What is Click to WhatsApp, and how does it integrate with Sinch Conversation API?

Click to WhatsApp is a feature that allows you to use advertisements to direct end-users (your company's customers) to WhatsApp conversations with your company. It offers a convenient way for end-users to start a conversation with your company from an ad on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger.

The ease of the integration helps companies reach a wider audience and engage end-users effectively by leveraging the popularity and reach of Meta's platforms. End-users can click on the ad and start a WhatsApp conversation with your company instantly, without the need to dial numbers or search for contacts. By reducing friction and increasing convenience, Click to WhatsApp can increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Click to WhatsApp supports multiple simultaneous campaigns, allowing you to personalize each ad based on its unique Meta campaign identifier (sourceID). By integrating a chatbot, you can tailor each ad to meet individual end-user preferences and needs, directing them more effectively to the products or services they want:

To use Click to WhatsApp, you must create campaigns in the Meta Ads Manager (or using the Meta Marketing API). You can select the campaign objective, create a set of ads targeting WhatsApp, and develop creative content that encourages end-users to start a conversation on WhatsApp.

How to use Click to WhatsApp with Conversation API

When you create a campaign that makes use of Click to WhatsApp, you associate the campaign with a WhatsApp business account. When you do so for WhatsApp business accounts that are connected to your Sinch solution, you can use Sinch's functionality to conduct conversations and transactions with end-users that click the ads associated (through the sourceID value) with the corresponding campaign.

The ad data is loaded into a pre-configured element that allows the end-user to click to interact with the WhatsApp channel. When the end-user clicks the ad, they can create and populate a message. That message and the corresponding content are then sent via API as a Mobile Originated (MO) message. In the payload for that MO message, the escaped referral field (contained within the metadata field) is populated with all the ad data, allowing you to capture key information and personalize the interaction.

Note: These MO message callbacks are delivered using webhooks. The webhook used to retrieve inbound messages must include the MESSAGE_INBOUND trigger.

Below is an example of the payload of a Conversation API callback generated from a Click to WhatsApp ad:

{
  "app_id": "01EB37HMH1M6SV18ASNS3G135H",
  "accepted_time": "2026-07-01T12:10:55.073703Z",
  "event_time": "2026-07-01T12:10:53.991Z",
  "project_id": "c36f3d3d-1513-4edd-ae42-11995557ff61",
  "message": {
    "id": "01EKJ1534NWK5R02TGWEJN13HA",
    "direction": "TO_APP",
    "contact_message": {
      "media_card_message": {
        "url": "YOUR_image_url",
        "caption": "Check out my product!"
      }
    },
    "channel_identity": {
      "channel": "WHATSAPP",
      "identity": "WHATSAPP_ID_of_recipient",
      "app_id": ""
    },
    "conversation_id": "01EKJ0KSWXMVDF05MG9TQ20S06",
    "contact_id": "01EKA07N79THJ20WSN6AS30TMW",
    "metadata": "{\"referral\":{\"source_type\":\"<SOURCE_TYPE>\",\"source_id\":\"<SOURCE_ID>\",\"source_url\":\"<SOURCE_URL>\",\"ctwa_clid\":\"<CLICK_ID>\",\"headline\":\"Our new product\",\"body\":\"This is a great product\"}}",
    "accept_time": "2026-07-01T12:10:55.060170Z"
  }
}