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Learn all the click to WhatsApp ad hacks and tips to get more conversions.
If you have been running ad campaigns for your eCommerce business, you probably know the one type of campaign surfing on the high tides is - click to WhatsApp ads.
But just as any other ad format on social media, click to WhatsApp ads are being used aggressively by practically everyone out there. This has led to the ad format going from ‘wow, that’s new’ to struggling with the competition that seems to be increasing by the day.
The last time, we spoke about click to WhatsApp ads with a comprehensive guide on getting started with them.
From that day onwards, we have been experimenting with click to WhatsApp ads with our clients in different industries, to fuel different business goals and objectives. So in this article, we’re going to share some of the underrated click to WhatsApp ad best practices that can increase the ROAS on your WhatsApp advertising campaigns.
Double your click to WhatsApp ad conversions with these hacks
Remember, the following are a few best practices we use when setting up the framework for click to WhatsApp ads for eCommerce businesses:
1. Set up a greeting message
Don’t rely on your audience to click through and drop you the first message on WhatsApp. Set up an automated greeting message that triggers as soon as someone clicks through your click to WhatsApp ad and lands on the messaging app. The idea is to instantly strike a conversation before the consumer gets too distracted and learn as much as possible about them. This message could be a simple hello or could further hold their interest in your brand with a first purchase discount code.
2. Have an in-house team to tackle conversations
The entire idea behind running a click to WhatsApp ad is to get consumers to strike a conversation with your brand. If they respond to your greeting message, ensure there is someone available to further chat with them. This is crucial to helping the consumer discover the right products, whilst learning more about them - which can help you optimize your ad campaigns accordingly.
3. Leverage WhatsApp chatbots
We understand how having too many live agents can be impossible for some businesses. If you’re looking at keeping things streamlined, we recommend making use of WhatsApp chatbots in the pre, during and post purchase stages of a consumer interacting with you on the messaging platform.
For example, if a consumer clicks through the ad to ask about the product’s size guide, you can have a WhatsApp chatbot answer that for you.
WhatsApp Business API solution providers like QuickReply.ai come with 40+ eCommerce chatbots that can be further customized and tailored to meet your campaign objectives.
4. Set up easy calling
Oftentimes a consumer may not be able to share their requirements or explain their purchase preferences over text. In this case, getting them to speak to you on a call can go a long way in building a positive relationship.
For example, if you’re selling customized furniture, set up IVR calling on your WhatsApp Business API provider to offer consumers the option to speak to your brand instead of the chat. A good IVR integration can also help you route the chat to a call from the right department.
5. Run click to WhatsApp ads in non peak hours
The thing with click to WhatsApp ads is that they are still one of the ads on social media. As per statistics, social media ad costs have gone up by a whopping 67% over the last few years - that simply states the amount of noise and competition your ad campaigns need to battle.
This is why we recommend running click to WhatsApp ads during non peak hours. Since this type of ad campaign requires a consumer to start a conversation with you, you want to target them at a time where they don’t feel like it is too much to ask for.
Running the ads in non peak hours also helps you reach more audience and lower your click through and acquisition costs.
6. Run retargeting ads in peak hours
As you start to see people initiating a conversation with you on WhatsApp, we recommend activating your retargeting ad campaigns as well. Now in this case, you need to take into account two cases of interaction on your ad campaign - someone who clicked through your click to WhatsApp ad and initiated a conversation on the app; the other who clicked through the ad but did not initiate a conversation with you.
- In the first case, you want to use the data you have captured through the conversation. Retarget this group of consumers with another follow up on WhatsApp regarding what they had shown interest in. Remember, the idea is to make the most of the 24-hour period from the start of when they initiated the conversation - a good idea would also be to get an opt-in from them to target them with WhatsApp broadcast campaigns.
- In the second case, you can retarget them with a business initiated conversation or a simple retargeting click to message ad on social media that uses their first interaction as the starting point to build a journey from there.
Retargeting ads are said to reduce customer acquisition costs by almost 23% across social media channels - even when you’re running them at peak hours - because they are personalized and guided by the consumer’s own data.
7. Experiment with different type of campaigns
Don’t just use click to WhatsApp ads to promote deals and discounts. Since the ad format requires you to start a conversation with the consumer, it is important to focus on creating a strategy that makes them feel the need to interact with your brand.
This is why we recommend running innovative campaigns in your click to WhatsApp ads. For example, you can run ads around a quiz that requires the consumer to start a conversation, answer a series of questions and then get access to a custom discount code. This also helps you gather information that enables personalization of the next set of marketing campaigns to the consumer!
8. Encourage impulse buying
If you leave consumers to their own means and give them too much time to make a purchase, you may end up losing their interest. As per statistics, more than 70% of online shoppers make impulse purchases and the major drivers are either influence or the fear of missing out.
So when running your click to WhatsApp ads, ensure your ad copies, WhatsApp messages and follow-ups, induce FOMO, a sense of urgency and social proof like media mentions, no. of items sold and so on to nudge the buyer into taking an action on the campaign.
9. Offer shopping assistance
When someone initiates a conversation with you through the click to WhatsApp ad, you want to capture their interest and understand their intent almost instantly. That’s exactly why we nudge businesses to offer proactive shopping assistance - this could be either over messages or on a phone call.
Using reply buttons, ask the consumer if they need help in making a purchase and how they’d like to get the assistance. The two options can be either over chat or on call; either should then trigger a workflow or redirect to your IVR set up to initiate the call.
10. Enable a complete commerce experience
Want to get actual sales out of your click to WhatsApp ads? Don’t make interested consumers move from one thing to another to discover product details or even complete a purchase. You want to make it as simple as possible and restricted to the channel itself to reduce drop-offs.
To do this, all you need to do is integrate your WhatsApp Business API solution provider with your eCommerce CMS (Shopify). This will help you fetch product details, enable add to cart, share checkout links, take payments and confirm orders on WhatsApp itself.
11. Avoid ad exhaustion
You have probably heard of this before. But just because you have changed the call to action to send a message, does not mean the rest of your ad campaign will not run into exhaustion.
Also known as ad fatigue, a couple of things that can lower your campaign effectiveness include your targeting, ad copy, ad visuals and the workflows you set up to follow up with the initiated conversations.
If you’re running a large ad daily budget, you can hit exhaustion in three to four days. So revise and refresh your ads accordingly. Similarly, if you have an ad with a nominal budget, we recommend revisions after either a week or two weeks.
Ready to run a high-converting click to WhatsApp ads?
Click to WhatsApp ads are still very new to most businesses.
To be able to run a high-converting campaign, we do recommend thoroughly defining your target audience, having a clear business goal and objective, setting aside a clear budget and having a WhatsApp Business API solution provider like QuickReply.ai.
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