Create a WhatsApp Campaign

WhatsApp campaigns allows you to send marketing, utility, and authentication messages directly to your contacts' mobile devices via WhatsApp using message templates, making it easy to reach customers quickly and effectively. This topic describes how to create a message campaign for a WhatsApp channel.

Requirements

  • Firmware: Version 84.20.0.21 or later

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that the following resources are ready for a message campaign:

Item Description
Message Channel Set up a WhatsApp Channel with your WhatsApp Business Account.
Note: Ensure your account’s messaging limit can support your planned bulk messaging volume.
Message Template
  • Create message templates for your WhatsApp Business Account in advance, as message templates must be approved by WhatsApp before use.
    Note: Variable names in the template support only lowercase letters and numbers. Do not use underscores or special characters, as this may affect usage.
  • Refresh the template list in PBX to ensure all approved templates from your WhatsApp account are synchronized to PBX and available for your campaign. For more information, see View WhatsApp Message Templates.
Contact List Prepare a list of contacts with phone numbers for the campaign.
Note: Each campaign supports up to 1,000 contacts.
You can associate a contact list with a campaign using one of the following methods:
  • Manually add contact numbers.
  • Import a CSV file containing contacts' phone numbers.
    Note: To use this method, ensure your file meets the following requirements:
    • Format: UTF-8 .CSV
    • Size: Less than 50 MB
    • File name: Less than 127 characters
    • Import parameters: Use a Number field to provide phone numbers in E.164 format (e.g. +1xxxxxxxxxx), as shown in the figure below.

  • Directly use the existing contacts stored in a PBX phonebook.
    Note: To use this method, ensure that the contact's phone number are stored in E.164 format, as shown in the figure below.
Message Routing Target Optional. If you want the message campaign to automatically create sessions, configure the desired routing target (either an extension or a message queue) in advance.

Procedure

  1. Log in to PBX web portal, go to Messaging > Message Campaign, then click Add.
  2. In the Basic section, complete the following settings.
    • Name: Enter a name for the campaign to help you identify it.
    • Message Channel: Select the desired WhatsApp channel.
    • Sender: Select the associated WhatsApp phone number for message sending.
    • Recipient: Specify recipients using one of the following methods.
      Method Instruction
      Manual entry

      Manually add contact numbers in E.164 format (e.g., +1xxxxxxxxxx).

      1. Select Input & Import.
      2. Click Add to manually add phone numbers.
      Import from CSV file

      Import a CSV file containing the contacts’ phone numbers.

      1. Select Input & Import.
      2. Click Import.
      3. In the pop-up window, click Browse to select the desired file.
      4. Click Import.
      Use existing PBX phonebook

      Directly use existing contacts stored in your PBX phonebook.

      1. Select Phonebooks.
      2. In the Phonebooks drop-down list, select the existing phonebook.
      3. In the Number Type drop-down list, select the number type.

        The system will retrieve phone numbers from the specified number types.
  3. In the Message Content section, configure the message template to be sent.
    1. Click WhatsApp Message Template, then search and select the desired message template.

    2. If the template includes media or variable placeholders, upload the required media files and fill in specific values for all variables.

      Note:
      • You can preview the final message contents on the right panel.
      • For location information, you can simply paste the Google Maps URL, the system will auto-fill the name and coordinates based on the URL. However, you need to manually enter the detailed address for the {{Address}} variable.

  4. In the Sending Rules section, configure the message send time and the mode.
    1. In the Send Time section, specify when to send the message.
      Option Description
      Send Now The campaign will be sent immediately after saving.
      Schedule Sending The campaign will be sent at a specified date and time.
      Do NOT Send, Save as Draft The campaign will be saved as a draft. You can edit or send it later.
    2. In the Send Mode section, set whether to create sessions accordingly.
      Option Description
      Create session and send message The system automatically create a session for each contact number when sending the campaign messages, and the sessions will be assigned to a selected target.
      Note: If an active session already exists for a contact number, the campaign message will be sent to the existing session instead of creating and assigning a new session to the specified target.
      You can specify one of the following destinations as the target.
      • An extension: The selected extension handles the message sessions.
      • A message queue: The agent in the selected message queue picks up and handles the message sessions.
      • A message flow: The message sessions are automatically routed to the selected message flow.
        Note: Make sure that you have set up a message flow applicable to the specified Message Channel
      • Third-Party Message Analytics Platform (Transmitted via API): The message sessions are automatically forwarded to a third-party message analytics platform via API for advanced processing.
        Note: To enable automatic forwarding of inbound messages to a third-party message analytics platform, ensure that your PBX server has been integrated with the third-party message analytics platform via API. Once this option is selected, the PBX system will automatically transmit inbound messages to the designated platform. You can get notified by monitoring the API event (30031) New Message Notification. Additionally, the PBX provides a comprehensive Message API suite for advanced message interaction with the integrated third-party message analytics platforms.
      Send messages directly without creating session

      No session will be created when sending a message.

      The message sent log will be displayed in SMS/WhatsApp Sent Logs (Path: Reports and Recording > External Chat Logs > SMS/WhatsApp Sent Logs).
  5. Click Save.

Result

  • A campaign is created successfully and displayed in the campaign list.
    • If you choose to send messages immediately, the campaign status will display as Executing, and messages will be sent to the specified phone numbers right away.

    • If you scheduled the campaign, the campaign status will display as Scheduled, and messages will be sent automatically at the specified time.

  • When a campaign is marked as Completed, you can check its results from the campaign list.
    Note:
    • If there are any failed messages, you can click to retry sending.
    • To create a similar campaign, click to duplicate the campaign.
    • For a quick overview, check the Result and Response Rate columns.

    • To see detailed sending information, click .