Campaigns and journeys
Broadcasts, audiences and automated sequences.
Two different tools. Campaigns are one-off broadcasts you send. Journeys are automated sequences that run themselves when a customer does something.
Campaigns — one-off broadcasts
A WhatsApp broadcast to an audience you define.
- Choose an audience. Not everyone — see below.
- Write the message, using an approved WhatsApp template.
- Preview the audience. You see exactly who it resolves to, and how many, before anything sends.
- Schedule or send. A campaign can be paused or cancelled mid-flight.
Delivery is tracked per recipient
Queued, sent, delivered, read and failed are counted separately. WhatsApp fails individual messages constantly; a failed recipient is retried with backoff rather than the whole batch being re-sent because one number bounced.
Audiences
Build a segment from any of these rules:
| Bought a specific product | Bought from a category |
| Lifetime spend between | Number of orders between |
| Has never bought anything | Ordered in the last N days |
| Has not ordered in the last N days | Abandoned a cart in the last N days |
| Delivery state is |
Segment before you broadcast. "Bought once, more than 60 days ago" is a campaign. "Everyone" is how a list stops converting and starts generating blocks and reports.
Journeys — automated sequences
A journey runs when a customer does something, without you being involved. Enrolment happens on the event, not on a list upload.
Triggers
| Trigger | Typical use |
|---|---|
| New contact (welcome) | Introduce the brand, set expectations |
| Cart abandoned | A sequence rather than a single nudge |
| Browse abandoned (no cart) | They looked but never added anything |
| Order placed | Reassure, set delivery expectations, cross-sell later |
| Order shipped | Tracking, then a review request after delivery |
Steps
| Message | Send on the channel you have configured |
| Wait | Hold for hours or days |
| Filter | Branch, or drop out, based on what they have since done |
The filter step is the one that matters most: it is what stops someone who has already bought receiving the rest of a "come back and buy" sequence.
Draft and live
Build a journey without it running, then switch it on. You can also enrol a specific customer by hand for testing.
Enrol yourself first and let the whole sequence run. Reading the steps in the editor is not the same as receiving them. Timing mistakes — three messages in an hour, or a review request before delivery — only become obvious on the receiving end.
Duplicate protection
A customer cannot be enrolled twice into the same active journey, so a repeat trigger does not produce two overlapping sequences.
Which should you use?
| Use a campaign for | Use a journey for |
|---|---|
| A sale announcement | Welcoming new contacts |
| A new product launch | Post-purchase follow-up |
| A festival offer | Win-back after 60 days |
| Anything tied to a date | Anything tied to behaviour |
Still stuck? Message us on WhatsApp — we would rather answer than have you guess.