7 tips to minimize your WhatsApp Business cost (and maximize your ROI)

Meta knows the value of WhatsApp Business to brands. So it charges per conversation you have with a customer. Here are some tricks to keep your cost down and increase your ROI.

Do you know what WhatsApp Marketing, Utility, Service or Authentication conversations are?

Or user- or business-initiated conversations? 

Do you know how much they cost?

Meta's cost structure for WhatsApp Business conversations is a science in itself (see our complete guide in WhatsApp Business conversation costs).

The good news is that charles is here to sort all of this out for you.

But short: each conversation you have with a customer costs you a small sum of money (around 11c in Germany).

When you see the benefits of WhatsApp Business, it's no surprise. Open rates, click rates and ROI are better all around.

However, our mission at charles is to keep your ROI as high as it can be. Part of that is keeping your conversation costs down.

If you're smart, there are ways to spend less on your WhatsApp marketing. So here we share their top 7 tips to minimize the costs of WhatsApp marketing.

First, what are the costs of WhatsApp Business?

Before you can cut the costs of WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp marketing, you need to know what the costs are.

You can check out our full guide to WhatsApp Business costs, or read this quick summary:

What does WhatsApp Business cost?

As a larger business wanting to start with WhatsApp Business, you'll need to use the WhatsApp API. To use the WhatsApp API, you'll need software from a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) (like charles).

With this in mind, the main costs are:

Cost per conversation to WhatsApp you have with a customer: around 11c per message in Germany

WhatsApp BSP fees: monthly software subscription fee plus additional, smaller cost per conversation

There may be more costs involved than with other channels like email, but the returns our clients are seeing are above those seen in other marketing channels.

Our average ROI for WhatsApp marketing campaigns is 10x return on campaign spend (ROCS).

See more on WhatsApp metrics and ROI here.

Focus on cutting your WhatsApp Business cost...

You pay WhatsApp per conversation you have with a customer within 24 hours.

It's here you can make the biggest savings. Cut these costs (we show you how below) and your ROI instantly goes up.

First, let's explain the difference between these conversation types (descriptions from WhatsApp Business' official website):