WhatsApp is a permission channel, and it enforces that far more aggressively than email. A campaign that would merely underperform in email can get your number restricted here, which takes your support channel down alongside your marketing.
That coupling is the part teams underestimate. The number that sends your campaign is usually the number your customers use for help.
Key takeaways
- Opt-in must be explicit, specific to WhatsApp, and recorded with time and source.
- Quality rating is driven by blocks and reports, and it governs how much you can send.
- Messaging tiers scale with good behaviour and collapse quickly with bad.
- Warm up a new number gradually. Volume from a standing start looks like spam.
What counts as opt-in
Meta requires explicit opt-in before any template message. Explicit means the customer actively agreed to receive WhatsApp messages from your business specifically.
- Valid: an unchecked checkbox the customer ticks, naming WhatsApp and your business.
- Valid: the customer messaging you first, for service replies within the window.
- Not valid: a pre-ticked box, or consent buried in general terms and conditions.
- Not valid: having a phone number from a purchase, without separate messaging consent.
- Not valid: a purchased or scraped list. This is the fastest route to a ban.
Record when consent was given, through which form or flow, and what wording was shown. If a complaint arrives, that record is your defence, and reconstructing it later is not possible.
Email consent is not WhatsApp consent. Consent is channel-specific. A newsletter subscriber has not agreed to WhatsApp messages, and treating a mailing list as a broadcast list is the most common serious violation.
Quality rating and tiers
Every number carries a quality rating (green, yellow, red) derived from recent recipient feedback, mainly blocks and reports. It directly governs your messaging tier.
| Tier | Unique customers per 24h | How you move |
|---|---|---|
| Unverified | 250 | Complete business verification |
| Tier 1 | 1,000 | Sustained quality at volume |
| Tier 2 | 10,000 | Sustained quality at volume |
| Tier 3 | 100,000 | Sustained quality at volume |
| Tier 4 | Unlimited | Sustained quality at volume |
Tiers rise when you consistently send near your limit without quality dropping. They fall fast when quality drops. Red rating brings restrictions and, if unaddressed, suspension.
Blocks are the metric that matters. Not opens, not clicks. Every block is a permanent signal that you sent something unwanted.
Warming up a new number
A new number sending 10,000 messages on day one looks exactly like spam, because that is what spam does. Ramp deliberately:
- Week 1: service conversations only, replying to inbound. This establishes a normal two-way pattern.
- Week 2: utility templates to your most engaged customers, a few hundred at most.
- Week 3: increase volume moderately, watching quality daily.
- Week 4 onward: introduce marketing templates to your best-performing segment first.
Deliberately keep your first campaigns small and well-targeted. Early engagement quality shapes how quickly you are allowed to scale.
Segmentation as compliance
Segmentation is usually framed as a performance tactic. On WhatsApp it is a compliance control. Sending a relevant message to 2,000 people generates fewer blocks than the same message to 20,000, and blocks are what damage you.
Before every send, three checks: does this segment have valid consent, is the content genuinely relevant to this specific group, and would I be annoyed to receive this? The third is not sentimental. Annoyance is measured directly, as blocks.
Honour opt-outs instantly and permanently, across every future campaign and every list. A customer who opted out and receives another message will report rather than block, and reports are weighted more heavily.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if my number is restricted?
You lose the ability to send templates for a period, though inbound service conversations usually continue. Repeated violations escalate to permanent suspension.
Can I recover from a red quality rating?
Usually, by pausing marketing sends and letting service conversations rebuild the signal. It takes weeks, not days.
Is an opt-out link required in every message?
Not technically required in every template, but a clear opt-out path is strongly advised. Making it easy converts would-be blocks into clean unsubscribes.