WhatsApp Business Messaging Pricing Explained
WhatsApp Business Messaging Pricing Explained
Businesses that use WhatsApp for customer service and sales are dealing with a new pricing model. As Facebook, the owner of WhatsApp, has changed its monetisation plans, businesses are now responsible for paying for their own messages.
WhatsApp is switching from notification-based to conversation-based pricing. This means that every business that does messaging at scale on WhatsApp will be impacted by this major shift. Businesses won’t be charged based on how many messages are sent, but rather, per conversation with a customer.
WhatsApp Business Pricing Explained
The pricing for chats on WhatsApp has changed to reflect this new regulation from February 1st, 2022.
You can classify WhatsApp Business API conversations as two types, either User-initiated or Business-initiated.
· User-initiated – A conversation that is initiated in response to a message from a customer. When a business responds to their customer within the 24-hour customer service window, that message will associate with an initiator-initiated conversation. Businesses can send messages with no restrictions or limitations on the length of the text.
· Business-initiated – If you want to send a message to users out of working hours, you’ll need a message template. (This applies only to messages initiated by the business)
The message is very clear, WhatsApp shouldn’t be used like SMS or email which often send one-way bulk blasts to subscribers. The real magic of WhatsApp is being able to have meaningful and personal conversations at scale, these two-way conversations will allow businesses to gather data on preferences and intents in real-time.
Pricing Per Country
Conversations on WhatsApp are measured in 24-hour sessions. Businesses can send messages to users at any time, but the 24-hour interval window starts when a message is received by the user. Brands and consumers can exchange any number of messages within the 24-hour window. It will only charge per chat session.
The rates that WhatsApp charge depend on your country code.
The first 1,000 conversations on WhatsApp Business with your account per month are free. This means smaller businesses can benefit from business WhatsApp messaging as well as the large-scale companies. It also allows users to ‘test the waters’ to understand the full potential of this marketing technique.
Meta’s, who run WhatsApp, also state “Conversations are not charged when customers message businesses using call to action buttons on ads that click to WhatsApp or on Facebook pages.” this means you can focus on content marketing to grow your fanbase on WhatsApp, where ads are cheaper than other channels. This will be a good bet for the future of WhatsApp Business messaging.
