A click-to-WhatsApp ads chatbot that qualifies while the click is warm.
A click-to-WhatsApp ads chatbot answers the people who tap your Facebook or Instagram ad and land in a WhatsApp chat, asks the few questions that separate a buyer from a browser, and passes qualified leads to your team. Cloodot knows which ad started each conversation, so the welcome, the questions and the routing can change per ad.
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Hi, I saw your ad for the weekend workshop. Are there seats left?
Seats are open on both dates. Which day suits you, and how many people are coming?
- Ad
- Weekend workshop, video ad
- Answers
- Saturday, two people
- Routed to
- Bookings team
What happens after someone taps the ad
A click-to-WhatsApp ad doesn't send people to a landing page. It opens a WhatsApp chat with your business, usually with a message already typed for them. If you've set a welcome message, they also see your greeting and a few quick replies they can tap before writing a word. The click becomes a conversation, and the conversation is where the lead is won or lost.
Meta makes the first stretch cheap on purpose. When someone messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you reply within 24 hours, a free entry point window opens for 72 hours, and your messages to that person, templates included, aren't charged during it. The 72 hours are about price, not permission: a free-form message still needs the customer to have written in the last 24 hours. After that, it has to be an approved template.
The pitfall is timing. Ads deliver chats in bursts, often in the evening, and a lead who waits an hour for "Hi, how can I help?" has moved on. A generic menu that ignores what the ad promised makes people explain themselves twice.
How to run a click-to-WhatsApp ads chatbot in Cloodot
Start with the welcome. Under your WhatsApp number's Welcomes tab you create welcome messages: a greeting, quick replies, and a first message pre-typed into the customer's composer. They're stored on your WhatsApp Business Account, so you choose one in Ads Manager under Partner app when you build the ad, and Cloodot marks the ones that are live on an ad.
When the chat opens, Cloodot reads the referral data Meta attaches: the ad id, headline, ad copy, click id and a link to the ad or post. The conversation shows in the inbox as coming from an ad, and a workflow on the New Conversation trigger can act on it. Check fromAd, compare the ad id, then pin a specific AI persona, add a label, or route the lead into a team inbox. Meta sends the ad's id but not its campaign or ad set, so a campaign with several ads needs one condition per ad.
Then the agent qualifies. A procedure written for the ad's offer asks the questions in order, what they want, when, how many, where, with quick replies for the common answers. AI Extraction writes what it learns into custom fields and labels as the chat goes. A lead that meets your bar is handed to a person with a priority and a reason; one that doesn't stays with the agent, which keeps answering instead of dropping it.
Afterwards, Ad Insights shows ad-driven message volume by channel, source type and headline. You can follow each ad to the answers and labels it produced, and segment contacts by the ad they came from for a later campaign.
What Cloodot does here
WhatsApp welcome messages
Write the greeting, quick replies and pre-typed first message in Cloodot, then pick them in Ads Manager. Each shows whether it's live on an ad.
Ad-aware workflows
The New Conversation trigger carries the ad's id, headline, copy and click id for click-to-WhatsApp, click-to-Messenger and click-to-Instagram ads, so each ad's leads can get their own greeting, persona and team.
Explore Skills & workflowsQualification procedures
One procedure per offer, with steps, decisions and quick replies, and AI Extraction filling the custom fields your team needs to follow up.
Explore AI agentAd Insights
Ad message volume, channel split, source types and the top 20 headlines by messages, over any time range.
Explore AnalyticsSegments by ad
Group contacts by the ad that brought them in, for a follow-up template or to leave existing leads out of the next campaign.
Explore Campaigns
Set up a click-to-WhatsApp ads chatbot
5 steps
Connect the number your ads use
Connect the WhatsApp Business number in Settings → Organization → Channels. The ad must point to that number and be set up as click-to-message, not click-to-website.
Create the welcome message
Open the number's Welcomes tab and add a greeting, two or three quick replies that match the ad's offer, and a pre-typed first message. Choose it in Ads Manager under Partner app.
Write a qualification procedure
In Intelligence → Agent → Procedures, describe the offer so the agent knows when the procedure applies, then list the questions, quick replies and the handover point. Add custom fields with AI Extraction for the answers.
Route by ad
Build a workflow on New Conversation with a Decision on trigger.fromAd or trigger.ad.adId, then Assign to AI for the right persona, Add Label, or route to a team.
Read Ad Insights weekly
In Insights → Ads, compare headlines and source types, then check the FAQ Unanswered tab for questions the ad raised that the agent couldn't answer.
Limits worth knowing
- Attribution works on new conversations. A returning customer who taps an ad continues their existing chat, which doesn't fire the New Conversation trigger. Ad Insights counts only messages that arrive with Meta's referral data, and Meta doesn't attach it in every case.
- Reporting conversions back to Meta, telling Ads Manager which chats became qualified leads or sales so it can optimize delivery, isn't something you can switch on yourself in Cloodot today. Measure the ad-to-conversation step in Cloodot and the rest in your own reporting.
- Meta reports the ad, not the campaign. To treat a whole campaign the same way, list each of its ad ids in the workflow's Decision and combine them with OR.
Questions teams ask
Are click-to-WhatsApp ad conversations free?
Partly. When someone messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you reply within 24 hours, Meta opens a 72-hour free entry point window in which your messages to them, templates included, aren't charged. You still pay Meta for the ad itself. Cloodot's AI replies use message credits from your plan, as they do on any conversation.
Can the chatbot tell which ad a lead came from?
Yes. The first message carries Meta's referral data: the ad id, the headline, the ad copy, the click id and a link to the ad. Cloodot marks the conversation as coming from an ad and hands those details to workflows. Meta doesn't send the campaign or ad set name, so you match on ad ids.
Do I need a template to reply to an ad lead?
Not at first. The customer messaged you, so the 24-hour customer service window is open and the agent can reply freely. If the lead goes quiet for more than a day, a follow-up has to be an approved template, which Meta doesn't charge for while the 72-hour entry point window is still running.
What should the chatbot ask to qualify a lead?
Only what changes what happens next: what they want, when they want it, and anything that decides price or eligibility, such as quantity or location. Three or four questions is plenty in a chat. Offer quick replies for the common answers, let people type freely, and never ask for something the ad already told you.
Can I send ad leads to a specific team?
Yes. A workflow on the New Conversation trigger can route conversations from a given ad to a team inbox, assign a specific AI persona, or label them. If the agent hands a lead over later, it picks the team whose description fits the reason, or leaves it in Queued for the next available teammate.
Does it work for click-to-Instagram and Messenger ads?
Yes. The same trigger carries ad details for click-to-Messenger and click-to-Instagram ads, including any custom ref parameter you set, and Ad Insights reports all three channels side by side. The 72-hour free entry point window is a WhatsApp rule, so on Instagram and Messenger the usual 24-hour messaging window is what governs your replies.
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