Things to Know of Meta’s Frequency Capping for WhatsApp Marketing Messages

Using WhatsApp Business API to send marketing messages on the messaging app but are getting high failed rates?

But here is the news, you are not the only one who is facing such difficulties. Every business that uses marketing messages to target users worldwide is experiencing this, dubbed frequency capping by Meta. If you are one of the businesses using WhatsApp Business API for marketing and promotions, please read the latest news. 

Meta, the company that operates on WhatsApp Business APIs, has launched a new solution called Frequency Capping. This feature changes the balance of business communication and requires a new view of your outgoing messages. 

In this blog, we will discuss Frequency Capping, why it was introduced, why it is leading to a high marketing message failure rate, and Proper Management Practices: key highlights and counter frequency capping.

Here you will find the majority of burning issues concerning frequency capping!

So, let’s begin!

What is Meta’s Frequency Capping?

In simple terms, we can define Meta’s Frequency Capping as the measures taken to limit the number of times a certain advert or message is presented to clients within a given period.

Frequency capping is also an update that Meta introduced to prevent the sending of spam messages in the WhatsApp application; users cannot receive a large number of promotional messages for a specific time using the application.

For example, a user gets offered promotional messages from different businesses within a time of 24-48 hours. But these are the messages that the user is not receiving or interacting with. In this case, when the limit of a certain number of messages – (for instance 15), any new promotional messages sent by these business units will not get through to the user.

The main objective of this feature is to avoid types of fatigue, specifically message fatigue, and turn WhatsApp into something that may deliver fewer messages but make the ones people can receive more engaging. 

Attached below, please find the official documentation by Meta about frequency capping.

As per Meta, 

WhatsApp may limit the number of marketing template messages a person receives from any business in a given period, starting with a small number of conversations that are less likely to be read. Soon, we will also begin to deliver fewer marketing conversations to those users who are less likely to engage with them.

Source: Meta

 

Note: Frequency Capping is in the universal context or one per user as not in business, so it just means restricting the number of similar messages that a specific user account can send. 

Why has Meta implemented Frequency Capping, and how does it benefit the marketing process?

By 2024, more than 1 lakh companies will be using the WhatsApp API to reach users on the platform, which means a large portion of marketing messages end up in a user’s WhatsApp spam folder. 

This problem of message fatigue was causing people to stop using the app, so Meta has introduced Frequency Capping so that only a set number of promotional messages reach your WhatsApp. 

This update of Meta, Frequency Capping, aims to enhance the customer experience on WhatsApp by controlling the overflow of marketing and promotional messages. Regardless, businesses can benefit from this feature, too. A fine, clean message delivery may raise your communication’s overall influence, as clients would not feel flooded. 

Key Impact of Meta’s Frequency Capping on Businesses

1. Reduces over-communication

Frequency capping prevents users from constantly receiving promos on WhatsApp, which would significantly reduce utility and engagement levels.

2. Enhances Engagement

When it comes to engagement, then frequency capping helps, having an understanding of how exactly frequency capping increases engagement, let me examine the following: why so, you ask? Well with only a certain amount of messages that can get to the user’s WhatsApp, it becomes much easier for said user to view those messages and relate to those businesses. 

3. Operational Adjustments

To counter frequency capping, businesses are going to have to make certain adjustments to their WhatsApp marketing strategy. Go to the next section to find out the high delivery rates as some guidelines.

4. Marketing Limitations

Currently, frequency capping only applies to communication in the form of promotional messages on WhatsApp. It has no impact on service (case: user-generated conversations) as well as Clicks to WhatsApp Ads messages. 

5. Country-wise Impact 

Some other sites claim that Frequency capping is in force only for Indian users and is not implemented for the rest of the Global users. However, it’s not true. This is relevant to notifications to be communicated to the users anytime via Whatsapp, regardless of the geographical region.

Measures to overcome Meta’s Frequency Capping

1. Get Opt-in from new users

Notify the leads before you start broadcasting through the WhatsApp application. All the contact forms indicate that the number the user is providing might be used to communicate with them via WhatsApp notification. This means that the user may receive messages of personal interest from your brand and may not block your contact, therefore improving delivery rates. 

2. Do not immediately try resending messages to failed contacts

If messages are not sent, try after 24-48 hours for them. Perhaps, such users have probably reached the limit of the promotional messages they can receive from other businesses and hence failed your messages. 

With Getgabs, you can easily resend messages to failed contacts. Just go to the campaigns section > Add a campaign name (Failed Campaign) > Upload the contacts you want to resend messages to and resend your broadcasts. This can boost your delivery rates by 20-30%. 

3. Send Broadcasts with a way to unsubscribe

A periodic message must always point users to how they can unsubscribe from related WhatsApp notifications. This will send a signal to Meta that your broadcasts are real, resulting in higher delivery rates.

With Getgabs, you can let users keep themselves from receiving any of your notifications by excluding certain keywords. E.g. STOP. 

4. Do not schedule too many messages in a short duration

The number of messages does not equal more conversions. This annoys users, making them come up with ways to block you. 

5. Do not just sell; send content that engages users

One more that can increase the delivery rates is to send messages that do not resemble the call to action instead of engaging the users. Higher engagement means more delivery, and this is a signal to Meta that your business is sending quality messages. 

6. Send limited cold broadcasts on WhatsApp

If you want to get your number blocked by a mass audience, try sending a lot of cold broadcasts. Not only will this decrease your quality rating, but Meta will see that you are sending broadcasts with no proper opt-in resulting in a high failure rate.

Do not do too many cold broadcasts each month. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1 What is Frequency Capping?

A. Frequency capping is an update that Meta introduced to prevent the sending of spam messages in the WhatsApp application; users cannot receive a large number of promotional messages for a specific time using the application.

Q.2 Why did Meta introduce Frequency Capping?

A. Meta introduced Frequency Capping to address the issue of message overload experienced by users, which leads to lower Return on Investment (ROI) for Marketing Messages.

Q.3 Does Frequency Capping affect all users?

A. No, Frequency Capping is only applied to marketing messages sent to users in India (+91) country code.

Q.4 Why are my marketing messages failing to send?

A. This is because Meta has rolled out frequency capping, an update that Meta introduced to build a more positive environment on WhatsApp. This restriction on the number of promotional messages a user can receive on WhatsApp. Meta has not defined a limit for frequency capping.

Q.5 How do I ensure high message delivery rates amidst Frequency capping?  

A. You can ensure a higher delivery rate for promotional messages sent through WhatsApp by requiring new users to opt in, retry sending messages to failed contacts in 24-48 hours, sending quality messages, and allowing users to opt out of WhatsApp updates in each WhatsApp broadcast.

Q.6 What is the Spam rate limit hit?

A. This is the message failure reason you will see in your WhatsApp engagement platform which means that Meta is constraining your marketing messages from going to some of its users because of this update concerning frequency capping. Thus, at this moment, there is no easy way for you to deal with it.

Q.7 How many promotional messages can a user receive on a particular day?

A. Meta hasn’t announced a standard number of promotional messages you might roll out in a single day within the frequency cap update. Instead, that number is decided randomly by Meta depending on the total marketing messages that a particular user may have received that day from you or perhaps from another business. 

For such days, your message will most probably fail due to receiving too many broadcasts.

Q.8 I am sending messages to opt-in users only, yet they are failing. Why?  

A. As we mentioned above, Meta’s frequency capping is random, depending on how many promotional messages a user has received on a particular day. If they have received many messages on a particular day, your message will likely fail to deliver. 

Q.9 Does Meta’s frequency capping affect already existing marketing conversations?

A. No, frequency capping doesn’t apply to existing marketing and utility conversations.

Q.10  Is frequency capping affecting utility WhatsApp conversations as well?

A. Yes. The failed messages for utility conversations are very low, but frequency capping applies for those conversations, and you might see a few messages failing to deliver due to this update.

Conclusion 

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to deal with Meta’s Frequency capping, but the above-discussed practices might be a blessing for you, as they have been helpful for many of our clients. 

Frequency capping offers an insight that it would not like the user’s WhatsApp for interaction.  One should not only use WhatsApp for selling instead, market your business on the WhatsApp platform. 

It also means sending all kinds of offers on WhatsApp may be ineffective. What is important is what you establish with the end user of your accounting services.