Guide to WhatsApp marketing ROI metrics and tracking

Guide to WhatsApp marketing ROI metrics and tracking

With WhatsApp's vast user base of over 2 billion and its higher engagement rates, businesses are increasingly exploring its potential as a powerful marketing tool. If you're questioning the effectiveness of WhatsApp marketing and the benefits of the WhatsApp Business API, this guide is tailored for you. We'll explore key metrics and strategies to maximize your WhatsApp marketing ROI.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for WhatsApp Marketing

KPIs are essential for measuring the success of your WhatsApp marketing campaigns. These indicators not only track performance but also evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the WhatsApp Business API. Here are the crucial KPIs to monitor:

WhatsApp Marketing KPI

Delivery rate

Measures the efficiency of your message delivery, ensuring content reaches your audience. Formula: (Number of messages delivered / Total messages sent) x 100%

Open rate

Reflects how compelling and relevant your content is to recipients. Formula: (Number of opens / Total messages delivered) x 100%

Engagement rate

Gauges how many recipients interacted with your content. Formula: (Number of responses / Total messages delivered) x 100%

Click-through rate (CTR)

Assesses the effectiveness of your call-to-actions (CTAs) within the message. Formula: (Number of clicks / Total messages delivered) x 100%

Conversion rate

Tracks recipients who took a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Formula: (Number of desired actions / Total messages delivered) x 100%

3 advanced WhatsApp marketing metrics

For a deeper analysis, consider these advanced metrics to evaluate your WhatsApp marketing ROI and campaign profitability:

WhatsApp Marketing ROI

1. Revenue per recipient

This metric provides insights into the average revenue generated from each recipient you engage with through your campaign 

Formula: Total revenue / Total messages delivered

2. Cost per recipient

To understand the efficiency of your WhatsApp marketing campaign spending, this metric breaks down the average cost you incur for each recipient. When calculating the total campaign cost, consider the following:

  • WhatsApp marketing conversation cost: the fee you pay to WhatsApp for delivering a marketing template message to a particular country or region.

  • Software provider cost: a fixed monthly subscription cost. To accurately distribute this fixed cost, estimate the number of campaigns you'll run in a month. Then, for each campaign, determine how many messages you'll deliver. By dividing the monthly software cost by the total messages delivered in a month, you can ascertain the software cost per recipient.

Region/Country

Conversation cost (per marketing conversation)

Hong Kong

US$ 0.0732

Singapore

US$ 0.0732

Malaysia

US$ 0.086

United Arab Emirates

US$ 0.034

Brazil

US$ 0.0625

Indonesia

US$ 0.0411

Formula: WhatsApp marketing conversation cost + (Software provider monthly subscription cost / Total number of marketing messages delivered in a month)

3. Return on campaign spend

This metric gives a holistic view of the profitability of your WhatsApp marketing campaign by comparing the revenue generated per recipient to the cost incurred per recipient. 

Formula: Revenue per recipient / cost per recipient

Tracking WhatsApp campaign performance for website conversions

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You can track leads originating from WhatsApp links using a combination of URL parameters and analytics tools. Here's a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Prepare UTM parameters

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are tags you add to a URL. When someone clicks on a URL with UTM parameters, those tags are sent back to your analytics tool, and you can track where your traffic came from.

For example, if you have a website https://example.com, you can add UTM parameters to it like this:

https://example.com/?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=my_campaign

  • utm_source: Identifies which site sent the traffic. In this case, "whatsapp".

  • utm_medium: Identifies the medium. E.g., "social", "email", etc.

  • utm_campaign: Identifies your specific campaign.

Once you have your shortened URL with UTM parameters, you can share it on WhatsApp. You can embed the link as a call-to-action interactive button so customers can react easily.

Step 3: Analyze the traffic 

In Google Analytics 4, you can go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition to see the traffic from "whatsapp /social".

Google Analytics 4

Identifying WhatsApp lead sources

Determine the origin of contacts using these methods:

Method 1: Customize the initial message

If you're using a link to initiate a WhatsApp chat, you can customize the initial message based on the platform or campaign. For instance, a link from an email campaign might have the initial message "Hello! I'm reaching out from the email campaign," while a link from your website might say "Hello! I found you on your website."

Explore more about how to customize your WhatsApp link.

Method 2: Use Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful tool that can help you track clicks on a "Chat with us on WhatsApp" link or button on your website. By setting up tags and triggers in GTM, you can send this data to Google Analytics to determine the lead source.

google tag manager

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to track WhatsApp link clicks using Google Tag Manager:

Step 1: Create a new tag

  • Log in to your GTM account.

  • click on "Tags" in the left sidebar, then click on "New".

  • Name the tag (e.g., "WhatsApp Clicks").

  • Click on "Tag Configuration" and choose "Google Analytics: GA4 Event" as the tag type

google tag manager
  • Click on “Configuration Tag” and choose “None- Manually Set ID” in the dropdown menu

  • Copy your GA4 Measurement ID from your GA4 account and paste it into the required field.

  • Name your event (e.g., "whatsapp_clicks")

Google tag manager

Step 2: Create a new trigger

  • Click on "Triggering" below the “Tag Configuration”

  • Name the trigger (e.g., "WhatsApp Clicks").

  • Click on "Trigger Configuration" and choose "Just Links" as the trigger type.

  • Choose "Some Link Clicks" for “This trigger fires on” and set the conditions. For instance, you might set it to trigger when the "Click URL" contains "wa.me" or "api.whatsapp.com".

Google Tag Manager

Step 3: Publish changes

Once you've set up the tag and trigger, click on "Save”, “Submit”  and “Publish” in the upper right to publish the changes to your live website.

Step 4: Check in Google Analytics 4

After some time, you can go to Google Analytics and navigate to Report > Engagement > Events to see the events being tracked. If you set it up as described, you'd look for the "whatsapp_clicks”. With this event data, you can segment the events by source/medium to see where users were before they clicked on the WhatsApp link. This can give you insights into which channels or campaigns are driving the most WhatsApp interactions.

WhatsApp Marketing vs. Email Marketing

When comparing WhatsApp and email marketing for ROI, consider these factors:

Criteria

WhatsApp Marketing

Email Marketing

Open rate benchmark

98% (WhatsApp statistics)

21.33% (Mailchimp statistics)

Reach

Over 2 billion users globally, especially strong in regions like Latin America, India, and parts of Europe

Universal reach, but can be oversaturated

Opt-in requirement

Users must provide explicit consent

A subscriber only has to enter their email address

Visibility issues

Less likely to be ignored

Risk of landing in spam or promotions folders

Scalability

Restrictions on broadcast numbers, scales automatically based on phone number quality ratings

Can be sent to vast numbers without the same limitations

The question, "What is the success rate of WhatsApp marketing?" really depends greatly on the quality and creativity of the campaigns. This applies similarly to email marketing. 

However, WhatsApp has undeniable potential as a powerful marketing tool, especially with the WhatsApp Business API offering several advantages over the free WhatsApp Business App for WhatsApp ROI optimization.

Optimizing WhatsApp ROI

To enhance WhatsApp ROI, leverage the WhatsApp Business API with these strategies:

Method 1: Audience segmentation

The WhatsApp API also enables businesses to target specific audiences more effectively. For example, if a broad targeting approach fails to engage customers, businesses can create a more tailored audience list based on conversation histories and customer interests. 

You can then test the effectiveness of different messages for specific demographics, interests, and behavior, so that your targeting and messaging strategies resonate better with the intended audience.

segmentation

Method 2: A/B testing

Businesses can evaluate the effectiveness of different CTAs, message content, visual elements, timing and frequency in driving conversions. 

This iterative process empowers businesses to continually improve their conversion rates and achieve better results in their WhatsApp marketing efforts.

WhatsApp button analytics

Method 3: Automated engagement

WhatsApp Business API can help businesses establish automated conversation flows and guide users on the next steps depending on the replies. 

By designing a sequence of message templates with button-based responses, you can provide customers with convenient reply options and a seamless communication experience. This step-by-step approach encourages customers to take desired actions.

whatsapp messaging flow

Method 4: Integration with existing tech infrastructures

Integrating WhatsApp with existing systems provides businesses with rapid access to customer data. 

It ensures that agents have up-to-date information which enables them to serve customers more effectively and avoid asking redundant questions, streamlining the communication processes for overall customer satisfaction.

Connect to WhatsApp Business API now!

Connect to WhatsApp Business API and get the first 1,000 service conversations free each month.

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