Broadcast campaigns & segmentation
Learn how to create WhatsApp broadcast campaigns, target the right segments, and measure how different audiences respond.
April 20, 2026
Beyond automations that trigger on their own, WhatsApp also lets you send one-time broadcast campaigns, a message sent out to a group of subscribers at once. This article covers how to send those effectively, and why targeting the right group matters more on WhatsApp than almost anywhere else.
What a broadcast campaign is
A broadcast campaign is a message you create and send yourself, rather than one that fires automatically based on a trigger like an abandoned cart.
You'll find these under the Campaigns section, with the same Active, Scheduled, and Draft states used across other channels, and the same core stats: Total Campaigns, Total Read, Avg CTR, and Revenue.
Why targeting matters more on WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a more personal channel than email or push notifications, it's the same app people use to message friends and family.
That makes it more effective when used well, but it also means sending irrelevant or overly frequent broadcasts is more likely to feel intrusive, which can lead to people opting out entirely.
Getting your targeting right isn't just a nice-to-have here, it directly protects the channel's effectiveness over time.
Using segments to target your broadcasts
Rather than sending every campaign to your entire subscriber list, you can send to a specific segment instead, a smaller group built around a shared trait or behavior. A segment might be:
- Everyone who's engaged with a previous message (see "Two-way conversations" for how engaged segments are built).
- Customers in a specific location.
- Customers who've purchased a particular type of product.
Each segment tracks its own performance separately, campaigns sent, views, clicks, and revenue, so you can compare how a broadcast performs across different segments rather than only seeing one blended number for everyone.
Building a new segment
Segments are created from the Segmentation section, where you can view your existing segments (Active or Archived), search for a specific one, or click Create New Segment to build a new one based on the conditions that matter to you.
A simple approach: start broad, then narrow
If you're new to WhatsApp broadcasts, it's reasonable to start with your full subscriber list for a genuinely broad announcement, a major sale, for instance.
But for anything more specific, a targeted offer, a re-engagement message, a product-specific promotion, narrowing to a relevant segment first will almost always perform better than blasting everyone, and it keeps your subscriber list healthier in the long run.
Watching how segments respond over time
Because engaged customers can be automatically separated from unengaged ones (as covered in "Two-way conversations"), it's worth periodically checking whether your engaged segment is growing or shrinking.
A shrinking engaged segment is often an early sign that your broadcast frequency or content needs adjusting, before it shows up as a bigger drop in overall performance.