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Click to WhatsApp ads have become a popularly chosen advertising format by eCommerce businesses. By integrating conversational marketing and commerce experiences to ad campaigns, businesses have been able to not just capture consumer intent through Facebook and Instagram ads, but also double the engagement rate from those who click through them to WhatsApp.
While the format by itself gives businesses a way to turn consumer interest into intent by immediately striking a conversation on WhatsApp, there are still a few things that need to be done to optimize click to WhatsApp ad spends for higher returns.
Let’s look at some of the tips we have gathered working with DTC brands on their click to WhatsApp ads strategy and reading through the success stories shared by Meta themselves.
Tips to decrease your click to WhatsApp ad spend
Before we deep dive into some of the click to WhatsApp ad best practices, we do want to state that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to them. Remember to experiment with the tips and strategies shared below to see what suits your brand the best:
1. Leverage custom audiences
The cost of reaching out to new consumers is increasing by the day, and it can often be a hit and miss strategy for most ad campaigns.
This is why we recommend making the most of custom audiences. These are a group of consumers that have previously interacted with or bought from your brand, making them more likely to engage with your ad campaign.
You can use sources like customer lists, website or app traffic, or engagement across Meta technologies and platforms, to create Custom Audiences of people who already know about your brand.
2. Run ads in non-peak hours
Did you know that an average internet user is targeted with almost 10,000 ad campaigns every day?
With the increasing amount of competition in the eCommerce industry, the numbers are only going higher.
And to compete with that number in peak hours is fighting an uphill battle that can result in very high cost per impression and clicks.
This is why we recommend running click to WhatsApp ads in non-peak hours.
When you’re competing with a lesser number of ad campaigns and promoted posts, you also benefit from more focused attention from the consumer - which ensures that the value proposition you’re presenting or the offer you’re making, is consumed and understood the right way.
Studies and surveys have shown that the highest-earning day of the week for online retailers is Monday. The same also states that Saturday and Sunday are usually the lowest-earning days of the week. Add to that the ‘paycheck effect’, and you have consumer purchase behavior fluctuating at the start and middle of the month.
To know what days and times work best for you, find answers to the following:
- What days does your website see the most traffic?
- What days do you get the most sales?
- What time of day do you see the most traffic?
- What time of day do you see the most sales?
- What day and time do you see increased session time?
3. Run retargeting ads in peak hours
Turning off your ad campaigns during peak hours just to save on ad spend is not a good idea.
In fact, it can result in a much lower brand recall, impacting the overall traffic and conversions you drive to your online store from social media platforms.
This is why we recommend setting up retargeting campaigns during peak hours.
These ad campaigns target an audience that has previously interacted with the ad running in the non-peak hours.
Studies have shown that retargeting ad campaigns on social media can lower your cost per click, drive higher customer engagement and boost conversion rates. The same holds true for your click to WhatsApp ad campaigns too!
4. Start a conversation immediately
Traditional social media ad campaigns drive traffic to your online store site and rely on the visitor to choose their next interaction.
This could be searching for a product, clicking on a collection, wishlisting an item, adding a product to cart, completing checkout or simply leaving the site without doing anything. That’s exactly why the cost of customer acquisitions have increased over time.
The same can happen on WhatsApp if you don’t capture consumer interest and nudge it towards a specific direction.
When running a click to WhatsApp ad, remember to set up an automated greeting message targeted to offer shopping assistance based on what the consumer has clicked through.
For example, Vyatta runs a click to WhatsApp ad that is aimed to increase awareness of the shopping assistance they offer on the messaging platform. The greeting message encourages consumers to talk to the brand to find out more about the products they are interested in.
The campaign resulted in the brand driving 2X more “view content” actions that increased their product page views.
5. Use WhatsApp catalog to share information
The next strategy you can implement is to reduce the ad spend on click to WhatsApp ads, is to optimize for conversions.
You can do this by reducing the number of steps an interested buyer needs to take to complete purchasing a product they like.
For this, we recommend setting up a WhatsApp catalog that shares all the details about a product like name, description, pricing and discounts available and using that to engage a buyer coming through the click to WhatsApp ad.
Instead of the traditional approach of first getting a consumer to click through to WhatsApp and then directing them to the website, this keeps their shopping journey streamlined to one platform.
The reduced number of steps leads to buyers focusing more on knowing more about the product, leading to higher conversions.
Recommended read: Click to website vs Click to WhatsApp ads
6. Enable checkout on WhatsApp
Similar to sharing product information, bringing in the checkout to WhatsApp itself can help you double the conversions from your click to WhatsApp ads - which also reduces the ad spend you need to set aside.
Based on the products a consumer adds to cart from the WhatsApp catalog, provide a checkout link on the messaging platform. Further, with the help of intelligent payment gateway integrations, you can also accept payments for orders on the messaging platform with WhatsApp Business API solutions like QuickReply.ai.
This strategy helps reduce the drop-offs between add to cart and the checkout steps that traditionally take place on online stores.
7. Sync ad campaigns with other channels
One robust strategy to decrease your click to WhatsApp ad campaign spends is to leverage other channels simultaneously.
Make the most of your other customer touchpoints like social media, email, SMS, Facebook Messenger and others to set up campaigns that offer a continual commerce journey. For example, if they bought a pair of jeans through your click to WhatsApp ad, you can leverage both the messaging platform and the email address shared to send personalized product recommendations.
8. Leverage lookalike audiences
Based on the location of your business, you can also tap into the power of lookalike audiences to optimize your click to WhatsApp ads.
A lookalike audience is a way your ads can reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they share similar behaviors and characteristics to your existing customers. This audience is built using an existing custom audience you select for your click to WhatsApp ads initially.
This also makes it easier for your brand to scale your click to WhatsApp ads methodically.
9. Experiment with ad placements
Another strategy you can leverage is to experiment with where your click to WhatsApp ads get placed.
Some of the ad placements you can experiment with include:
- Feeds - Facebook feed, Instagram feed, Instagram profile feed, Facebook marketplace, Facebook video feeds, Facebook right column, Facebook Business explore, Instagram explore, Instagram explore home.
- Stories and Reels - Facebook stories, Instagram stories, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels
- Learn more about Meta ad placements here
Recommended read: Click to WhatsApp ad examples and what you can learn from them
10. A/B test, measure and optimize
Irrespective of what products you sell and who you target, we recommend experimenting with your click to WhatsApp ads proactively.
This includes the creatives you use (images and videos), format of ad (single visual/ carousel), ad description, ad headline, the offer you’re making and the greeting message you open a conversation with on WhatsApp.
We recommend measuring the impact of every little change you make so you can identify common patterns and optimize your click to WhatsApp ads for higher engagement and conversions.
11. Pay attention to WhatsApp templates
Remember that WhatsApp pricing no longer works the same way.
Meta has introduced four new conversation categories - Utility, Authentication, Marketing and Services.
The way you craft your greeting message and the follow-ups, can now impact the conversation-based pricing you’re charged to nurture and convert customers on the messaging platform. So pay close attention to your WhatsApp templates!
Need help setting up click to WhatsApp ads that convert?
Click to WhatsApp ads are still a fairly new advertising format for most DTC brands.
While some are already seeing success with them, others are struggling to make the most of the collaborative nature between the social media platforms and WhatsApp’s commerce capabilities.
That’s why we’re opening doors to helping eCommerce brands strategize and set up click to WhatsApp ads.
If you want to get started with click to WhatsApp ads, scale them or optimize for lower ad spends, reach out to our team of WhatsApp marketing experts today.
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