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WhatsApp and messaging

Setting up WhatsApp Business, templates, and how conversations thread onto leads.

3 min readUpdated 30 July 2026
Lead capture
Six intake paths, one lead record
Meta Lead Ads
Campaign, adset, ad and form attached to the lead
Google Ads
GCLID captured at the form for offline conversions
WhatsApp
An inbound message becomes a lead and a thread
Website forms
Public capture endpoint, no login, spam-guarded
IVR & calls
A call to a virtual number creates or matches a lead
CSV & REST API
Bulk migration and anything else you already run
Whichever path a lead arrives on, deduplication runs before assignment — so two agents never call the same person.

Connecting WhatsApp

Settings → Channels → Add channel → WhatsApp.

You will need a WhatsApp Business API account and its credentials. If you do not have one, support can walk you through getting one — it takes a few days because Meta verifies your business.

Once connected, set the webhook URL shown on the channel page in your provider's dashboard. That is what delivers inbound replies.

Templates

WhatsApp requires pre-approved templates to start a conversation. Settings → Message Templates.

Create a template, submit it for approval, and its status updates here as Meta reviews it. Approval usually takes a few hours.

Hi {{1}}, thanks for your interest in {{2}}.
I am {{3}} from Acme Health — when would be a good time for a quick call?

Variables are filled from the lead when the message is sent.

Note
You can only *start* a conversation with an approved template. Once the customer replies, you have a 24-hour window in which you can send free-form messages. After that window closes you need a template again. This is Meta's rule, not ours.

Sending

From any lead, press WhatsApp. Pick a template or write freely if the 24-hour window is open.

Every message appears on the lead's timeline alongside calls and notes, so whoever picks the lead up next sees the whole conversation rather than just their own part of it.

Receipts

Delivery and read receipts flow back automatically and are shown on each message. In reports:

  • Delivery rate — delivered ÷ sent. A drop here is a provider or template problem, not an audience problem.
  • Read rate — read ÷ delivered.
  • Reply rate — replies ÷ delivered. The only messaging metric that measures interest rather than plumbing.

Inbound messages

Replies arrive in Inbox and are routed to the lead's owner. If the sender does not match an existing lead, one is created — so a customer messaging your business number never falls through.

Opt-outs

A contact who asks to stop is added to the suppression list and no further messages are sent to them, from any campaign or any user.

This is enforced at send time, not at campaign-build time, so someone who opts out mid-campaign stops receiving messages immediately.

Bulk campaigns

Campaigns in the settings workspace. Build an audience with a segment, pick a template, schedule it.

Before sending, the campaign shows you the audience size, how many are suppressed, and how many are duplicates. Check it — a segment that accidentally matches everyone is easier to catch here than after ten thousand messages have gone.

Cost

Where the provider reports it, per-message cost is recorded and rolls up into Analytics → Messaging as messaging spend. Worth watching — WhatsApp conversation pricing is per-conversation, not per-message, and the difference surprises people.

Something unclear or missing? Tell us and we will fix the page — send us a note.

WhatsApp and messaging — Documentation — atomcrm.ai