WhatsApp marketing: ads, flows, retargeting and payments

Who answers a message: flows, AI, or your team?

Every incoming WhatsApp message gets exactly one responder, decided automatically. If a workflow is waiting on the customer's reply, or a keyword workflow matches the text, the workflow answers and your AI agent stays silent. Anything no workflow claims goes to the AI agent bound to the number. With no agent bound, unclaimed messages wait for your team in the Inbox.

If a customer types something unexpected in the middle of a button funnel, the AI answers that message while the funnel keeps waiting for the tap. Your flows and your assistant never talk over each other, and nobody gets two replies to one message.

Start flows from ads

When someone messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad, the ad's id, headline and click id are saved on the contact automatically, and the contact is tagged whatsapp-ad.

1. In the workflow builder, add the trigger Messaged from a WhatsApp ad.
2. Optionally filter by Ad ID or headline so each campaign gets its own flow.
3. Add your welcome steps: a message with buttons, a template, a tag, an owner assignment.

Keyword and button funnels

Use the Customer replied trigger with a Message text filter (for example, contains PRICE) to start a flow from any keyword. Send a WhatsApp message with up to 3 reply buttons or a 10-option list; the builder routes each button to its own branch. Button taps also fire the WhatsApp button tapped trigger, so a button on a broadcast template can start a fresh workflow, filtered by the button's label.

QR codes and message links

In Settings, then Channels, every WhatsApp number has a Message links button. Each link or QR code carries a prefilled first message; scanning or tapping opens the chat with it pre-typed. Give each poster, package or campaign its own prefilled message, and pair it with a keyword workflow: the prefill is the keyword, so you know exactly where each contact came from and which flow they enter.

Retargeting: message the people who engaged

Open any WhatsApp, SMS or email send step in a workflow and switch to its Stats tab. Beside the delivery numbers there is a Retarget row: choose a segment, such as Delivered, Read, Replied or Not opened, and click Save as list. That saves everyone in the segment as a contact list, ready to use as the audience of your next campaign. Broadcast, see who read or replied, then follow up with exactly that group.

Carousel templates

In Settings, then Templates, create a WhatsApp template and switch on Carousel: 2 to 10 swipeable cards, each with an image or video, its own text and up to 2 buttons. Submit it for approval per number; once Meta approves it, any workflow can send it, including to people outside the 24 hour reply window.

Catalog messages and payments

• Send WhatsApp product: sends items from your Meta Commerce Manager catalog as a tappable card (one product) or a browsable list (several). Connect the catalog to your WhatsApp number in Meta first.
• Request WhatsApp payment: sends a native Review and Pay checkout in the chat, charged through your own Razorpay or PayU account configured in WhatsApp Manager. WorkflowHQ never holds your money.
• When a payment is captured, the WhatsApp payment received trigger fires with the amount, so a workflow can confirm the order, tag the contact or move the deal, automatically.

Good to know

• Free-form messages (text, buttons, lists) deliver only within 24 hours of the customer's last message; approved templates reach anyone.
• Send failures always show a readable reason in the workflow's run log and the step's Stats tab.
• STOP and opt-out keywords are honored on every automated send, on every channel.