Introduction
Over the recent years, Meta has introduced a lot of changes and new guidelines to how Marketing templates work, including but not limited to template pacing, template pausing, editing and quality ratings. All these changes had implications for us as a solution provider but also for you, as a customer.
This guide aims to explain in detail, how you can create WhatsApp campaigns that 1) maximize the number of relevant recipients, 2) that are more likely not to be reported or paused and therefore 3) maximize the revenue you can generate on WhatsApp.
For a detailed explanation on how template pacing and pausing works, please read Meta's dedicated guide on their template guidelines
How to avoid paused templates
A marketing template is paused whenever a certain amount of recipients report or block your business after receiving the message. In charles, a campaign is automatically paused as soon as the template gets paused.
When a customer receives a message from your business for the very first time, they are shown two buttons to either block or report your business (see screenshot below). Tapping on one of these buttons negatively affects the quality of the template and therefore the quality of the campaign which can cause the campaign to be paused.
Unfortunately, Meta neither discloses how many people have to do this in order to trigger pausing, nor do they disclose the timeframe in which it is analyzed.
Adding an opt-out button
Traditionally, business use the template footer to explain to customers how to opt out of marketing messages. This usually entails typing a specific word, e.g. "Stop" which then triggers the opt out automation. Since typing a word is more effort for the customer than simply tapping a button, Meta recommends to add an opt-out quick reply button to each marketing template to offer your customers the same level of friction (simply tapping a button) to unsubscribe, rather than having to type "Stop". Additionally, you minimize the chances that a customer mistypes a word by accident.
When creating a campaign in charles, every regular campaign template contains such an opt-out quick reply button by default. Of course, you are free to remove it from the template, however we highly recommend to keep it in there.
In carousel templates, each card can have a CTA and a quick reply button, so we highly recommend to add this button here as well.
To complete the template setup, type in the word you want to use as the trigger for your opt-out flow.
In carousel templates, you can use the same combination of a CTA and a QRB. To avoid carousel templates being paused, we recommend to add the Stop button here as well.
Creating an opt-out flow
Now that your template contains an opt-out button with a trigger keyword, you just need to create an opt-out flow that is triggered with the keyword you just defined, e.g. "Stop". To create such a flow, head over to Journeys, create a new flow and give a descriptive name.
Next, add a message node and type in a question that asks the customer if they are sure that they want to subscribe. This is to avoid missing subscribers that accidentally tap on the opt-out button.
Finally, add a "Manage Subscriber" node and configure it the way you want. If you want to unsubscribe your customer from all WhatsApp communications, select "Unsubscribe from all".
See here an example of an opt-out flow that includes a step that asks your customers why they chose to unsubscribe which can be valuable info to optimize your flows.
