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Outbound campaigns in Chatbase let you send one message to many of your contacts at once, instead of waiting for customers to start the conversation. They’re for businesses that want to reach customers proactively, such as stores sending order updates or promotions, and teams following up with leads. Campaigns are created from the Outbound page of your AI agent, and WhatsApp is currently the supported channel. Outbound campaigns let you proactively reach out to your contacts at scale. Build targeted audiences, personalize message content using contact data, and track delivery in real time. To get started, open your AI agent and click Outbound in the sidebar.

Supported Channels

WhatsApp Campaigns

Send campaigns to your contacts using pre-approved WhatsApp message templates. Requires a connected WhatsApp integration and approved templates in Meta.
More channels are coming soon. WhatsApp is currently the only supported campaign channel.

Before you start

To send a WhatsApp campaign, you need:
  • A connected WhatsApp integration.
  • At least one message template approved by Meta. WhatsApp campaigns send templates, not free-form text.
  • Contacts with phone numbers. You can add them one at a time or import them in bulk from a .csv or .xlsx file.
  • A payment method in your Meta billing settings, since Meta charges for each template message sent.
  • Your recipients’ opt-in. Meta’s WhatsApp policy requires it, and Chatbase doesn’t manage opt-outs for WhatsApp campaigns, so keep opted-out customers out of your audience.

Key Features

Every outbound campaign, regardless of channel, includes:
  • Audience selection: Choose recipients from your contact list. Search by name or phone number, and filter by custom attributes like subscription tier or region. Each filter matches one exact value.
  • Content personalization: Use contact fields (name, email, custom attributes) to personalize each message per recipient, or set static values for fixed content.
  • Reply behavior: Choose how replies are handled:
    • AI Replies (default): Your AI agent responds automatically. Best for support questions and automated follow-ups.
    • Human Takeover: Replies create Helpdesk tickets tagged with the campaign name. Best for sales outreach and high-touch conversations.
  • Delivery tracking: Monitor campaign progress in real time with a delivery funnel (Queued → Sent → Delivered → Read → Replied), recipient-level status, and error details for failures.

How It Works

1

Pick a channel

Click Outbound in the sidebar, then + New campaign. In the Delivery section, select the channel (for example, WhatsApp) and the phone number to send from.
2

Choose how replies are handled

In the Replies section, keep AI replies so your AI agent answers, or choose Human takeover so each reply becomes a Helpdesk ticket.
3

Configure content

Name the campaign, pick an approved template, and map each template variable to a contact field or a static value. A preview shows the message as you build it.
4

Select your audience

On the Audience tab, search and filter your contacts and select who should receive the campaign. At least one contact is required.
5

Send and monitor

Click Send now. Campaigns go out right away; they can’t be scheduled. You’re taken to the campaign detail page, where delivery updates in real time.
For a full walkthrough with screenshots, see WhatsApp Campaigns.

Example: a store messages its VIP customers

This example shows how the pieces fit together. The tag, city, and template are examples; use the attributes and templates from your own account. An online store keeps a custom attribute called Tag on its contacts, with values such as Customer and VIP Customer, plus a City attribute. It wants to send VIP customers in one city a personalized WhatsApp message.
  1. Prepare contacts. The store imports its customer list with name, phone, and the Tag and City custom attributes. Contacts without a phone number can’t receive WhatsApp campaigns, so every row includes one.
  2. Prepare the template. In WhatsApp Manager, the store creates a template whose body starts with a greeting variable for the customer’s name, and Meta approves it.
  3. Create the campaign. On Outbound, the store clicks + New campaign, selects WhatsApp and its sending number, keeps AI replies, picks the template, and maps the name variable to the contact’s Name field. Each recipient sees their own name.
  4. Choose the audience. On the Audience tab, the store filters Tag to VIP Customer, filters City to the city it wants, and selects the matching contacts.
  5. Send and follow up. The store clicks Send now. When a customer replies with a question, the AI agent answers it like any other WhatsApp chat.

Tracking delivery and results

After you send a campaign, you can follow it from two places: The delivery funnel shows the percentage of recipients at each stage, so you can see where messages drop off between Sent, Delivered, Read, and Replied. Recipients marked Failed come with error details, so you can see why their message didn’t go through. See Monitoring Delivery for screenshots.

Costs and sending limits

  • Meta fees. Meta charges for each WhatsApp template message sent. Fees vary by country and template category. See Meta’s WhatsApp pricing.
  • Sending doesn’t use message credits. Chatbase doesn’t charge message credits for the template messages a campaign sends. You only pay Meta’s fee for each one.
  • AI replies use message credits. When your AI agent answers a reply, that reply uses message credits based on its AI model, the same as on any channel.
  • Up to 50,000 recipients. One campaign can go to at most 50,000 contacts.
  • Daily limits. Meta assigns your WhatsApp Business Account a messaging tier, based on quality and volume, that sets how many unique contacts you can message per day. Your current usage appears as Meta limits at the top right of the campaigns page.

Frequently asked questions

WhatsApp is currently the only supported campaign channel. More channels are coming soon.
No. WhatsApp campaigns send message templates that Meta has approved. Create them in WhatsApp Manager first; see WhatsApp Templates.
It depends on the reply mode you chose. With AI replies, your AI agent answers and the conversation continues like a normal inbound chat. With Human takeover, each reply creates a Helpdesk ticket tagged with the campaign name, and your team responds from the Helpdesk inbox.
On the Audience tab, search by name or phone number, and filter by custom attributes, such as a tag or city. Each filter matches one exact value from the attribute, so you can’t filter by a date range such as “ordered in the last 30 days”. You can combine search and filters. To filter on an attribute, define it as a custom attribute and fill it in on your contacts.
No. Campaigns are sent as soon as you click Send now. To send at a specific time, create the campaign and click Send now then.
Yes. Meta’s WhatsApp policy requires customers to opt in before you message them. Chatbase doesn’t track WhatsApp opt-outs, so remove customers who ask to stop from your audience, for example by filtering on a custom attribute.
Sending doesn’t use Chatbase message credits. Meta charges a fee for each template message. When your AI agent answers replies, those replies use message credits like any other conversation.
Common causes are an invalid phone number, reaching your Meta messaging limit, or a missing payment method in Meta billing. Check the recipients table on the campaign detail page for each recipient’s status. See Troubleshooting.
Yes. When you export tickets, tickets from campaigns have the Type Outbound, so you can tell them apart from ordinary tickets and live chats.

Next steps

WhatsApp Campaigns

Create, send, and track a WhatsApp campaign step by step.

WhatsApp Templates

Create the approved templates your campaigns send.