Create Message

Create a New Campaign

Create a campaign to deliver your WhatsApp message. Follow the steps below to create a new WhatsApp campaign:

1. From the CleverTap dashboard, select Campaigns.
2. Click + Campaign.
3. From the Messaging Channels list, select WhatsApp.

The campaign page displays.

Define all the sections and publish the campaign.

Start Campaign Setup

The Start here section displays the setup information.

This section has the following parts:

• Start here: Check that the required platforms are integrated and ready for campaigns.
• Qualification criteria: Deliver the notification based on Past behavior, Custom list, or Live behavior For more information about segmenting users, refer to Segments.
• WhatsApp Service Provider: Select the available WhatsApp service provider from the list.
• Set a goal: You can track your campaign conversion by setting up a goal. Setting a goal allows you to measure your campaign effectively against what you want to achieve with the campaign. This selection is optional.

Define the conversion period by selecting the Conversion Time. You can define your conversion goal further by filtering an event by event properties. For more information on event properties, see Events.

Define the Audience

You must indicate the target audience for your WhatsApp campaign. You can target your WhatsApp campaign to a new user segment by clicking on the Target Segment section. Here, you can create a new segment or use a previously saved user segment from the segment list.

You can create the target based on past user behavior and user properties or live (ongoing) user behavior. The latter is helpful to send out real-time, triggered campaigns.

For instance, you can create a live Inaction within time campaign that targets users as soon as they add a product to their cart but do not finish transacting within 10 minutes; the golden window within which most users transact on online platforms.

Deliver Action Based WhatsApp Notifications

You can trigger a WhatsApp message to users when they perform a specific action. This makes notifications more contextual and increases conversion. For example, sending a cab booking link to customers who have just booked a hotel or flight.

Deliver WhatsApp Notifications based on Past Behavior (PBS)

You can also target users basis their past behavior. For example, you might want to target customers who have purchased a specific product in the past.

Filter by User Properties

Using the With user properties filter in the Who section, you can segment your campaign to reach users who meet specific criteria.

For example, you can send a WhatsApp notification to all the customers from Mumbai who are currently subscribed to Platinum membership.

The following table explains the various property types:

To know more about what segments can be used, see Segments.

Constant event property

You can also hold a property constant across the selected events. For more information, see Constant Event Property.

Control Group

You can define the control group to compare and measure the results of your campaign. For more information, refer to Control Groups.

Targeting Cap

In certain cases, you may need to send a message to only a subset of the qualifying audience (Target Reach) for a campaign or avoid sending it if the number of qualified users exceeds the specified number.

A relevant use case is a limited offer where you want to send a fixed number of coupon codes you want to distribute. If the total reach for your campaign exceeds the number of coupon codes you can distribute, you can limit the number of users who will receive the message to exactly the number of coupons you want to distribute.

📘

Campaign Limit

Ensure that you set up a limit of 100 or more, regardless of the qualified user segment size. If the limit specified is less than 100, an error occurs.

WhatsApp Message Types

You can create the following types of messages in your WhatsApp campaign:

• Single Message
• A/B Test
• Split Delivery
• By User Property

📘

Legacy UI

A/B Test and Split Delivery message types are only available for new campaign UI.

Single Message

In this campaign, a standard message is sent to all users who qualify as your target audience. This message type is best for broadcast messages and for applications that do not vary campaign communication based on differences between properties such as language, geography, or any other user properties.

A/B Testing

A/B testing helps you understand what type of message copy works best to get clicks from users.
You can test up to three message variants on a test group.

📘

Winning Variant

The variant that gets the most views is declared the winning variant and is automatically sent to the rest of your target audience.

You create maximum three variants for a campaign. You can also auto-copy the content present in the current variant. Further, let us understand A/B Test delivery for Live user segments.

A/B Test Delivery To Live User Segments

With campaigns sent to live user segments (triggered campaigns), messages are delivered immediately when a user’s activity matches the criteria you have selected. For example, you can send a message when the user has completed a booking or purchase. Since it is not possible to determine the reach of triggered campaigns upfront, you need to decide how many total messages to send for A/B testing before a winner is declared.

👍

Triggered Campaign Example

If you select 500 users as your test audience, we will alternate delivery of Variant A and Variant B as users qualify for the campaign. After a total of messages are sent (Variant A – 250 and Variant B – 250), we then decide the winner based on the number of views and continue only with this winning message for the duration of the campaign.

Deciding on a test audience for A/B testing triggered campaigns requires some estimation. We recommend you check the total messages that were sent for similar triggered campaigns in the past to get a sense of how many users may qualify. If you select a test audience that is too small such as 25 users, you will get a statistically insignificant sample. If your test group size exceeds the total number of users who ultimately qualify for that campaign, then no winner will be declared and each message variant will be alternatively delivered for the duration of the campaign.

Split Delivery

With split delivery, you can decide what percentage of your audience receives each message variant for the duration of the campaign. You can test up to three message variants.

By User Property

If you would like to send different message variants to your target audience based on the user properties they possess, this campaign type is your best bet. A good example would be when you want to send a localized update to people based on their preferred language.

Similar to creating A/B test variants, click +Variant button to add multiple variants based on a user property value. You can send up to 50 message variants to different users based on a user property. In the example below, we have used the Language user property so users with different language preferences will receive corresponding copies of the campaign in their preferred language (English, Hindi, etc.)

Define the Message Content

Now, you need to set up the What section where you have to define the content for the WhatsApp campaign Click Go To Editor to create your message.

WhatsApp Editor

Select from the approved templates.

Fill in the details and click Done.

Import Templates

🚧

Template Import Limitations for External Providers

Importing templates is exclusive to CleverTap BSP. For other providers, you must recreate templates separately within their interfaces.

You can also import templates when creating a new message.

1. Click Go To Editor to create your message.
2. From the message editor, click Import Templates. A window for Import Templates displays.

4. Select the correct option.

• Select Replace all templates to replace all the existing templates on your CleverTap dashboard. OR
• Select Bring in new templates to append new templates to your CleverTap dashboard.

5. Click Continue to replace or add templates. The CleverTap dashboard shows the new templates. Your previous templates are mailed to your email account.

📘

Template Import Impact on Failing WhatsApp Campaigns

Importing templates will not automatically resolve errors or issues related to the existing WhatsApp campaigns or journeys. These campaigns and journeys will continue to fail until you manually update the imported template in the affected campaign's What section.

To address campaign failures resulting from template-related errors, please follow the below steps:

1. Identify the specific campaign or journey that is encountering the error.
2. Access the What section of the campaign or the specific journey node.
3. Edit the campaign or journey and select the specific imported templates.
4. Save and publish the changes, and check that the campaigns and journeys use the updated templates.

Quick Reply Button with Custom Payload

CleverTap's Quick Reply feature enables you easily collect user information, track responses, and trigger chat workflows using custom payloads.

The custom payload can include custom attributes with the Quick Reply button in the Quick Reply templates when creating campaigns. These custom attributes are not visible to the end user. The purpose of these attributes is to track end-user responses when they interact with specific Quick Reply buttons.

To send a custom payload from the Quick Reply button, you can utilize the WhatsApp Editor provided by CleverTap. When users reply to the Quick Reply, the custom payloads are returned along with their responses. These custom payloads can trigger chat workflows and enable further actions based on the user's reply.

To send a custom payload from the WhatsApp Editor, select a Quick Reply template and then select Add Custom Payload.

Add a custom payload. You can also personalize the custom payload.

📘

Character Limit for Custom Payload

Check that your custom payload is under 128 characters to ensure deliverability. Although CleverTap does not restrict characters in a custom payload, WhatsApp limits it to 128 characters.

For example, a bus service called ACME operates within a city. ACME wants to make it easy for regular passengers to confirm their daily bus rides. To do this, ACME sends reminder notifications in the evening and morning, matching each user's typical travel schedule.

When a passenger receives the notification, they see a Confirm Ride button. This button enables them to quickly respond and indicate their intention to travel with the bus service immediately. Now, depending on how ACME sets up its system, there are two possible scenarios:

• Without Custom Payload: If ACME does not use a custom payload when a user clicks on the Confirm Ride button, the user's response is sent directly to ACME's WhatsApp phone number. However, it is unclear to which specific notification the user is responding. For example, ACME does not know whether the user is confirming their ride for today's notification or a previous one. In this case, ACME needs more information, such as the ride details and route, to generate a payment link and complete the transaction.
• With Custom Payload - When ACME sends the WhatsApp notification, it includes personalized information about the user's route and timing. There is also a Confirm Ride button with a unique identifier attached as a custom payload. This allows ACME to distinguish between different notifications and campaigns. The response and custom payload are captured when the user clicks the Confirm Ride button. This means ACME knows the exact notification that received a user response. ACME can now directly share the payment link with the user to complete the transaction.

The custom payload feature simplifies the process for ACME and its passengers. It eliminates the need for additional confirmation workflows and ensures users receive the correct payment link for their intended ride. Ultimately, this helps ACME provide its customers with a smoother and more efficient experience.

Track Clicks in WhatsApp Campaigns

The WhatsApp click tracking feature in Meta Dashboard allows you to track the clicks on the CTA (Call To Action) included in your WhatsApp messages. By enabling click tracking, you can gain valuable insights into user engagement and optimize the performance of your WhatsApp campaigns.

Key Points to Remember

Let us understand how to track a click for various template fields in WhatsApp campaigns.

Headers

• Click tracking is available only for text headers.
• When using custom variables (for example, {{1}}) in text headers, the system automatically detects URLs in the input box and provides an option to enable click tracking.

• Example: If you enter a URL such as https://example.com in a custom variable, the system will automatically detect it and give you the option to enable click tracking. The link will be wrapped (for example, https://ct1.io/8eytiry), capturing click information before redirecting the user to the actual URL.

Body

• When using custom variables (for example, {{1}}) in the message body, the system automatically detects URLs in the input box and provides an option to enable click tracking.

• Example: If you include a URL like https://example.com in a custom variable input box, the system will detect it and allow you to enable click tracking. The link will be wrapped (for example, https://ct1.io/8eytiry), capturing click information before redirecting the user to the actual URL.

Footer

Click tracking is not supported for footers because footers cannot be dynamic.

CTAs

• To track clicks on CTAs within WhatsApp templates, you must create Dynamic URL type CTA templates with CleverTap tracking domains in the WhatsApp Account Manager.
• Save these templates as CleverTap click tracking type templates in the CleverTap dashboard.
• Example: To track clicks on a Visit Website CTA, create a template with the CTA set as a CleverTap click tracking type. Enter the complete redirection URL in the What section during the campaign creation. The link will be wrapped (for example, https://ct1.io/8eytiry), capturing click information before redirecting the user to the actual URL.

Preview & Test

Once you are all done setting up the content of your campaign in the What section, you have the option to send a test notification to any CleverTap user profile you have marked as a Test profile.
Click the Preview & Test button from the message editor to test a message.

Define the Campaign Schedule

The WhatsApp message campaign needs to be scheduled to run actively for a specific timeline. To define the schedule for your WhatsApp campaign, you need to specify the Start date and time and End date and time under the When section. You also have the option to start a campaign immediately by selecting Now. Besides, you can also define a delay (by seconds, minutes, hours, or days) once a user qualifies for the target segment. Once you define the schedule and click on Done, the campaign will be triggered and terminated as per the defined timings.

Delivery preferences

In certain scenarios, you might not want a campaign to run actively on a particular day and time. In such cases, you can set the frequency for that particular campaign.

You can select the Do Not Disturb (DND) hours during which messages from this WhatsApp campaign are prevented from going out, either by discarding them or delaying delivery after DND hours complete, such as 9 PM to 9 AM.

If you want your campaign to adapt delivery times according to the user’s timezone, check the Timezone checkbox. For more information, refer to Delivery in User’s Timezone.

Additionally, you can check the Cut-Off checkbox to avoid sending messages to users after a set cut-off time. This is important for time-sensitive campaigns, for example, live events.

Publish Campaign

After previewing the appearance of your overall campaign, finalize your campaign by clicking Publish Campaign.