WhatsApp broadcasts: a step-by-step guide for businesses

A WhatsApp broadcast sends one approved message template to many customers at once. In many countries it is where customers already talk to businesses, which makes it powerful and easy to get wrong: a broadcast to people who asked for it gets read and answered, while one to a bought list gets your number reported, rated down and restricted by Meta.

What you need before the first broadcast

• Your own number on the WhatsApp Business Platform. Broadcasts go through Meta's platform, not the WhatsApp Business app on a phone. OmniBrand connects your number in Meta's sign-up window: a new number, an existing WhatsApp Business account, or the number on your WhatsApp Business app (WhatsApp Business).
• A payment method in Meta's Billing Hub. Meta bills your WhatsApp Business account directly for template messages; OmniBrand does not charge for messages and adds nothing on top (Paying Meta for WhatsApp).
• Approved templates. A message that starts a conversation is a template Meta has approved, in one of three categories: Marketing (offers, news), Utility (order updates, reminders the customer expects) or Authentication (one-time codes). The template builder offers ready-made starter templates in English and Arabic and flags what Meta would reject before you submit (Building a WhatsApp template).
• Contacts who agreed to marketing on WhatsApp. Marketing templates may only go to people who opted in. How to collect that agreement, and prove it, is its own guide: WhatsApp marketing consent.

What a broadcast costs

Meta charges for each delivered template message. The price depends on the template's category and on the recipient's country, read from the country code of their number. Some countries have their own price; others share a regional price. Meta changes its prices a few times a year, so check its current rate card rather than an old blog post.

• Marketing templates are always charged, except inside the free entry-point window: when a customer messages you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page button and you reply within 24 hours, everything you send them for the next 72 hours is free.
• Utility templates: from 1 October 2026 Meta charges them inside the customer's 24-hour window too.
• Replies you type inside the 24-hour window (service messages): from 1 October 2026 each business number gets 1,000 free a month, then Meta charges them at the market's Utility or Authentication price.

Before you send, the Review step of a broadcast in OmniBrand shows an Estimated cost for your audience in USD, SAR or AED, from Meta's rate card. It is an estimate: free windows and Meta's volume discounts can make the invoice lower (Costs, limits and free windows).

How many people a number can reach

Meta limits how many different people your business can message first with templates in a rolling 24 hours: 250, then 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited. The limit is shared by all numbers in the same Meta business portfolio. Completing Meta Business Verification moves you from 250 to 2,000; above that, Meta raises the limit by itself when your quality is good and you used at least half of it in the last 7 days.

Each number also has a quality rating (green, yellow or red) based on how people react to your messages, blocks and reports included. Low quality can pause your templates and hold back limit increases. The Number health tab in OmniBrand shows each number's rating, limit and use, and alerts owners and admins when they drop.

Timing: quiet hours in each customer's local time

A marketing message that arrives at midnight costs the same as one at 10:00 and annoys far more people. OmniBrand's Messaging rules hold Marketing templates until each recipient's own send window, in their local time (from the contact's time zone, otherwise the country code of their number). The defaults:

• A send window of 09:00 to 21:00 in the recipient's local time.
• Two seasonal rules for audiences that expect them, a Friday midday pause and a Ramadan send window; both are on by default and can be switched off in Messaging rules.
• Frequency caps of one marketing message a day and three in 7 days per person.

Weekends and public holidays fall on different days from one country to the next. When your customers live in several countries, plan offers around their week, not yours.

A first broadcast, step by step

1. Connect your number in Accounts and add a payment method in Meta's Billing Hub.
2. Create a Marketing template, add a Stop promotions quick-reply button so people can opt out of offers in one tap, and submit it to Meta.
3. Build an opted-in audience: an opt-in link or QR code on posters, receipts and your Instagram bio, or an import with a consent declaration.
4. Open Broadcasts → WhatsApp broadcasts and press New broadcast. The five steps are Number & template, Audience, Personalise, Schedule & delivery and Review.
5. On Review, read Before you send, the Estimated cost and the Simulation (who would get it, who is left out and why), and press Send test to see the message on your own phone.
6. Press Create broadcast, then follow delivered, read, replied and button taps under Results. Replies arrive in the inbox as normal WhatsApp conversations (WhatsApp broadcasts).

Mistakes that get numbers restricted

• Sending to people who never agreed: purchased lists, numbers copied from invoices, a whole phone book.
• No easy way out. Add a Stop promotions button (OmniBrand warns when a Marketing template has none) and honour STOP at once (OmniBrand does that by itself).
• Too many offers. Frequency caps protect your quality rating as much as your customers' patience.
• Sending marketing to US (+1) numbers: WhatsApp does not deliver marketing templates to them.
• One generic message for everyone. Personalise with the customer's name, branch or last order, and keep each broadcast to one clear offer.