Education
Optimizing your ads to achieve business goals
Learn more about down funnel optimizations for ads that click to WhatsApp — what they are, who’s eligible, and how to use them.
What are down funnel optimizations?
If you’re running ads but not seeing your desired outcomes, that’s where ad optimization comes in. Ad optimizations help you meet your business goals by showing your ads to people who are most likely to take the action that helps you achieve your desired outcome. Down funnel optimizations help your ads turn views into customers.
Which down funnel optimizations are available for ads that click to WhatsApp?
There are currently two optimizations available for ads that click to WhatsApp. Depending on whether your goal is generating leads or directly driving sales, you can choose between ads optimizing for leads and ads optimizing for purchases.
Coming soon: Lead optimization
This option allows you to maximize the number of purchases made directly through WhatsApp by delivering ads to customers who are likely to make a purchase directly within the conversation.
Improve ad performance:
On average, ads that click to WhatsApp campaigns optimizing for purchases through messaging drove 10% lower cost per purchase, compared to optimizing for conversations.
(Source: Results based on a week long large-scale global study measuring incremental effects in H2 2024.)
Example of an ad optimizing for purchases.
Lead optimization
Ads optimizing for leads deliver ads to people who are most likely to connect with your business and share their contact information. This option can help get your business in front of higher quality leads at a lower cost.
Example of an ad optimizing for leads.
Improve ad performance:
On average, ads that click to WhatsApp optimizing for leads drove 24% lower cost per lead compared to ads optimizing for conversations.
(Source: Based on an experiment of 116K campaigns across 43K businesses running ads that click to WhatsApp between Nov 04, 2024 and Nov 10, 2024 (seven days) across industries and regions.)
What’s the difference between lead ads that click to WhatsApp and optimizing for leads with ads that click to WhatsApp?
These two sound similar but help your business achieve different goals:
Lead ads that click to WhatsApp
Lead ads that click to WhatsApp are designed to attract new customers and encourage them to start a conversation with your business on WhatsApp. These ads typically feature a clear call-to-action (CTA) that prompts users to send a message to your business. These help to increase brand awareness and grow your list of potential customers, but the conversion rates may be lower compared to lead optimization ads.
Optimizing for leads with ads that click to WhatsApp
Optimizing for leads with ads that click to WhatsApp is designed to nurture existing leads and encourage them to make a specific action, such as making a purchase or scheduling an appointment. These focus on reaching quality leads.
Lead ads that click to WhatsApp
Lead ads that click to WhatsApp are designed to attract new customers and encourage them to start a conversation with your business on WhatsApp. These ads typically feature a clear call-to-action (CTA) that prompts users to send a message to your business. These help to increase brand awareness and grow your list of potential customers, but the conversion rates may be lower compared to lead optimization ads.
Optimizing for leads with ads that click to WhatsApp
Optimizing for leads with ads that click to WhatsApp is designed to nurture existing leads and encourage them to make a specific action, such as making a purchase or scheduling an appointment. These focus on reaching quality leads.
How to set up ad optimization for ads that click to WhatsApp:
Now that you’ve learned more about the different down funnel optimizations available for ads that click to WhatsApp, it’s time to give it a try! Once you decide which one will work best for your business goals you can follow these steps to set up your ad:
- Click the Create button to start creating your campaign.
- Select your campaign objective.
- For purchase optimization: Select Sales or Engagement as your campaign objective. Be sure that you opt for a manual campaign setup!
- For leads optimization: Select Leads as your campaign objective.
- Choose Messaging destinations as your conversion location and select WhatsApp as the Messaging destination for the campaign.
- Continue to set up your ads as usual and hit publish.
Once you’ve met the eligibility criteria, you’ll see the option to optimize for your business goal in Ads Manager. Go to Ads Manager, click + Create, then:
