Running a WhatsApp broadcast campaign without hurting your quality rating

Updated 2026-10-14 · 5 min read · By the Convo360 team

Prerequisites: quality rating and opt-in

WhatsApp itself, not Convo360, tracks a quality rating for your business number based on how many recipients block you or report your messages. A damaged rating gets your templates paced or paused, which can stop a campaign from going out at all; it affects every future campaign, not just the one that caused it. The single biggest protection is simple: only broadcast to contacts who opted in, and keep the message relevant to why they opted in.

A second, less obvious factor: response rate matters almost as much as complaint rate. A broadcast nobody engages with at all can also signal low relevance to WhatsApp's systems over time, which is one more reason a smaller, genuinely interested audience usually outperforms a larger, indifferent one.

The exact click path

1. Build a contact group: import a CSV or filter your CRM to the right audience.
2. In WhatsApp Studio → Templates, pick an approved template (required for outbound messages outside the 24-hour window).
3. Personalise it with variables like {{First Name}}, each mapped to a contact field or a fixed value.
4. Check the live preview: a WhatsApp-style bubble shows exactly how the message reads with variables filled in.
5. Send now, or schedule, and watch delivery update live per number.

Worked example: a festival offer to a VIP group

A jewellery store wants to send a Diwali offer only to customers who've bought before and opted into marketing messages. They filter the CRM to a 'Diwali VIP' group, pick an approved 'festival_offer' template with an image header (uploaded directly in the broadcast, no need to host it elsewhere), personalise it with {{First Name}} and a discount code, check the preview reads naturally, and send to a 50-contact test group first before the full 2,000-contact list.

That test-group step caught something real for this store the first time: the discount code variable was pulling last year's code from a stale custom field, which would have embarrassed them in front of two thousand VIP customers had it gone straight to the full list.

Throttling, retry and replies

If some numbers fail, for example an uninstalled app or an invalid number, open the campaign report and click Retry to re-send only to those. Use Export CSV to download every recipient with its delivery status for your records. Any reply you get back reopens that contact's 24-hour free-form window and lands straight in your Live Chat inbox.

This is a good moment to have a flow ready rather than an empty inbox waiting, a reply to a festival offer often carries real buying intent, and an AI Reply or a Buttons step that can immediately answer a follow-up question captures interest that would otherwise sit unattended in Live Chat for hours.

Choosing the right template category

WhatsApp templates come in categories: Utility, Marketing and Authentication, and the category affects both approval odds and, in most cases, the per-message fee. A festival offer is genuinely a Marketing message and should be submitted as one rather than disguised as a Utility template to save cost; Meta reviews the actual content, not just the label, and a mismatched category risks rejection or a damaged quality rating rather than a smaller bill.

Reserve Utility templates for what they are meant for, such as order updates, appointment reminders and account alerts, and use Marketing templates honestly for offers and promotions.

Troubleshooting

What to test before going live, and cost

• Send to a small test group (yourself and a couple of colleagues) first.
• Check the live preview renders every variable correctly, with no literal {{...}} left showing.
• Confirm the image header displays properly on both Android and iPhone.
• Honour any STOP replies immediately, since they add the contact to DND automatically.

Meta bills its own per-message fees directly at its rates for a broadcast, with no Convo360 markup; your Convo360 plan fee (Starter and above) covers the broadcast tooling itself.

Track quality rating alongside delivery and reply rate after every campaign, a slow decline over several campaigns is easier to reverse than a rating that has already dropped sharply from one badly targeted send.

A short monthly review of these numbers is usually enough to catch a problem early.

Two minutes with the analytics view each month is normally all it takes.

It is time well spent.

One date to note: from 13 October 2027 Meta delivers marketing broadcasts only through its Marketing Messages API, and your business must accept its terms once. Read what to do before the 2027 change.

Step by step

1. Build the target contact groupImport a CSV or filter your CRM to opted-in, relevant contacts.
2. Pick an approved templateChoose a Meta-approved template in WhatsApp Studio for outbound messages outside the 24-hour window.
3. Personalise with variablesMap fields like {{First Name}} and check the live preview before sending.
4. Send to a small test group firstConfirm delivery and rendering before broadcasting to the full list.
5. Monitor delivery and retry failuresUse the campaign report to Retry failed numbers and Export CSV for records.

Example conversation

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

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