Ads From the WhatsApp Business App: Cost and Setup

Ads from the WhatsApp Business app have no fixed price: you choose a daily budget, how many days the ad runs and who sees it, and Meta charges your payment method for what the ad spends. The ad runs on Facebook, and on Instagram too if your Facebook Page is linked, and its button opens a WhatsApp chat with your business.

This guide covers what you actually pay, how to create the ad on Android and iPhone (with or without a Facebook account), how payment works, and what to check when an ad stops or won’t go live. For ads built in Meta Ads Manager, see our Click-to-WhatsApp ads guide.

What an ad from the WhatsApp Business app is

The WhatsApp Business app lets you build a Facebook or Instagram ad without leaving the app. You pick a photo, video, catalogue item or Status, write a short description, and set the budget, duration and audience. When someone taps the ad, a WhatsApp chat with your business opens.

• Where it runs: on Facebook. WhatsApp’s Help Center says that if your Facebook Page isn’t linked to your WhatsApp Business account, the ad runs on Facebook only; link the Page and it can run on Facebook and Instagram.
• What it can’t do from the app: ads in WhatsApp Status and Channels are created only in Meta Ads Manager.
• What Meta sees: your business profile name is shared with Meta to appear in the ad, and your profile photo too if its privacy setting is Everyone.

What WhatsApp Business ads cost

The cost is the budget you choose. Meta’s ads pricing page doesn’t give a price per ad: it says cost depends on things like ad quality, your bidding strategy, your goal, the budget type and the objective. What Meta does say about budgets:

• A daily budget is an average. On some days Meta may spend up to 75% more than your daily budget, but over the week it won’t spend more than seven times your daily budget.
• A starting point, not a minimum. Meta’s pricing page recommends starting with a budget of at least $5 and running the ad for more than six days, and setting a budget that lasts at least seven days so Meta can learn from how the ad performs.
• You can stop at any time. Meta says you can pause or cancel an ad whenever you like.
• Your currency is your ad account’s. On your first ad without Facebook you choose your country or region, currency and time zone, and the payment methods you’re offered depend on that country and currency.

A worked example (made-up numbers)

Say you set a daily budget of $10 and a duration of 7 days. On a busy day Meta might spend up to $17.50, and on a quiet day less, but across the week it won’t go over $70 (seven times $10). If you also set an account spending limit of $50, the ad stops when total spend reaches $50, even if days remain.

How to create an ad on Android

WhatsApp’s Help Center gives two ways to start. Ads must follow Meta’s advertising policies and WhatsApp’s business policies, and catalogue items must be approved before you can advertise them.

Without a Facebook account

1. Tap ⋮ › Advertise › Get started, or Tools › Advertise.
2. Choose photos from your phone, catalogue items or Status updates, then tap Next.
3. Write the ad description and tap Next.
4. Set the daily budget, duration and audience, then tap Next.
5. Review the ad, tap Create ad, and accept Facebook’s non-discrimination policy.
6. For your first ad, enter your email address and tap Send code, then type the six-digit code from the email.
7. Choose your country or region, currency and time zone, add a payment method, enter your business information, and tap Create ad.

With a Facebook account

1. Tap ⋮ › Advertise on Facebook › Get started, or Tools › Advertise.
2. Choose your media (you may need to let the Facebook app access your gallery) and tap Next.
3. Tap Log in to Facebook, or Continue with Facebook if you’re already logged in.
4. Set the budget, duration and audience, choose a payment method from your Facebook account, review and tap Create ad.

After your first ad, the steps are shorter because your payment method is saved.

How to create an ad on iPhone

On iPhone the start is Settings › Advertise › Get started. The flow is close to Android’s:

1. Choose a photo, catalogue item or Status, allow photo access, and tap Continue.
2. If Facebook asks you to continue and you don’t want to use it, tap Skip. Otherwise log in, or tap Log in with Facebook in the payment section.
3. Accept Facebook’s non-discrimination policy, write the description, and set the daily budget, duration and audience.
4. Without Facebook: tap Add payment method, verify your email with the six-digit code, choose your country, currency and time zone, add business and payment details, and tap Create ad.

If the Facebook options don’t appear, WhatsApp says to check that the Facebook app is installed.

How to pay for WhatsApp Business ads

Payment settings are under Tools › Advertise › ⋮ › Ad account settings › Ad payments. Payments are powered by Meta Pay.

Managing your ads and reading the results

• See your ads in Tools › Manage ads.
• Pause a running ad from the ⋮ menu with Pause ad, and resume it later. Delete ad removes it for good, but only for ads that are in review, not delivering or rejected: a running ad can’t be deleted, so pause it instead.
• Results: tap an ad to see its reach, how much you spent, how many conversations it started and the cost per conversion.
• Run it again: you can’t schedule ads or make them repeat. To rerun a finished ad, tap ⋮ › Recreate ad.
• Drafts: an unfinished ad is kept as a draft, but only one at a time, and drafts are deleted after 7 days.

Ads made outside the WhatsApp Business app, for example in Ads Manager, can’t be paused, edited or deleted in WhatsApp: manage them from a Facebook account that has access to the ad. If the app asks you to switch accounts, the ad isn’t connected to the account you’re using in WhatsApp.

Count the chats that turn into sales too, not just conversations started. Our guide to tracking which ads bring WhatsApp customers shows how.

WhatsApp Business ads not delivering or “something went wrong”

WhatsApp’s Help Center doesn’t explain a specific “something went wrong” message, but it does list what stops an ad being created or delivered. Work through these:

The app’s Alerts Center (the bell icon in Tools) gathers alerts about rejected ads, payment problems, spending limits and campaign status in one place. WhatsApp says it’s rolling out gradually, so you may not see it yet. For refunds, use Get payment support in Ad payments; for anything else, see how to contact WhatsApp Business support.

When to move beyond ads from the app

Ads from the app are fine for a single phone answering a few chats. They get harder when the ad works: every chat lands on one phone, and someone has to reply to each one fast. That’s where a WhatsApp Business API platform helps.

In Automate AI, account owners and managers can create Click-to-WhatsApp ads under Campaigns › Meta Ads on every plan:

• Connect your own Meta ad account and Page. Meta bills the ad spend to that account, and nothing is spent until you publish.
• Describe your offer in a line. AI drafts the headline, text, audience and the greeting customers see when the chat opens, and you check it, add a photo, set a daily budget and an end date, and publish.
• See spend, chats started, cost per chat and new contacts for every ad in the account, including ones made in Ads Manager, and pause any time.
• Each chat arrives in the shared team inbox as a new contact, ready for your team, a chatbot or the AI Assistant.

More on the feature at Click-to-WhatsApp ads in Automate AI. Want to keep using the Business app on the same number as well? Read about coexistence.