How bulk actions work
There is no separate “Broadcasts” page. A broadcast is one kind of bulk action, the Send message kind, and every bulk action follows the same four beats.
- You start a bulk action from a list, Contacts or Leads, never from the Bulk Actions page. That page only shows runs that already exist.
- One run does one thing to everyone. To message a group and also tag them, that is two runs.
- Nothing goes out all at once. A run sends in small batches, a few minutes apart, only on the days and hours you allow. That is what keeps a big send from looking like spam to WhatsApp.
Send a broadcast, step by step
The example: message every parent tagged Trial booked about your December holiday camp, from your Whatsapp Business number.
Open Contacts and filter to the people you want
Click Contacts in the left sidebar, then Filters and add a rule, for example Tags is any of Trial booked. The little number on the button tells you a filter is on.
Select everyone who matches
Click the checkbox at the top of the table. A small box asks Choose bulk select option. Pick Select from all pages to take everyone who matches the filter, not just the 25 rows on screen.
Click Send message in the violet bar
As soon as anything is ticked, a violet bar rises from the bottom of the page with the count and every action you can run. Click Send message.
Choose the channel to send from
A dialog opens called Send message to contacts. It lists only channels that are connected right now. Click the one to send from.
Pick an approved template
On Whatsapp Business the dialog has three tabs: 1. Select template, 2. Configure, 3. Schedule. WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with a template Meta has approved, so that is all you can pick. Templates still Pending or Rejected are shown faded and cannot be chosen.
Hi {{1}}, our December holiday camp for {{2}} opens this week. Reply YES and we will hold a seat.
Hi {{1}}, the new term timetable is out. Tap below to see the classes for your child.
On any other channel
There are no tabs. You get one screen with a Message box, where you type what to send and can attach an image or document, then the same pacing fields as step 7, and a Send message button.
Fill in the template’s blanks
Each {{1}} in the template needs a value. Type fixed text such as your child, or click the tag icon in the box to fill it per person from a contact field, such as their first name.
Check who gets it, then send
The last tab is the schedule. The defaults are sensible for a first send: start in a minute, one message at a time, five minutes apart, every day from 08:00 to 20:00. Check three things, then click Send.
- The count. If you ticked people by hand, anyone without a valid phone number is already taken off, and the dialog says N contacts excluded (no valid phone number).
- The name. Action name is what the run is called on the Bulk Actions page. The date-and-time default works, but “Holiday camp invite” is easier to find later.
- The pace. Leave it on the defaults for now. How to tune it is in Advanced.
A confirmation replaces the form. Click View bulk actions to go and watch it.
Watch, pause or stop a run
Every bulk action, whoever started it and from wherever, is listed on the Bulk Actions page, newest first, ten to a page. The page does not refresh itself: reload it to see a status change.
Monitor, pause, resume, and review large-scale operations across your contacts in a single place.
Creating - working out exactly who is in the run.
Processing - the batches are going out on schedule.
Completed - every batch has been sent.
Pause, resume or cancel
The controls live in the ⋮ menu next to the run’s name. The menu only shows what makes sense right now, so a finished run has no Pause and a paused one shows Resume instead.
Monitor, pause, resume, and review large-scale operations across your contacts in a single place.
- Pause stops sending. Messages already sent stay sent.
- Resume picks up with the people still waiting, starting about a minute later and keeping your days and hours.
- Cancel stops it for good. Works on a running or a paused run. There is no undo; to send to the rest later, start a new run and use the exclusion to skip people who already got it.
- Rename changes the name shown in the list. View details shows the settings the run was created with.
See who got it
Three ways to check a run, from quickest to most detailed. All three are in the same ⋮ menu, and all three work while the run is still going.
Monitor, pause, resume, and review large-scale operations across your contacts in a single place.
Bulk action stats
Holiday camp invite
Total
248
Success
96
39%
Errors
4
2%
248 − 96 − 4 = 148 still waiting for their batch.
- Show stats - Total, Success and Errors with percentages. Anyone not yet counted in either is still waiting for their batch.
- Download send message report - a spreadsheet with one row per person and their status: PENDING, SUCCESS or ERROR. Hand it to whoever follows up the failures.
- View contacts - jumps to Contacts filtered to this run: all of them, or only the success, error or pending ones. From there you can tag them, or start another bulk action on just those people.
The other bulk actions
The violet bar on Contacts has six buttons. They all start the same way (filter, select, click), but only some become a run you can watch and pause. The Leads bar has four: no tag buttons.
The broadcast. One message to everyone, sent in paced batches.
Run: Send MessageStarts one workflow for each person. Same pacing and exclusion fields as a broadcast.
Run: Add To WorkflowSet value or Clear value on one field for everyone, applied in batches.
Run: Update Contacts / Update LeadsTags or untags everyone straight away.
Instant, not a runAsks you to type DELETE. Deleting contacts also removes their leads and messages.
Run when over 10 or all pagesAdds or updates people from a spreadsheet.
Run: Import ContactsPacing and exclusions
The defaults are safe. Change them when a send needs to finish faster, stay inside office hours, or skip people you already reached.
How the pace works
- Batch quantity - how many messages go in each batch. Starts at 1; the most it accepts is 5.
- Time interval per batch - the gap between batches, in Minutes or Hours. Starts at 5 minutes.
- Days and hours - which days it may send and between which times, in your workspace’s timezone. Starts at every day, 08:00 to 20:00. When the window closes, the run waits and carries on when it opens again. It does not skip anyone.
- Start on - when the first batch goes. It cannot be in the past.
12 hours ÷ 5 minutes = 144 messages a day, so 1,000 people take almost a week. Raise Batch quantity to 5 and it is 720 a day: done by lunchtime on day 2.
High throughput (Whatsapp Business on Cloud API only)
If your Whatsapp Business number is connected through the Cloud API, the schedule tab shows one more card. Switch it on and batches go out as fast as WhatsApp allows, with no gap between them.
Switched on, the Time interval per batch field disappears. Your days and hours still apply.
Skip people you already reached
Under the pacing fields, Don’t send to contacts from past campaigns opens two boxes. Pick earlier runs, then which result to skip. The list offers your last 100 Send message and Add to workflow runs.
Avoid sending again to contacts who already received (or had a given status in) a selected campaign.
From these past campaigns
Select campaigns; contacts from these can be excluded based on status below.
With status
e.g. Success = already sent to them.
Setups to copy
Four runs built from the pieces above. Adjust the names and numbers to fit.
Filter by tag, select all pages, approved template, defaults on. Gentle enough for any list that knows you.
Same filter as last week’s send. Exclude that run with status Success, so only people it missed hear from you.
Fix what caused them (usually a missing If empty, use), then message only the people the first run could not reach.
For replies your team must handle: send on weekdays only, 09:00 to 17:00, so answers arrive while someone is at their desk.
Good to know & pitfalls
- “All pages” follows the filter. Check the filter before you run anything you cannot take back, like Delete.
- The count can be a little high. With “all pages”, the count on the schedule tab includes people without a valid phone number. They are dropped when the run starts, so the Total in Show stats can be lower.
- Batch quantity stops at 5. The error message says “must be less than 5”, but 5 itself is allowed. For more speed on a Cloud API number, use high throughput instead.
- Whatsapp Business sends templates only. No free text, and only templates Meta has approved.
- Outside the hours, a run waits. It does not cancel or skip; it picks up when the window opens, in your workspace’s timezone.
- The page does not update by itself. Reload Bulk Actions to see a run move from Creating to Processing to Completed.
- Two statuses you may meet. A high throughput send shows Send Message in the Status column while it goes out (the Status filter calls it Sending). A Send to a list blast shows Resolving List Rows while it reads the spreadsheet. Both are normal.
- Tags are instant. Add tag and Remove tag apply straight away and never appear on the Bulk Actions page.
- Reports exist for sends and imports. For other runs, use Show stats and View contacts.
Need a hand?
Our Singapore-based team is one message away - happy to help you get set up.