads:
Step 1: Prepare your Facebook Ads account and FB pixel for your Shopify store
Before you start with click-to-WhatsApp ads, ensure you have a Facebook Ads account and have integrated the Facebook pixel into your Shopify store. If you're unfamiliar with Facebook ads, refer to this beginner's guide to Facebook Ads for a detailed introduction.
Step 2: Connect your WhatsApp Business number to your Facebook page
To use click-to-WhatsApp ads, you have to link your WhatsApp Business number with your Facebook page. If you own a Shopify store and need help with WhatsApp API access, fill out this form and we will do the process for you. After obtaining access, include your WhatsApp number in your Facebook page's settings section.
To link your Page and WhatsApp account, follow these steps:
- At the bottom of Facebook, tap Menu or your profile picture.
- Choose your Page. You might need to tap Switch profile or Select profile, then tap your page.
- Tap Menu in the bottom right of Facebook.
- Tap Settings & Privacy, followed by Settings.
- Tap Linked Accounts & tap WhatsApp.
- Choose your country code and input your WhatsApp Business number.
- Tap Send code to WhatsApp.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the WhatsApp account connection.
Keep in mind that this step is vital, as you cannot run WhatsApp ads without it.
Step 3: Create and manage your WhatsApp Ads & Audience
Next step is to create your first WhatsApp ad.
For instance, imagine you want to promote a limited edition series of T-shirts that you’re launching. Here's a general outline of the click-to-WhatsApp ad setup process:
- Navigate to your Facebook Ads Manager and start a new campaign. Choose "Conversions" as the campaign objective.
- In the "Ad Set" section, define your ad's target audience based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more.
- In the "Ad" section, develop your ad creative. Pick a format, such as a carousel, single image, or video, and incorporate your ad copy and visuals.
- For the "Call-to-Action" button, select "Send WhatsApp message" or "Learn More" and link it to your WhatsApp number.
- Consider using the WhatsApp Catalog to display your products or services directly within the ad.
- Submit the ad set and initiate your campaign. While the campaign is active, monitor it consistently and adjust as needed to optimize your return on ad spend.
Note: Click-to-WhatsApp ads are exclusively available on mobile devices, as the feature is mobile-specific. Furthermore, WhatsApp functionality is limited to certain countries and regions.
What Are the Best Practices for Click to WhatsApp Ads?
Though click-to -to-WhatsApp ads are simple to set up and run, you can maximize your efforts and ROI by following these best practices:
I could begin by discussing the fundamentals, such as identifying your target audience, establishing clear objectives, and so forth. However, that's common knowledge – even your grandpa is aware of it. So, let's jump straight into the advanced tactics for optimization:
1. Optimize the Bot to deliver a better user experience
No one likes to get a robotic answer that doesn't even match the user query.
As a result, you need to optimize your bot to deliver a better user experience and reduce the bounce rate. This can be done by improving the chatbot's response time and adding more FAQs to address common questions.
With BiteSpeed, you can build a WhatsApp chatbot that will answer user queries and provide them with an enhanced user experience. BiteSpeed has a wide range of features to make your bot more interactive and engaging. You can use these features to create FAQs that address common questions and add more error handling in case the users input something wrong or unclear.
The best thing is that you can build a custom workflow that helps the users to get accurate answers. Happy customers, happy business.
2. Include a handoff feature
Though you have built a chatbot with all the required features, including a handoff feature is essential. This will help users get in touch with someone if they need further assistance or information about your product or service.
After all, what matters the most is to keep your customers happy and satisfied. So, whenever you see that the user is not getting the exact answer or assistance from your chatbot, hand them off to a human agent who can help them find what they need.
3. Leverage WhatsApp automation
Ads can help you get traffic and messages, but not all users will become your customers. They may abandon their cart or face struggles in finding the right product. That's why you need to leverage WhatsApp automation and send a follow-up message after the user has abandoned their cart or faced struggles with finding the right product.
With BiteSpeed, you can automate every movement from abandoned cart messages to review collection without lifting a finger.
If a user abandons their cart, you can directly ask customers about the reason for abandonment and send a follow-up message with a solution.
If they struggle to find the right product, you can use the chatbot to help them find the right solution. Here's how Fitshot does the same;
4. Analyze and improve your strategy
If you have a perfect WhatsApp API like BiteSpeed, you can track, analyze and improve your strategy. You can find out which messages are most effective and which are not working and how to improve them.
This way, you can reduce the time spent creating a WhatsApp campaign and focus more on improving it.
5. Build a loyal customer base
Don't focus only on the number of customers you get but also on the quality of your customer base. Ensure every customer is happy with your product or service and recommends it to others. This will help in building a loyal customer base for your business.
Focus more on customer support and customer engagement. This way, you can increase your revenue by cross-selling to them down the lane.
Should You Run Click-To-WhatsApp Ads?
You know what they say - the proof is in the pudding, or this case, the clicks.
When it comes to boosting customer engagement and nurturing lasting relationships, click-to-WhatsApp ads can work wonders for Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands. By directly communicating with your users on WhatsApp, you can offer a tailor-made customer experience that fosters customer loyalty and generates higher engagement rates.
These ads also enable you to provide exceptional customer support, which is an essential component of any successful marketing strategy. So, if you want to stand out from the competition and boost customer loyalty, click-to-WhatsApp ads are a great way to do it.
What Do You Need to Set Up Facebook Click to WhatsApp Ads?
Before you start setting up Facebook Click to WhatsApp ads, you need to have the following:
1. WhatsApp Business account
To provide the best user experience and utilize the WhatsApp automation feature, you need to signup for a WhatsApp business API. You can fill out this form, and we will help you set up your WhatsApp business API. Once done, you will receive a confirmation email with further instructions on how to proceed.
2. Facebook Business Page
Before creating Click to WhatsApp ads, you need to have a Facebook Business Page. Setting up a Facebook Business Page is crucial for marketing your business and connecting with your customers. Here are some tips to optimize your page:
- Use a high-quality profile picture and cover photo that represent your brand.
- Fill out your business information completely, including your address, contact details, and business hours.
- Create a username that is easy to remember and type.
- Write a compelling "About" section, briefly describing your business and its unique selling points.
- Add a call-to-action button to encourage visitors to take action, such as visiting your website, making a purchase, or contacting you.
3. Connect your WABA phone number to your Facebook Page
Once you have a WhatsApp Business account and Facebook Business Page, you need to connect your WABA phone number to your Facebook Page. Here's how to do it:
If you are using the WhatsApp Business App:
- Navigate to your Facebook Page, and click Settings.
- In the left side column, click WhatsApp.
- Choose your country code.
- Enter your WhatsApp Business phone number, and click Continue. e. Input the confirmation code that you receive, and click Confirm.
If you are using WhatsApp Business API:
- Navigate to your Facebook Page, and click Settings.
- In the left side column, click WhatsApp.
- Choose your country code, enter your WhatsApp Business Platform phone number, and click Continue.
- Request to connect your Facebook Page with the WABA phone number.
- Monitor the request status. If you no longer want to connect, click Cancel Request. Facebook will inform you whether your request is accepted or not.
- If the connection is approved, Facebook will link your Facebook Page and WABA. You can see the linked phone number in your Facebook Page's Settings.
By connecting your WABA phone number to your Facebook Page, you also automatically link your WABA and Instagram account associated with your Facebook Page.
What Is the Future of WhatsApp Marketing?
The future of WhatsApp marketing looks promising as more and more businesses realize the potential of this messaging app for reaching and engaging with their customers. Let's look at some of the trends that will shape the future of WhatsApp marketing:
1. Active audience for better conversion
WhatsApp reported over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. This massive user base presents a vast opportunity for businesses to reach and engage with their target audience through WhatsApp marketing.
On average, users spend 18.6 hours each month using the platform—which translates to about 37 minutes a day. This means you can reach your audience with relevant and timely messages that don't feel interrupted. Moreover, WhatsApp is a place where users are comfortable engaging in conversations about their needs and preferences. You can use this opportunity to build trust and influence their purchase decision.
2. Users prefer WhatsApp over any other messaging platform
According to Statista, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with over 2 million users. This makes it a great place to reach your audience without being drowned out by other brands vying for their attention.
WhatsApp also offers a variety of features that help you reach your audience more effectively. You can send text, images, videos and documents for free, which makes it much more cost-effective than other messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger or WeChat. Additionally, WhatsApp allows users to create groups and broadcast messages to hundreds of people at once.
This means you can reach the right person with your message instead of wasting money on ads that the right person may not see.
3. WhatsApp marketing has higher open and response rates
The fact that WhatsApp is mostly used on mobile, it’s much harder to get lost in the shuffle. Because users can only receive messages on their phones, there’s no risk of your message being overlooked while they’re at work or browsing other websites on their desktop computers.
This makes it easier for brands to connect with consumers and drive response rates higher than those seen with other messaging apps like Messenger or WeChat.
Moreover, the average open rate of WhatsApp is 98% whereas the average open rate of emails is only 21.5%. The ability for brands to connect with customers via WhatsApp is a huge advantage over other messaging apps. It’s easy to use, widely adopted and has high response rates. So there's no reason to neglect this channel.
Go Beyond Click-To-WhatsApp Ads and Convert WhatsApp Users Into Revenue
Click-to-WhatsApp ads are a starting point for reaching your audience, but imagine if you could maximize each interaction and transform it into potential sales.
Envision this: you've started selling and conversing with customers through WhatsApp. Some customers are content and satisfied, while others might be uncertain or indifferent.
Through conversation or chatbot interaction analysis, you can classify these users into three primary categories:
- Satisfied clients
- Uncertain or budget-conscious prospects
- Less relevant individuals
With satisfied clients, you can capitalize on upselling and cross-selling opportunities via WhatsApp. These customers are more inclined to purchase additional items, eliminating the necessity for Facebook retargeting as they're already involved in your WhatsApp channel.
For uncertain prospects, present special discounts and tackle their reservations, transforming challenges into prospects. Regarding the less relevant individuals, it's advisable to keep them out of product-focused campaigns.
But the journey doesn't stop there.
During promotional events and holiday seasons, reconnect with these users by initiating personalized marketing campaigns on WhatsApp. Employ BiteSpeed's segmented broadcasting capabilities for efficient retargeting, ensuring the recovery of abandoned carts and minimizing RTO.
This all-encompassing strategy has already assisted numerous Shopify store owners, and we believe it will evolve into your business's most effective retargeting method. Are you prepared to explore the boundless possibilities of WhatsApp marketing? Schedule a free demo with us, and we'll demonstrate how to stand out from the crowd, what say?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much does it cost to run Click to WhatsApp ads?
The cost of running Click to WhatsApp ads varies depending on your target audience, bidding strategy, and ad placements. Factors like the number of impressions, clicks, and overall engagement determine the total expense. Facebook utilizes an auction system for ad placements, which means the cost per click or impression depends on the competition for your target audience and ad space.
2. Are Click to WhatsApp ads effective in driving sales and conversions?
The effectiveness of Click to WhatsApp ads depends on various factors, including the quality of your ad content, targeting, and your ability to engage users once they initiate a conversation on WhatsApp. Optimizing these factors and providing timely, personalized responses to user inquiries can improve the chances of driving sales and conversions.
3. Can Click to WhatsApp ads be used for retargeting?
Yes, you can use Click to WhatsApp ads for retargeting. You can create a custom audience that includes people who have interacted with your website or app and target them with personalized messages using WhatsApp. Moreover, you can retarget them even on WhatsApp in the future without spending on ads again.
