Campaigns overview

Campaigns send an approved WhatsApp template to your customers: a sale announcement, a restock, a seasonal offer. A one-time campaign goes to an audience you build and sends once. An automated campaign sends one message at a time, whenever an event happens in your store, such as an abandoned cart. Campaigns in the sidebar holds all three parts, as tabs under the page title: One-time, Automated and Templates. This page explains what every campaign depends on. For the step-by-step form, see Send a campaign.

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Before you start

• A connected WhatsApp Business number. Without one, opening Campaigns shows Connect WhatsApp to continue with a Connect WhatsApp button. See Connect WhatsApp.
• At least one template that Meta has approved for the number you want to send from. See Templates.
• Credits. Popcorn reserves credits when you launch a one-time campaign. See Plans and credits.

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One-time and automated campaigns

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Templates and Meta approval

WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with a pre-approved message, so every campaign is built on a template. You write it under Campaigns → Templates, submit it, and Meta reviews it. A one-time campaign lists only approved templates for the number you send from.

• A template belongs to one WhatsApp number. A template made for one number is not offered when you send from another.
• Meta may change a template’s category during review, for example from Utility to Marketing. Popcorn then shows a Reclassified badge. The category affects what WhatsApp charges you and how the message is delivered.
• Authentication templates, which send a one-time code to one customer, cannot be used in a bulk campaign. Send them from the Inbox or the API.

Limits and statuses are on Templates.

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Credits and the cost estimate

Campaign messages are paid for with Popcorn credits, separately from what Meta charges for WhatsApp conversations.

• Rate. 1 credit per 10 one-time campaign messages, and 1 credit per 5 automated messages.
• Estimate. In the campaign form, the Estimate panel shows Recipients, Credits, Credits available and Credits left after. If your balance is too low it says “You don’t have enough credits to send this campaign.” and offers Top up credits. If Popcorn can’t read your balance it says “Couldn’t check your available credits. This is an estimate.”
• Reservation. When you send or schedule, Popcorn counts the audience again on the server and reserves the credits. If your balance is too low the launch fails and nothing is sent.
• Refund. When a campaign completes or you stop it, credits for messages that were never sent go back to your balance. Credits used on the campaign page counts delivered messages.

Reservations and charges both appear under Plan and billing → Credit usage. See Credit usage.

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Who receives a campaign

Three things decide whether a contact is in your audience:

1. Your conditions. A new campaign starts with one condition, Marketing subscription Is Subscribed. You can add more, such as last seen, tags, order history or the recipients of an earlier campaign. The full list is on Send a campaign.
2. A phone number. Contacts without a phone number are never messaged.
3. Reachability. For Marketing templates, customers who couldn’t receive your last two marketing messages on WhatsApp are left out. Their profile in Customers shows the banner Campaigns are paused for this customer, and Re-enable campaigns puts them back. The audience count and the credit estimate already leave them out. See Delivery and reachability.

A customer opts out through your agent: when they ask to stop receiving messages and Let customers opt out is on, the contact becomes not subscribed and the default condition leaves them out. See Customers.

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Working hours

If Restrict to working hours is on under Settings → General → Working hours, a one-time campaign launched outside the Start to End hours waits and starts at the next Start. The hours use your workspace time zone, which you change on Profile. When the setting is off, campaigns send at any time. Working hours apply to one-time campaigns only: automated campaigns send as soon as their event happens. See Workspace settings.

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Daily sending limits

Meta limits how many different customers your WhatsApp business account can start conversations with in 24 hours. The sender list in the campaign form shows each number’s limit, for example “1,000 messages a day” or “Unlimited”. If your audience is larger, the When panel says the campaign will be processed over several days, and Popcorn paces the sending. You do not need to split the campaign. See Delivery and reachability.

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Where to see results

The One-time tab lists every campaign with Name, Status, Recipients, Delivery rate, Read rate and Created. Filter by All, Sending, Scheduled, Paused, Stopped, Completed or Draft, or use Search campaigns. Delivery figures stay empty for drafts and scheduled campaigns. Open a campaign for Recipients, Sent, Delivered, Read, Clicks, Credits used, Couldn’t deliver and Retrying, plus a table of every recipient you can export. Details are on Send a campaign. Replies arrive in the Inbox like any other conversation. With Your agent answers replies on, your agent answers them. See Inbox overview.

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Campaign statuses

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