WhatsApp Ads: The New Era of Conversational Marketing for Businesses

WhatsApp Enters the Advertising Space in 2025

WhatsApp ads mark a turning point for conversational marketing in LATAM. In June 2025, Meta officially began rolling out advertising within the app, transforming the region’s most-used messaging channel into a powerful conversion tool. With more than 2.5 billion active users, WhatsApp is already the preferred channel for customer service. Now, with integrated ads, it also becomes a channel for acquisition, lead generation, and direct conversion.

What Are WhatsApp Ads?

“Click to WhatsApp” Ads

This format was available before 2025 and consists of ads placed on Facebook and Instagram that, when clicked, open a chat directly with the company on WhatsApp. They are managed through Meta’s Ads Manager and allow you to define the initial message the user sees when the conversation starts.

Click-to-WhatsApp ads combine the power of Meta’s targeting with the immediacy and familiarity of WhatsApp, resulting in higher response rates and more qualified leads.

Ads Inside WhatsApp: Status and Channels

Starting in June 2025, WhatsApp began showing ads within the app:

  • In the Updates tab, ads appear interspersed between contacts’ Status updates.

  • Promoted Channels, where businesses can pay to highlight their channels within the directory.

  • Click-to-message format, allowing Status ads to include a button that starts a conversation with the business.

Meta has confirmed that personal messages and groups will not receive ads and will remain end-to-end encrypted.

Who Can Run Ads on WhatsApp?

Key Technical Requirements:

  • WhatsApp Business account: The number must be registered as a business.

  • Connection to Meta Business Manager: You must link the WhatsApp number to your Facebook Page and an active ad account.

  • Setup through Ads Manager: Select WhatsApp as the destination in message, traffic, or conversion campaigns.

Roles Involved Within the Company:

  • Digital marketing: Campaign setup, creative design, and segmentation.

  • IT / Integrations: Ensure the number is properly connected and manage templates and API (if applicable).

  • Customer service / support: Prepare responses, automated flows, or bots to handle generated leads.

  • Legal / compliance: Validate that messages and processes comply with local data privacy and usage regulations.

Challenges and How to Address Them

Availability and User Perception

Although rollout has begun, not all LATAM countries have immediate access. Companies must validate local availability and prepare educational campaigns to explain the ethical use of ads, especially in a personal environment like WhatsApp.

Measurement and Attribution

Unlike websites with tracking pixels, measuring conversions from WhatsApp ads requires CRM integration and manual or automated tracking of chats, responses, and sales.

Operational Scalability

A successful ad can generate dozens or hundreds of chats per day. Without automated flows (bots, quick replies, agent assignment), the impact can quickly become negative.

Step-by-Step: How to Create a WhatsApp Ad

From Ads Manager:

  1. Link your WhatsApp Business account to your Facebook Page.

  2. In Ads Manager, create a campaign with the “Messages” or “Traffic” objective.

  3. Select WhatsApp as the destination.

  4. Create the ad: image, video, text, CTA.

  5. Configure the pre-filled message the user will see when opening the chat.

  6. Define budget, duration, and targeting.

  7. Launch and monitor results.

From the WhatsApp Business App:

Ideal for small businesses. It allows you to create ads directly from the app, selecting content, audience, duration, and budget through a simplified interface.

What’s Next for WhatsApp and Advertising?

Meta has stated that its goal is to fully integrate WhatsApp into its advertising ecosystem, allowing companies to manage multichannel campaigns from a single interface. Emerging trends include:

  • Centralized campaigns for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp

  • AI-driven automatic budget optimization

  • New analytics options to measure interactions within WhatsApp

By the end of 2025, WhatsApp is expected to consolidate itself as one of the key channels for B2B conversational campaigns, especially in sectors such as retail, healthcare, education, and logistics.

WhatsApp ads represent a logical evolution in digital conversational marketing. For LATAM companies, where WhatsApp is the preferred communication channel, this is an opportunity to connect with potential customers in a direct, personalized, and efficient way.

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