RPC stands for “Revenue per Conversation” and reflects the revenue generated by a WhatsApp conversation. Ultimately it shows how profitable WhatsApp is as a channel.

WhatsApp conversations can be the marketing newsletter campaigns sent by a brand to their subscribers - however, this concept and logic can be equally applied to all marketing automation flows that are supposed to generate revenue, e.g. welcome flows for new subscribers, post purchase flows, or abandoned cart flows.

Revenue per Conversation is calculated by “Revenue generated by WhatsApp” divided by the “Number of WhatsApp conversations” - and is then typically analyzed for each single campaign or flow of a client.’

Damian Minski, VP of Customer Success @charles

Typically, this is done using an attribution model. Various attribution models are available, and there are also different tools and methods for presenting the information.

Clients can also create unique discount codes for each campaign and link those with these campaigns. Thanks to webhooks and the Shopify, Shopware or WooCommerce integrations we offer, we can read out the corresponding orders and sales revenues and attribute it to the campaign.

By adding UTM parameters into the URL link of a campaign, Google Analytics recognizes the source of website traffic and saves e.g. the orders and the revenue generated via the orders that came from the sessions that started with a click on the campaign button - this is a so-called last-click-attribution. Unfortunately users for instance have to accept cookies to be traceable and that’s just one reason why last-click attribution via GA does not reflect the total number of orders and sales. We typically do see at least 30-50% less sales than actually happened.

We recently launched our own attribution that natively defines and display generated/attributed revenue for each campaign and flow in charles.

We consider RPC to be one of the most relevant KPIs when using charles for marketing and sales.

It helps brands to assess the financial return of their investment into charles, or the WhatsApp channel overall.

However, companies don't work directly with Meta, but with a few official WhatsApp business solution providers, like charles.

WhatsApp conversations generate costs for a brand and this cost can be regarded as marketing costs that could also be invested into other channels, instead of WhatsApp.
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The RPC reflects the average absolute financial return of opening a WhatsApp conversation - and brands typically need to decide on their marketing mix and different spend levels across channels - and they often make the decision based on comparison of the different returns of 1 Euro invested into the respective channel.
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The actual costs of a single WhatsApp conversation will depend on the selected package and the country in which a brand is active - for simplicity reasons we often calculate with ~€0.20 per conversation for clients in Germany. Also because this reflects/covers all the costs that occur.

a) current marketing costs of other available channels to generate additional revenue, and

b) the margin structure and average profitability (of a brand or a specific product that is being marketed)

If a brand or product does not have strong unit economics and the cost of marketing shall not exceed 10%, the brand (assuming average cost of 0.20€ per conversation) requires an average RPC of 2.00€, so that the Marketing ROI is 10x, and cost of marketing equal 10%

If a brand has stronger unit economics and can allow themselves to spend 20% on marketing, it requires an RPC of 1.00€, and a Marketing ROI of 5x

Should the brand be willing and able to spend 40% on marketing, the needed RPC is 0.50€ and the resulting Marketing ROI is 2.5x

While the costs per conversation charged by charles or other Business Service Providers may vary slightly, there are always costs that need to be paid to Meta. These costs, especially for larger customers and messaging volumes, account for over 50% of their total invoice or costs.

➡️ Therefore, considering the fixed nature of these costs, the main priority for a brand should be on how to maximize the return, specifically the revenue per conversation.

‘Do you think WhatsApp marketing could replace email? Or maybe you're worried WhatsApp is going to cannibalize your email marketing... No worries.’

Grace Hemberg, Product Marketing @charles

Why? Email is best for long-form content, regular newsletters and general promotions.

WhatsApp is the better channel for pre-access, exclusive offers and engaging content.