Quick answer
On the WhatsApp screen, click Connect WhatsApp, log in with Facebook and pick the number you use in the WhatsApp Business app. The connection runs in coexistence mode: the number stays on your phone for chats, and BIP sends the approved templates. Then sync your numbers and choose the default.
Take your campaigns to where your customers already chat. In a few minutes, your WhatsApp Business number starts sending campaigns through BIP, and you keep serving customers from your phone as usual.
What you need
- A paid BIP account, Lite or Full (the free plan doesn't include WhatsApp)
- An active number on the WhatsApp Business app, with the phone at hand
- A Facebook account with access to your company's business portfolio on Meta
- Contacts with a phone number, ideally in international format (+55 11 91234-5678)
What you'll get
- Your WhatsApp Business number connected to BIP, ready to send campaigns to entire segments.
- The app on your phone working as before: your chats with each customer stay there.
- Delivery, reads and replies for every message in the campaign stats and in the contact's history.
- Automatic opt-out: anyone who asks Meta to stop receiving marketing is left out of your next campaigns, with no work on your side.
- The health of each number in plain sight: availability, quality and messaging limit, as reported by Meta.
How it works
- 1Connect: click Connect WhatsApp and follow the Meta window
- 2Sync the numbers on your account and choose the default number
- 3Send: bring in your templates and pick the WhatsApp channel in your campaigns
BIP connects your WhatsApp in coexistence mode, through Meta's Embedded Signup. In practice:
- the number stays on the WhatsApp Business app on your phone, with no migration and no PIN;
- one-on-one chats continue in the app, handled by you or your team;
- BIP sends only Meta-approved templates, in the Marketing and Utility categories;
- BIP is not an inbox: when someone replies to a campaign within 24 hours, the reply shows up in the stats as Replies, and the conversation continues in the app.
Step by step
1. Open the WhatsApp screen
- In the menu, click WhatsApp. The screen has three tabs: Connection, Phone Numbers and Templates.
- On the Connection tab, the card shows No WhatsApp Business Account and the status Not connected.
- If you see the Premium Feature notice instead of the tabs, your account is on the free plan. Click Upgrade Now, choose a Lite plan and come back to this screen.
Screenshot coming soon
2. Connect through Meta's signup
- Click Connect WhatsApp. A Meta window opens.
- Log in with your Facebook account.
- Choose your company's business portfolio and WhatsApp Business account.
- Choose the number you use in the WhatsApp Business app. When Meta asks, confirm in the app on your phone.
- Authorize BIP to manage the account and send messages.
- The window closes, and BIP shows Connecting to WhatsApp... and then WhatsApp connected.
Screenshot coming soon
3. Check the connection
- The card now shows your company name, the Connected status and the account ID (WABA).
- Right below, check Connected by (the email of the person who connected), Default phone number (the number's ID at Meta) and Subscribed at (when BIP started receiving updates from Meta).
- If you see the Re-subscribe webhook button, click it. Messages can already go out, but deliveries, reads, replies and template approvals only reach BIP after that.
Screenshot coming soon
4. Sync your numbers
- Open the Phone Numbers tab and click Sync from Meta.
- Each number on your account appears with its verified name and, when Meta reports it, the number's health: availability (Available, Limited or Blocked), quality (Good, Medium or Low) and messaging limit (for example, 250 unique recipients / 24h). Hover over the availability to see Meta's details.
- One of the numbers is marked Default. To change it, click Set as default on another number.
- Sync again whenever you add a number at Meta or want to see its latest health.
Screenshot coming soon
5. Bring in your templates
- Open the Templates tab and click Sync from Meta. The templates you already have at Meta appear with their language, category and status.
- To create a new template in BIP, click Create template. The WhatsApp templates guide walks through every field.
Screenshot coming soon
6. Send a test
- On the Templates tab, pick an Approved template and click Send test.
- In Lead, enter the email, ID, tracker or phone number of one of your contacts already in BIP. The phone number takes + and the country code, with no spaces:
+5511912345678. - If the template has variables in the body, fill in each one under Variables.
- Click Send Test. The message is real and goes out from the default number. Check it on your phone.
The contact needs a phone number and must not have opted out of WhatsApp. For templates with a variable in the header or in a button, test from the campaign with Test Campaign: that test uses the full variable mapping.
Screenshot coming soon
7. Send your first campaign
- In Campaigns, create or open a campaign.
- Under Channel, choose WhatsApp.
- Under WhatsApp Template, choose the approved Template and the Phone Number. Keep Use account default phone number or pick another number.
- Link each template variable to a contact field under Variable mappings.
- Choose the segment and the schedule as in any campaign. The Campaigns guide covers the scheduling types.
Screenshot coming soon
Reference
Connection status
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connected | The WhatsApp Business account is linked and ready to send. | Nothing. |
| Not connected | No account is linked, or the account was disconnected. | Click Connect WhatsApp. |
| Error | Meta reported a problem with the account (restriction, removal, BIP's app disconnected) or the authorization expired. WhatsApp sends stop. | Read the reason in the red box on the card and click Retry connection. |
When Meta reinstates an account that was in Error, BIP switches back to Connected on its own.
Connection tab buttons
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Connect WhatsApp | Opens Meta's signup to link the account. |
| Retry connection | Appears in the Error status. Runs Meta's signup again. |
| Re-subscribe webhook | Appears when BIP isn't receiving updates from Meta. Turns them back on without redoing the connection. |
| Disconnect | Unlinks the account from BIP. Asks you to confirm in Are you sure?. |
| View WhatsApp Pricing | Opens Meta's official rate card for marketing messages, already filtered by your country. |
Messages during the connection
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| WhatsApp signup cancelled | The Meta window was closed before the end. Click Connect WhatsApp again. |
| WhatsApp signup did not return a Business Account | Redo the signup and select the WhatsApp Business account all the way to the last step. |
| Failed to launch WhatsApp signup | The Meta window didn't load. Reload the page and try again, with content blockers turned off for dash.bip.marketing. |
| Failed to connect WhatsApp | Read the details in the message. If the account is already linked to another BIP account, disconnect it there first. |
Number health
| Item | Values | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Available, Limited, Blocked | With Limited or Blocked, hover to read Meta's reason. |
| Quality | Good, Medium, Low | Falling quality calls for a lower frequency and more targeted segments. |
| Messaging limit | N unique recipients / 24h or Unlimited | How many different people the number can reach in 24 hours, under Meta's rules. |
| Meta status | Gray tag with Meta's status | Appears only when the number isn't connected at Meta. |
| Default | One number per account | The number used when the campaign is set to Use account default phone number. |
WhatsApp campaign metrics
In Campaign Stats, a WhatsApp campaign shows:
| Metric | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Sent | Messages Meta accepted for sending. |
| Delivered | Messages that reached the phone, out of those sent. |
| Read Rate | Messages read, out of those delivered. People who turn off read receipts aren't counted. |
| Reply Rate | Contacts who replied within 24 hours, out of the messages delivered. A tap on a quick reply button also counts. |
| Reply-to-Read Rate | Replies, out of the messages read. |
| Opt Outs | Contacts left out because they had already opted out of WhatsApp or of all communications, or that Meta refused because the person stopped receiving marketing. |
| Unsubscribed | Contacts who asked Meta to stop receiving marketing within 24 hours of receiving this campaign. |
| Errors | Failed sends: contact without a phone number, number without WhatsApp, or a refusal from Meta. |
| Rejected | Contacts left out by the Lead Re-entry Window or deleted before the send. |
| Held | Messages Meta held back to assess quality. Once Meta decides, the message moves to Sent or Errors. |
Meta rules that BIP applies
| Situation | What BIP does |
|---|---|
| The person uses WhatsApp's option to stop receiving marketing from your business | Marks the contact as opted out of WhatsApp. No BIP campaign sends WhatsApp messages to them anymore. |
| The person accepts marketing from your business on WhatsApp again | Re-enables WhatsApp for the contact. A global or per-topic opt-out still applies. |
| Meta refuses the send with error 131050 (the person stopped receiving marketing) | Records the WhatsApp opt-out on the contact and counts the send under Opt Outs. |
| Meta refuses the send with error 131049 | Counts it as an error. Meta uses this code when it decides not to deliver a marketing message, for example to United States numbers, which don't receive marketing under Meta's rules. The contact stays eligible for future campaigns. |
| The contact opted out of WhatsApp or of all communications, including through the preferences portal | Leaves the contact out of the send. BIP checks when queuing the message and again right before sending it. |
| The contact has no phone number | Counts it under Errors. |
When a contact has more than one phone number, BIP uses the verified one or, if none is verified, the most recent one.
Disconnect
- On the Connection tab, click Disconnect.
- In Are you sure?, confirm with the ✓.
- The status goes back to Not connected and WhatsApp disconnected appears.
The number keeps working on the WhatsApp Business app as usual. WhatsApp campaigns only go out again after a new connection.
Ready to copy
Request for whoever manages your company's Meta account
If someone else manages your company's portfolio on Meta, invite that person to your BIP account and send them:
Internal message
Hi Tiago! I'm connecting our WhatsApp Business to BIP so we can send campaigns. I've invited you to our BIP account. Go to dash.bip.marketing, open the WhatsApp menu and click Connect WhatsApp, using the Facebook account that has access to the company's portfolio on Meta. Keep the WhatsApp Business phone handy to confirm in the app. The number keeps working in the app as usual.
Test contact
Import yourself as a contact before the first send. Replace the name and phone number with your own.
test-contact.csv
name,phone,tags Marina Alves,+55 11 91234-5678,whatsapp-test
Segment: contacts with a Brazilian phone number
BIP stores phone numbers in international format. A single criterion picks out the contacts with a Brazilian number and leaves out, for example, United States numbers (+1):
| Criterion | Operator | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | Starts with | +55 |
How to measure
- On the Connection tab, the status must be Connected and Subscribed at must show a date. Without that, deliveries and replies don't come in.
- On the Phone Numbers tab, track the availability and quality of the default number after each sync. Available and Good are the ideal starting point.
- After the test send, open the contact in Leads and check the Feed: the message shows up at every stage, from the queue to the read.
- In the Campaigns list, each WhatsApp campaign shows Sent, Delivered, Read and Replies. In Campaign Stats, track Read Rate, Reply Rate and Unsubscribed from one send to the next.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose my WhatsApp Business chats on my phone?
No. The connection runs in coexistence mode: the number stays on the WhatsApp Business app, with your chats, and you keep serving customers there. BIP only adds the sending of approved templates.
Can customers reply to campaigns?
Yes, and the conversation happens in the WhatsApp Business app. BIP records the first reply sent within 24 hours of the campaign: it counts under Replies and appears in the contact's Feed, with the text.
Can I connect the same number to two BIP accounts?
No. Each WhatsApp Business account is linked to one BIP account at a time, and each BIP account connects one WhatsApp Business account. To switch accounts, disconnect in the current account and connect in the new one.
Does a WhatsApp message count as a send in BIP?
Yes. Each message sent to a contact counts as one send, just like an email. The free plan doesn't include WhatsApp; on BIP Lite, WhatsApp and email sends come out of the same monthly limit.
See also
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