Click-to-WhatsApp Ads: How to Create Them and What They Cost

Click-to-WhatsApp ads are Facebook and Instagram ads with a “Send message” button that opens a WhatsApp chat with your business. Instead of filling in a form, the customer starts a conversation, and your team, chatbot or AI can answer straight away.

You pay Meta for the ad; the WhatsApp messages that follow are free for a while. Since 1 October 2026 Meta’s pricing documentation says this free entry point window can stay open for up to 7 days after you reply. This guide shows how to create the ads, what they cost, how the free window works, and how to measure the chats they bring.

What a Click-to-WhatsApp ad is

A Click-to-WhatsApp ad looks like any Facebook or Instagram ad, with an image, video or carousel and a short text, but its button opens WhatsApp with a pre-filled message to your business. The customer taps send, and the chat appears in your WhatsApp inbox, often with the ad they came from.

• Good for: high-consideration purchases where people have questions (property, cars, courses, clinics, B2B), local services, and products that sell better with a conversation.
• Less suited to: impulse buys where a checkout page converts faster.
• You need: a Facebook Page linked to your WhatsApp Business number, an ad account, and someone (or something) ready to reply fast.

How to create one in Meta Ads Manager

From WhatsApp’s own guide:

1. In Ads Manager, click Create and choose an objective that supports messaging, such as Engagement, Leads or Sales.
2. Under conversion location, choose Messaging apps and then WhatsApp, and select your number.
3. Set your audience, budget and schedule. Meta recommends running for at least 7 days so delivery can settle.
4. Add your creative: image, video or carousel, primary text and headline.
5. Set the message template: the text pre-filled for the customer, a greeting, and optional ice-breaker questions.
6. Publish. Meta reviews the ad before it runs.

Developers can create the same ads through the Marketing API, with destination_type: WHATSAPP on the ad set.

Creating Click-to-WhatsApp ads with AI in Automate AI

Automate AI can create and publish these ads for you under Campaigns → Meta Ads:

1. Connect your Meta ad account with Continue with Facebook (or type the ad account and Page IDs). You can pick an ad account from any Meta Business you can use, including an agency’s.
2. Describe your offer in one line, for example “Diwali sale: 20% off silk sarees, free delivery in Jaipur”. AI writes the headline, main text, audience and the greeting customers see when the chat opens.
3. Add a square photo, set the cities, age and gender, a daily budget and how long it runs, and check the preview.
4. Publish, then watch each ad’s status in Meta’s review, the money spent, chats started and new contacts, and pause it any time.

Chats from the ad land in the shared inbox as new contacts, where a chatbot or the AI Assistant can reply in seconds. More on the feature: Click-to-WhatsApp Ads.

The free entry point window

This is what makes these ads cheaper to follow up than other leads. According to Meta’s pricing documentation (updated for 1 October 2026):

• The customer must message you from the ad on the WhatsApp Android or iOS app; chats started on WhatsApp Web or desktop don’t qualify.
• If you reply within the 24-hour customer service window, that reply is free and opens a free entry point window that can stay open for up to 7 days.
• Inside it, marketing, utility, authentication and service messages are all free, including templates. Messages from Meta Business Agent (Meta’s AI) are still charged.
• The window is per business and person, and these messages don’t count towards volume tiers.

What Click-to-WhatsApp ads cost

Meta doesn’t publish a cost per chat; it depends on your audience, creative and competition. Track cost per chat started and cost per sale in your first week and adjust.

Ad examples that start good conversations

Sample text with example businesses. Ask one simple question in the greeting so people reply, and keep health and financial details out of the chat.

Measure what matters

• Chats started and cost per chat: is the ad bringing conversations?
• Reply time: answer within minutes; a slow first reply wastes the ad spend.
• Qualified leads and sales: tag or score each chat; AI Sales Center scores leads from 0 to 100 from the conversation.
• Send results back to Meta: the Conversions API for business messaging reports leads and purchases from these chats so Meta can find more people like your buyers. Automate AI sends Lead, Purchase and status events for chats that started from an ad.

For other ways to get WhatsApp leads, read our WhatsApp lead generation guide.