A click-to-WhatsApp ad, often called a click-to-chat ad, is a Facebook or Instagram ad whose button opens a WhatsApp chat with your business instead of a landing page. For an online store that changes the job after the click: the shopper has a question, and the sale depends on how fast and how well you answer it. This how-to is part of the WACRM guides and covers the ad, the cost, the tracking and the first reply. To see how the inbox, AI and order messages fit together for a seller, start from WACRM for online shops.
What is a click-to-WhatsApp ad for an online store?
It is an ad with one goal: start a conversation. You create it in Meta Ads Manager (Meta’s Business Help Center walks through the setup), choose WhatsApp as the place the ad sends people, and pick the number that should receive the chats. When a shopper taps the button, WhatsApp opens with your business and, if you set one, a message ready to send, such as “Hi, is the linen shirt still available?”.
For a shop, the ad replaces a product page with a person, or with an agent that answers like one. That suits products where buyers ask before they pay: sizes and fit in fashion, shades in cosmetics, compatibility in electronics, delivery dates for furniture, or “can I order a cake for Saturday” at a bakery that sells online.
1 · Ad
”Linen shirts, new colours.” Button: Send message.
2 · Chat opens
Prefilled: “Hi, is the linen shirt LS-01 in M?“
3 · AI draft
Price and stock from your catalog, plus sizes still in stock.
4 · Next step
Teammate approves; shopper gets the checkout link.
What does a chat from an ad cost?
Two bills apply: the ad, which Meta Ads charges like any other ad, and the WhatsApp messages, which often cost nothing for a week if you reply in time.
The free entry point window
Per Meta’s pricing page (checked 13 November 2026), when someone messages you from an ad that clicks to WhatsApp, using the Android or iOS app, and you reply inside the 24-hour customer-service window, that reply is not charged and opens a free entry point window. The window can stay open for up to 7 days from the moment you replied. While it is open, Meta does not charge for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages.
The practical rule is simple: the first reply must leave inside 24 hours. Miss it, and the chat is billed like any other conversation that started with the customer.
What stays charged
| Situation | WhatsApp message charge |
|---|---|
| Shopper writes from the ad, you reply within 24 hours | Reply free; free entry point window opens for up to 7 days |
| Marketing, utility, authentication or service message inside that window | Not charged |
| Meta Business Agent message inside that window | Charged |
| Shopper writes without an ad, you reply inside 24 hours | Service message: first 1,000 per number per month free, then charged |
| Template sent after the window has closed | Charged by template category and country |
Source: Meta for Developers, Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform, checked 13 November 2026. The service tier (1,000 free service messages per business phone number per month) applies from 1 October 2026. Per-country template rates are in the message pricing guide.
How do you set up the ad so the chat starts well?
Decide what the chat is for before you write the ad. An ad that says “Message us” gets “hi” and nothing else; an ad that names one product and one promise gets a question you can answer.
Pick the product and the promise
- One product or one collection per ad. The shopper’s question then has an obvious subject.
- A promise the chat can keep. “Ask us for your size”, “Check today’s stock”, “Get a delivery date” all invite a question your team or the AI agent can answer from real data.
- Stock that will last the campaign. An ad for an item that sells out tomorrow fills the inbox with “sorry, gone” replies.
Write the welcome and the prefilled message
Meta lets a click-to-WhatsApp ad carry a welcome message sequence: a greeting text, a prefilled message the shopper can send as is, and quick-reply ice breakers.
Use them as a checklist:
- Greeting: who you are and what happens next. “Hi from Linen & Co. Ask about sizes, stock or delivery here.”
- Prefilled message: the question you want, with the product’s SKU as a short code. “Hi, is LS-01 available in my size?” The shopper can edit it, but most send it, and the code tells you which product, and which ad, they saw.
- Ice breakers: two or three real starters, such as “Check my size”, “Delivery time”, “Talk to a person”.
- Hours: if a person answers, say when. A shopper who knows a reply comes at 9 am waits; one who sees silence leaves.
If you also share your number off-ads, on a flyer or a parcel insert, the free link and QR generator makes a wa.me link with the same kind of prefilled text.
How do you know which ad started a chat?
From the message itself. On the WhatsApp Business Platform, the first message a shopper sends from an ad reaches your
webhook with a referral object, described in Meta’s
text messages webhook reference
(checked 13 November 2026).
The referral object
| Field | What it holds | Use for a shop |
|---|---|---|
source_id | The ad ID | Match the chat to a campaign in Ads Manager |
source_type | ad | Confirm the chat started from an ad |
source_url | The ad URL | Open the ad the shopper saw |
headline, body | The ad’s headline and primary text | Know which product or offer was promised |
media_type, image_url or video_url | The ad’s image or video | See the creative without leaving the chat |
ctwa_clid | The click ID | Tie the chat to that ad click; left out for ads in WhatsApp Status |
welcome_message | The ad’s greeting text | Know what the shopper already read |
Source: Meta for Developers, text messages webhook reference, checked 13 November 2026.
Keeping the source in WACRM
The WACRM API accepts that referral object when a deal is created: a referral with an ad ID or
a click ID sets the deal’s source to ctwa and stores the ad ID and the ctwa_clid with it, and the deal drawer in
WACRM Workspace shows the source read-only. A developer can pass the referral from your
webhook when an ad chat becomes a deal, so the pipeline shows which campaign brought each
sale.
Without a developer, two habits cover most of it:
- A product code per ad in the prefilled message, as above. The code is in the first line of the chat for anyone, and for the AI agent.
- A label per campaign on the contact, such as
ad-summer-linen. Labels and notes stay on the contact, so later orders and follow-ups keep the campaign name.
What should the first reply say?
It should answer the exact question, with real facts, and give one next step. Speed matters too: the free entry point window only opens if you reply inside 24 hours, and a shopper who tapped an ad is most interested in the first minutes.
Answer from the catalog
A chat from an ad lands in the same WACRM Inbox as every other chat, so the
AI agent treats it the same way. It matches the product name or SKU in the
message against the products in your workspace, including their variants, and drafts an answer with the stored price
and stock. Those products come from your store: WooCommerce exposes sku, regular_price and stock_quantity through
its REST API, and Shopify keeps each size or colour as its
own variant with its own price and SKU. If the draft names a price that is not in your catalog, WACRM replaces it with a safe line that says a
teammate will confirm. By default a teammate approves each reply in one tap; product answers drafted from the catalog
are always proposed, never sent on their own.
1 · Event
First message from the ad, with its product code.
2 · Checks
AI paused? Asked for a person?
3 · Draft
Answer from the catalog; prices checked.
4 · Result
Approved and sent within 24 hours, or handed to your team.
A good first reply for the linen shirt reads like this: “Yes, LS-01 is in stock in M, and S and L are in stock too. Here is the link to order. Want me to check delivery to your area?” One answer, one link, one optional question.
Hand over when a person is better
Some ad chats need judgement: a bulk order, a custom size, a complaint about an earlier parcel. The agent hands the chat to your team when the shopper asks for a person, with a private note and its unsent draft, so nobody has to read the thread from the top. Staff can also take over at any moment by replying.
Note
Keep the promise of the ad. If the ad said “Ask us for your size”, the first reply answers the size question before anything else. Upsells, discount codes and newsletter offers can wait for the second message, or never.
What happens after the first day?
The free entry point window gives you up to a week to finish the sale without a per-message charge, but it does not make every message welcome. Use it for the conversation the shopper started:
- Confirm the order once they buy. Order automation sends the confirmation from an approved template in the same chat.
- Answer the follow-up questions: delivery, returns, payment on delivery.
- Ask for opt-in before marketing. Meta’s opt-in rules ask that the person clearly agrees to receive later messages from your named business. A question from an ad is not that agreement, so ask in the chat and record the answer on the contact before adding them to broadcasts.
- Review the campaign weekly. Read the chats per label or product code: which questions came up, which ones the agent handed over, and which product details were missing.
The marketing teams solution shows how campaign follow-ups and broadcasts fit together once a shopper has opted in.
Do you need the WhatsApp Business Platform for these ads?
For a shop that wants ad data and a team on the chats, yes. The webhook referral object and the free entry point
pricing are documented for the WhatsApp Business Platform, and the WACRM shared inbox and AI agent run on it as well.
WACRM runs your number on the platform and keeps it in the phone app too, with coexistence on the plans that include it. Your store connects through WooCommerce or Shopify, so the products the agent quotes in an ad chat are the ones you sell, at the price and stock your store holds.
Run ads that open a chat with your shop
A click-to-WhatsApp ad pays off when the chat it opens gets a fast, correct answer and a clear next step. See how WACRM for online shops puts the inbox, the AI agent and order messages on your number, or let our team connect your store and your first order templates with Setup Commerce.
