WhatsApp is one of the most used communication channels worldwide. With everything going faster nowadays, many people prefer to receive marketing communications over WhatsApp to avoid overcrowding their email inboxes and to access short and quick information. WhatsApp in Automation on Brevo allows you to avoid manual work and missed opportunities by automating the sending of your marketing WhatsApp messages to target and engage contacts who prefer communications over WhatsApp. 

Which WhatsApp messages can I send with automation? 

Automation allows you to automate repetitive tasks related to marketing activities. The tasks are automated in response to pre-defined trigger conditions, which usually correspond to your contacts' attributes or actions that they take on your website, for example. An automation usually consists of 3 steps:

Entry point Contact enters the automation based on predefined criteria	Actions or conditions Contact move through the steps of the automation	Restart or exit conditions Contact automatically restarts or exits the automation based on predefined criteria

With WhatsApp in Automations, you can automate the sending of your WhatsApp messages for different purposes:

To learn how to insert transactional parameters in your WhatsApp templates to send customized transactional WhatsApp automations, check our dedicated article Customize your WhatsApp messages using transactional parameters.

Before you start

1. Link your WhatsApp Business account to Brevo through the embedded signup. 
2. Verify your WhatsApp Business account. 
3. Purchase WhatsApp credits to send WhatsApp messages through automations. You will be charged at the rate of a marketing WhatsApp message. 
4. Ensure you have correctly collected your contacts' consent for WhatsApp messages. 
5. If you are unfamiliar with marketing automation in Brevo, check our dedicated articles Introduction to Marketing Automation.

🎨 Part 1: Create a WhatsApp template

Create WhatsApp templates to integrate into your automations, such as welcome or anniversary messages or abandoned carts. For our use case, we created a welcome message:

🔁 Part 2: Create your automation

Choose an automation type

Once your WhatsApp message is created and approved by Meta, you can start using it in your automation: 

1. Go to Automations and click Create an automation. 
   
2. Choose Custom automation. For our use case, we will create an automation similar to the Welcome Message pre-configured one but with the Send a WhatsApp message action.
3. Enter a relevant name for your automation to easily recognize it in the list. 
4. Optional: Enter a description of your automation.
5. Choose if you want to allow your contacts to enter the automation more than once. This option can be enabled for product purchase or marketing activity automations.
   However, for our use case, we only want contacts to enter the automation once since it is a welcome message sent only when they subscribe.  
6. Click Create automation. 
   

The automation configuration page opens. You can now choose your entry points, conditions, and actions to activate your automation ⬇️.

Create your automation entry point 

According to your needs and automation purposes, choose an entry point. An entry point is a condition to filter your contacts and allow them to begin the automation. To learn more about the different entry points, check our dedicated article Available entry points, actions, and conditions in an automation.

For our use case, the entry point for the welcome message automation is A contact is added to a list so that once a contact is added to the selected list, they enter the automation. To add an entry point:

1. Click Add an entry point.
2. Select the entry point to your automation. For our use case, click Contact Details > A contact is added to a list. 
   
   
3. Select from the drop-down the contact list to which your WhatsApp contacts are added when they subscribe to your WhatsApp marketing communications. 
   
   ❗️ Important

   If you collected your contacts' consent for different message categories, remember to create different entry points for each contact list to which your WhatsApp contacts are added. 
4.  Click OK. 
   

Once you choose your entry point, you can add a condition that will trigger the sending of the WhatsApp message ⬇️.

(Optional) Add a condition to your automation

Add a condition to the triggering of your action in the automation: 

• Add a delay between the moment when your contact enters the automation and the action.
• Wait until another event occurs before triggering the action. 
• Choose If/Else conditions to divide the automation into 2 branches: one branch for yes, the other for no. 
• Create an A/B Split to separate your contacts in a 50:50 ratio to follow path A or path B. 

To learn more about the different conditions and how to use them, check our dedicated article Available entry points, actions, and conditions in an automation. 

For our use case, we want to wait for a certain period before sending the welcome WhatsApp message to our contacts: 

1. Click the + icon under your entry point. 
2. From the Condition list, click Add a delay. 
3. Choose the period to wait for between the moment your contact enters the automation and the sending of the WhatsApp message. 
   For our use case, we want our contacts to receive the WhatsApp message 2 minutes after their subscription. 
4. Click OK.
   

Select the WhatsApp message to send

It is now time to choose which WhatsApp message you want to automate! 

1. Click the + icon under your entry point or condition if you added one. 
2. From the Action list, click Send a WhatsApp message.
    
3. If you have several WhatsApp Business accounts connected to Brevo, select the one you want to use to send your WhatsApp welcome message. 
4. From the drop-down list, choose the WhatsApp template you want to use for this automation or create a WhatsApp template.
   ❗️ Important

   Meta has to approve your WhatsApp templates before they can be used in automations. Most of the time, it will only take a few minutes for Meta AI to approve your message. However, in some cases, Meta will need to manually review your message before approving or rejecting it. This manual review can take up to 24 hours. Once Meta approves your message, you'll receive a notification in Brevo, as well as an email.

   For our use case, we will choose the Welcome message template created during step 1. 
5. Click OK.
   

Your automation is now ready! Test it before activating it ⬇️.

🧪 Part 3: Test your automation

Testing your automation is optional. However, we highly recommend running some tests before activating your automation to ensure that it is working as expected:

1. If you do not have an email address field in your sign-up form for WhatsApp, add one for the test phase. You can remove the email address field once the test phase is done. 
2. Click the  flask icon at the top-right of your screen. 
3. Enter the email address you want to use to test your automation. 
4. Optional: Check the Skip 'Wait For' steps box to skip the Add a delay or Wait until steps. 
5. Click DONE. 
   
6. Perform the action that allows your contacts to enter your automation.
   In our use case, we want our contacts to enter the automation when they are added to the WhatsApp general subscription list. Fill in your sign-up form for WhatsApp messages and enter your test email address. 
   
   💡 Good to know

   Sending a test WhatsApp message will not be deducted from your WhatsApp credits 🎉.

✅ Part 4: Activate your automation 

Once the setup of your automation is done, activate it to run tests and allow contacts to receive your WhatsApp messages. 

Click Activate the automation at the top-right of your screen.

Congratulations! 🎉 Now, every time a contact enters your automation, they will receive your WhatsApp message without any manual action from your side. Enjoy your free time!

❓FAQs

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