How to run a WhatsApp campaign

What do I need before I build a WhatsApp campaign?

Two things: a connected WhatsApp number and an audience of phone numbers. Everything else is built inside the wizard.

• A connected number. Link one on WhatsApp → Numbers — see how to connect your WhatsApp number. Each number needs a seat at $15/month, $120/year, or $288 every 3 years.
• An audience. Phone numbers in international format, uploaded as a CSV on the Prospects page or pasted straight into the wizard — see how to build your WhatsApp audience.

It also helps to know what your number can do in a day before you plan volume. A brand-new number starts at 5 first messages and 20 messages a day and takes about three weeks to reach the full ceiling, so a 500-person list is a multi-week campaign on one number, not an afternoon. That is by design — see how WhatsApp sending limits keep your number safe.

How do I build the campaign, step by step?

The WhatsApp campaign lives in the same campaign wizard as every other channel, so if you've built a cold email or LinkedIn campaign it will feel familiar.

1. Open Campaigns and click New campaign, then choose WhatsApp.
2. Name the campaign something you'll recognize later, and pick the connected number it should send from. If you have several numbers you can select more than one and let WarmySender rotate between them — each keeps its own independent budget, and a given person always stays with the number that first messaged them.
3. Choose your audience on the Prospects step: select a saved list, or paste phone numbers in directly for a quick one-off.
4. Build the sequence out of the four WhatsApp steps described below. A good first campaign is genuinely short: one message, a wait, and one gentle follow-up.
5. Review and launch. From that point WarmySender paces the sending for you; there is no send button to press per person.

What steps can a WhatsApp sequence contain?

Four: Send message, Wait, Wait for reply, and If replied. Between them they cover everything a conversational sequence needs, and deliberately nothing more.

Send message

Sends one WhatsApp message, up to 4,096 characters, with up to 5 attachments of up to 15MB each. This is the only step that consumes your sending budget. You can personalize it with merge fields and A/B test it.

Wait

Pauses the sequence for a fixed amount of time before the next step. Use it to leave a natural gap — a day or two between a first message and a nudge reads far better than a few hours.

Wait for reply

Holds at that point until the person replies, or until a maximum wait you set (7 days by default) passes. It's how you avoid firing a scripted follow-up at somebody who is already mid-conversation with you.

If replied

Branches the sequence on whether the person has replied, so repliers and non-repliers go down different paths — usually stop for repliers, one gentle nudge for the rest.

Note what isn't here. There's no bulk-blast step, no import-and-send-everyone-now button, and no way to remove the pause between messages. WhatsApp works as an outreach channel precisely because it stays 1:1, so the tools stay 1:1 too.

What should my first WhatsApp message say?

Short, specific, personal, and easy to reply to — ideally under about three lines. WhatsApp is somebody's personal messaging app, so a message that reads like a mailshot gets blocked, while one that reads like a person wrote it on purpose gets answered.

• Say who you are and why you're messaging them. A concrete reason ("we both spoke at X", "you mentioned Y") is worth more than any amount of polish.
• Ask one easy question. A message that can be answered in a few words gets a reply; one that requires a decision gets ignored.
• Personalize with merge fields so each message genuinely differs — identical text sent to hundreds of strangers is the clearest broadcast signal there is.
• Don't lead with a link or an attachment. Save those for after the person has replied.
• Keep it far under the 4,096-character ceiling. The room exists for personalization, not for length.

Your reply rate isn't only a marketing metric here — it's a safety signal. If first messages consistently go unanswered, WarmySender automatically tightens how many new conversations that number may start each day until the rate recovers.

Can I A/B test my WhatsApp message?

Yes. A Send message step can carry several weighted variants, and WarmySender splits them across your audience so you can compare reply rates and keep the wording that works. Each person consistently receives the same variant throughout the sequence, so the comparison stays clean.

Because WhatsApp volumes are deliberately small, give a test time before you read it. Twenty first messages a day means a two-variant test needs a couple of weeks to say anything trustworthy — judging an opener on ten sends will mislead you.

How fast will my campaign actually send?

Slowly and deliberately — messages go out with a random 45-second-to-2-minute gap, no more than 8 in any hour, up to 60 a day per number, of which at most 20 may be first messages. A new number sends far less while it ramps.

If a number hits its hourly ceiling the campaign waits for the next hour; if it hits the daily ceiling it waits for tomorrow. Nothing is lost while it waits: everyone stays enrolled at exactly the step they were on, and sending resumes on its own. A WhatsApp campaign that looks "slow" is almost always a campaign that is working correctly.

Want to reach more people per day? Connect another number and add it to the campaign. That's the only lever, and it's deliberate — no setting, plan or support request raises a single number's limits.

Where do replies go, and what happens when someone answers?

Replies land on the WhatsApp tab of your Inbox, and the moment someone replies their automated follow-ups stop. You take the conversation from there by hand.

Replies you receive never count against anything. A reply you type yourself draws from the daily total — it is still a message leaving your number — but it is never speed-limited and never counts as a first message, so a conversation moves at your pace rather than the scheduler's. If the same person is also enrolled in your email, LinkedIn or Instagram sequences, a reply on any channel stops the automated follow-ups on the others too, so nobody gets chased on a second channel after they've already answered you on the first.

Can a campaign message group chats?

No — WhatsApp campaigns are strictly 1:1 and never message a group. There is no group step, no way to add a group to an audience, and no setting that turns one on.

Groups you're already in do appear on the WhatsApp tab of your Inbox, but read-only: you can follow along, and you reply to them from WhatsApp on your phone. A message inside a group is also never treated as a reply, so an unrelated group thread can never stop someone's sequence by accident.

This is deliberate rather than a gap. Unsolicited group messaging is one of the fastest routes to a reported, restricted number, and WhatsApp outreach only works at all because it stays a genuine one-to-one conversation.

Will people see that I've read their message?

Opening a conversation in WarmySender does not send a read receipt to the other person. Marking a thread read here only clears your own unread badge — it's your inbox's bookkeeping, and nothing about it is sent to WhatsApp.

Whether someone sees the blue ticks therefore depends on your normal WhatsApp read-receipt setting and whether you open the chat on your phone, exactly as it did before you connected. In the other direction, your own outbound campaign messages show their delivered and read state in the inbox whenever the recipient has receipts turned on, so you can tell a message that landed and was read from one that's still waiting — useful context before you decide whether a follow-up is worth sending.

What can I do inside a WhatsApp conversation?

Everything you'd expect to do in WhatsApp itself, from the WhatsApp tab of your Inbox: send files, record a voice note, react with an emoji, quote a specific message, edit or delete something you just sent, and keep the list tidy with pin, mute, archive and mark-unread. The point of the inbox is that a reply never has to send you back to your phone mid-conversation.

Files — up to 5 per message, up to 15MB each

Photos, PDFs, videos and audio clips, on a campaign's Send message step and on an inbox reply alike. Files people send you are downloadable from the conversation. Don't lead with one: an unexpected attachment from an unknown number is a common reason people block a sender, and attachments work far better once someone has replied.

Voice notes — recorded in the reply box

Record straight in the inbox and it arrives as a real voice note, the round play bubble, not a file. It's one of the strongest replies you can send to someone who has already answered you — personal, hard to fake at scale, and it usually gets a response. It is a reply tool, not a cold-open tool. If your browser records in a format WhatsApp can't play, WarmySender says so before anything is sent, so switch browser or attach an audio file instead.

Reactions and quoted replies

Pick an emoji on any message and it appears on the other person's phone exactly as it would if you'd tapped it in WhatsApp; reactions people leave on your messages show up here too. Quote a specific message when you reply so a long thread stays readable. A reaction is not a message: it spends none of your daily allowance, and it is not treated as a reply in either direction — a prospect who only reacts rather than answering carries on in their sequence.

Edit and delete

You can edit one of your own sent messages for 15 minutes after it goes out — that window is WhatsApp's, not ours, and once it closes the edit is refused with a plain explanation instead of failing quietly. Deleting removes the message for everyone in the conversation. Neither counts as a new message against your daily allowance.

Pin, mute, archive, mark unread

Ordinary inbox housekeeping, and none of it touches a campaign: muting a conversation doesn't pause anyone's sequence and archiving doesn't remove them from it.

Two things to keep in mind. A reply you type yourself draws from the number's daily total — it is still a message leaving your number — but it is never speed-limited and never counts as a first message, so conversations move at your pace rather than the scheduler's. And opening a thread here never sends a read receipt to the other person.

Can WhatsApp be one step inside a bigger sequence?

Yes. WhatsApp is one of WarmySender's channels, so it can run standalone or as a step inside a multichannel sequence alongside cold email, LinkedIn and Instagram. A common shape is email first, then a LinkedIn touch, and WhatsApp only for the people who engaged but never replied.

Each channel keeps its own independent limits — WhatsApp never borrows budget from LinkedIn or vice versa — and anyone without a phone number is simply skipped for the WhatsApp steps while the rest of the sequence continues for them. Reserve WhatsApp for people who plausibly expect to hear from you there; it's the most personal channel on the platform, and that's exactly why it works and why it should be used sparingly.

Common questions about WhatsApp campaigns

How many people can one WhatsApp campaign reach in a day?

Up to 20 new people a day per connected number, since first messages are capped at 20 of the 60 daily messages. Follow-ups to people you've already messaged draw on the remaining 40. A new number reaches fewer while it ramps: 5 new people a day in week one, 10 in week two, then the full 20.

Can I send the same message to everyone at once?

No, and that's deliberate. There is no bulk-blast step in a WhatsApp campaign — messages always go out one at a time, spaced 45 seconds to 2 minutes apart, under an hourly ceiling. WhatsApp works as an outreach channel because it stays a genuine 1:1 conversation; a broadcast is exactly what gets numbers restricted.

Can I attach a file or an image to a campaign message?

Yes — up to 5 attachments of up to 15MB each on a Send message step. Think carefully about the first message, though: an unexpected attachment from an unknown number is a common reason people block a sender. Attachments usually work far better once someone has replied.

What does Wait for reply do that a plain Wait doesn't?

Wait for reply holds until the person actually answers (or until your maximum wait, 7 days by default, runs out), while a plain Wait just pauses for a fixed period regardless. Use Wait for reply when a follow-up would be embarrassing if they'd already replied, and pair it with an If replied branch to send repliers and non-repliers down different paths.

Can one campaign use several numbers?

Yes. Select more than one connected number and WarmySender rotates between them, which raises your total daily reach because each number carries its own independent budget. Rotation is sticky per person — once someone has been messaged from a number, they stay with it, so the conversation never appears to jump between senders.

What happens to people in my list who don't have a phone number?

They're simply skipped for the WhatsApp steps. Nothing errors, and the campaign carries on for everyone who does have one. If a campaign reaches fewer people than you expected, missing phone numbers are the usual reason — see how to build your WhatsApp audience.

Can I pause a WhatsApp campaign and pick it up later?

Yes. Pause it from the campaign page and everyone stays exactly where they are in the sequence; resume and sending continues from that spot on the normal schedule. Nobody is re-messaged and nobody is dropped.

Why did my campaign send fewer messages than I scheduled today?

Almost always because the number reached a ceiling — the hourly one, the daily one, or the first-message one — or because it's still early in its ramp. It can also be the automatic tightening that arms when first messages aren't getting replies. In every case the remaining people stay enrolled and sending resumes by itself.

Can I add a group chat to a WhatsApp campaign?

No. Campaigns are strictly 1:1 and never message a group — there is no group step and no way to add one to an audience. Groups you're already in show in your inbox read-only so you can follow along, and you answer them from WhatsApp on your phone. A group message is never treated as a reply either, so it can't stop someone's sequence by accident.

Does WarmySender mark messages as read for me?

No. Opening or marking a conversation read in WarmySender only clears your own unread badge; it never sends a read receipt to the other person. Blue ticks still depend on your normal WhatsApp setting and whether you open the chat on your phone. Your own outbound messages do show delivered and read state in the inbox when the recipient has receipts turned on.

Can I send a voice note from a campaign?

Voice notes are a reply tool, recorded in the inbox reply box rather than scheduled as a campaign step — and that's the right way round. A voice note to someone who has already answered you is one of the strongest replies you can send; a voice note as the opening message to a stranger is intrusive and lands badly. Campaign steps carry text plus up to 5 attachments of up to 15MB each.

Can I edit or delete a message a campaign already sent?

Yes, within WhatsApp's own limits. From the conversation you can edit one of your own sent messages for 15 minutes after it goes out, and you can delete it for everyone at any time, exactly as you could on your phone. Neither counts as a new message against the number's daily allowance. What you can't do is un-send it from someone's notifications — which is the real argument for reading a first message once more before you launch.

If a prospect only reacts to my message, does that stop their follow-ups?

No. A reaction isn't a reply, in either direction, so someone who taps a thumbs-up without answering stays in the sequence and receives the next step as scheduled. Only an actual message stops the automated follow-ups — and it stops them on every channel that person is enrolled on, not just WhatsApp.

People also ask

Common adjacent questions that come up alongside running a WhatsApp campaign.

Can an AI agent build and launch my WhatsApp campaign?

Yes. Any agent that speaks MCP — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, OpenClaw or Hermes Agent — can create, launch, pause and resume campaigns for you in plain language. The agent never sends a message itself and can never raise a limit: creating or launching just hands the campaign to WarmySender's scheduler, which paces every message inside the same safe caps no matter who is driving. See connect your AI agent.

Is WhatsApp outreach better than cold email?

It's different, not better. WhatsApp reaches far fewer people per day and demands a real reason for the contact, but it lands somewhere personal and gets read. Most teams get the best results using it as a small, high-intent complement to cold email, not as a replacement.

How do I stop messaging someone who asked me to stop?

Reply to them by hand from the inbox and stop the sequence for that person. Their automated follow-ups already stopped the moment they replied. Honoring that immediately is both basic courtesy and the single most effective way to protect your number — a block or a report is what puts a number at risk.

Where do I see how a WhatsApp campaign is performing?

On the campaign's own page, alongside your other campaigns, with conversations on the WhatsApp tab of your Inbox. Reply rate is the metric that matters most here — it's both how you judge the campaign and the signal that governs how many new conversations the number may start.