A start-to-finish walkthrough of sending a WhatsApp template message to a contact list — plus scheduling, retries, retargeting, and troubleshooting a failed send.
Before You Start, Make Sure You Have
- At least one approved WhatsApp template — see Message Templates if you don’t have one yet. Draft or pending templates won’t appear in the picker.
- At least one contact list with people in it — build one under Broadcast → Contacts List if you haven’t already.
- Permission to send campaigns on this account (owners always can; sub-users need the relevant broadcast permission).
Follow Simple Steps:
1. Open The Campaign Wizard
Go to Broadcast in the sidebar, then click into the Create Campaign panel. Click the sticky Review & Send button at any point to jump ahead once everything below is filled in — but for your first campaign, work through each step in order.
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2. Fill in Business Info
Confirm the WhatsApp profile shown is the right one you’re sending from, then enter a Campaign name * — something you’ll recognize later, like “Diwali Sale Announcement.” This name only shows up in your own Campaign List; customers never see it.
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If You Skip This – Trying to move on without a name shows “Campaign name required — give your campaign a name before publishing.”
3. Choose Who Receives It
On Target Customers, click the list picker and select one or more contact lists. As you select, a running total appears: “Total Contacts: {selected} / {available}.” You can search for a specific list by name, or select all of them at once.
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What You’ll See – A “Selected lists” panel below the picker shows every list you’ve added as a removable chip, so you can double-check your audience before moving on.
4. Pick and customize your template
On Template Customization, search for and select an approved template. Once selected:
- Fill in any variables the template needs — choose Static Value to send the same text to everyone, or Dynamic Value to pull each contact’s own data (like their name) from a column in your contact list.
- If the template has a media header (image/video/document), either keep the template’s default file or upload a replacement.
- If it has buttons with a variable (like a personalized link), fill those in too.
Watch the live preview panel on the side — it updates as you type, so you can see exactly what the customer will receive.
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5. Choose When It Sends
On Schedule or Publish, pick Send Now to deliver as soon as you publish, or Schedule to pick a specific date and time instead.
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Assign Teammates is optional — leave it as “None” unless you want specific people or a team handling replies to this campaign.
Retry Campaign is also optional, but worth turning on even for a first campaign since it costs nothing to set up and meaningfully improves delivery:
- Flip the Retry Campaign toggle on.
- Click Add Retry to create your first retry attempt (row shows as “Retry #1”).
- Set a delay: Hours (10–30) and Minutes (0–59). A live caption confirms the timing, e.g., “10h 0m after campaign completion.”
- Click Add Retry again if you want a second or third attempt (up to 3 total) — later retries are timed from the previous retry, shown as “… after 1st retry.”
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Common Mistake – Hours must be between 10 and 30, and minutes between 0 and 59 — entering anything outside that range shows “Hours must be 10–30” or “Minutes must be 0–59” and blocks you from continuing until it’s fixed.
6. Review And Send
Click Review & Send. You’ll see a final summary — template, audience and contact count, schedule, assignment, and retry setting — next to a live message preview. Check the contact count and preview carefully, then click Confirm & Send.
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This Can’t Be Undone – Once you confirm, the campaign starts sending (or gets scheduled) immediately — there’s no way to edit or unsend it afterward. If something looks off in the review screen, click Edit Campaign instead of confirming.
On success, you’ll see a “Campaign launched!” confirmation.
What Happens Next
- Your campaign appears in the Campaign List, moving through statuses like Uploading → Waiting → In-Progress → Finished as it sends.
- Click into it any time to open the Campaign Report — a per-recipient breakdown of sent/delivered/read/failed status, with the exact reason shown for anything that failed.
- If you turned on retries, failed messages will be automatically reattempted on the schedule you set — you don’t need to do anything further.
Retargeting People Who Didn’t Respond
Follow up with contacts from a past campaign, without picking a fresh audience.
1. Open The Retarget Flow
Either open the Retarget Campaign directly from the sidebar, or go to your Campaign List and use the retarget action on the specific campaign you want to follow up on.
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2. Choose Who to Follow Up With
Unlike a new campaign, your audience here is locked to that campaign’s original contact lists — you’re narrowing it down, not picking fresh. Choose by:
- Message status — Read, Delivered, Sent, or Failed, each showing a live count
- Button click — target only the people who tapped a specific button on the original message, if it had any
A running Total Retarget Count updates as you select
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3. Finish Like a Normal Campaign
From here, the flow is identical to sending a new campaign — pick a template, choose Send Now or Schedule, optionally assign teammates or set up retries, then Review & Send.
Checking Why a Message Failed
Read the campaign report to find out exactly what went wrong for any campaign — not just your first.
1. Open The Campaign Report
From the Campaign List, click into any campaign to open its report. You’ll see a running total and a searchable, filterable table of every recipient.
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2. Filter Down to What Failed
Use the status filter to narrow the table to just Failed (or Pending, Sent, Delivered, Read if you’re checking something else). Search by recipient name or number if you’re looking for one specific contact.
3. Read The Failure Reason
The Failure Reason column shows the specific reason for each failed message — hover over a truncated reason to see the full text. This is the fastest way to tell a bad phone number apart from a template issue or a delivery problem on WhatsApp’s side.
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4. Export or Retry
Use Export Report CSV from the Campaign List if you need the full breakdown outside GetGabs. If the campaign has retries enabled, failed messages are already being automatically re-attempted on schedule — otherwise, use Retarget Campaign filtered to “Failed” to try reaching them again manually.
