To evaluate the effectiveness of your WhatsApp marketing campaigns, there are three metrics you’ll want to pay close attention to. 

1. Message delivery and open rate

2. Click-through rate

3. Opt-out rate

If you study these three metrics and work to keep them healthy, you’ll be able to elevate your campaign’s engagement and conversion rates, plus reduce the likelihood of your recipients opting out. Depending on your organization’s WhatsApp maturity and objectives, these metrics may not be an exhaustive list of what to monitor. But if you’re just getting started, these are the three you should track at a minimum.

1. Message delivery and open rate

WhatsApp message delivery rate is undeniably the most crucial metric to track. Low deliverability means your carefully crafted messages don’t reach nearly the number of people you’re paying for them to reach. This happens often when businesses use local aggregators or low-cost wholesalers to handle their global SMS messaging. When messages don’t arrive, there’s no chance of them resonating or inspiring any sort of customer action. Make sure your voice is heard.

Naturally, with better delivery rates come better odds of more people opening your message. Open rates go up when recipients find the previewed content enticing enough to click into the message. One of the significant advantages of WhatsApp over email is its reported global open rate of 98%.

Unfortunately, not all WhatsApp campaigns get that many recipients to open their marketing messages. Low open rates can be due to several factors, including:

• Unappealing preview text

• Irrelevant message content

• Poorly timed message sends

• Haphazardly segmented lists

• Technical difficulties with your API

To improve open rates, optimize your WhatsApp experience by:

• Writing compelling preview texts to galvanize readers from the first word

• Tailor your content to suit different consumer action or search triggers

• Update your message send times to catch buyers at the right moment 

• Tighten your list segmentation to ensure you’re reaching the right people

• Shore up your API connection to avoid preventable deliverability issues

One last note here: Be sure to A/B test different types of preview text, send times, and segments to reveal which topics and framing resonate most with your marketplace and drive opens. Once you’ve got your message delivery rate in a good spot, bolstering your content through personalization and experimentation is a surefire way to boost open rates.

2. Click-through rate (CTR)

Once your recipients open your message, you have their attention. The trick, now, is turning that interest into action. The biggest indicator of success at this stage is your CTR. It demonstrates how many consumers took the next step after viewing the entire WhatsApp message, whether it’s writing out a reply in the conversation thread or clicking a link to take an external action.

Even if your campaign achieves a high open rate, there’s no guarantee a substantial CTR will follow. Subpar performance in this metric likely means there’s a disconnect between the preview text and the content a recipient finds upon opening the message. Perpetually low CTRs can harm a brand long-term; it often means your brand feels like spam. This can rack up customer acquisition cost (CAC) fast, too.

Low CTRs stem from issues like:

• Impersonal or generic-sounding content

• Lack of content interactivity or visual interest

• An unclear or unfocused call-to-action (CTA)

To improve your WhatsApp CTRs, consider implementing the following in your messages:

• Personalized content touches based on data about each recipient’s tastes and preferences

• Media-rich elements such as images, GIFs, videos, and other interactive components

• A more straightforward CTA that creates a sense of urgency for the buyer to act 

With WhatsApp templates, it’s easy to customize messages, add visual flair, and captivate users. The more dynamic your messages, the better. By personalizing the user experience (UX) and centering each interaction on the recipient’s wants, it’s far less challenging to build crucial relationships and turn prospects and customers into loyal fans.

3. Opt-out rate

Another vital WhatsApp metric is your opt-out rate. It’s decisive audience feedback that, if left to balloon throughout a campaign, should set off alarm bells in your marketing department. 

The main reason for this is the implied disconnect between your messages and your audience’s interests or needs. If many users choose to stop receiving your messages, it will significantly impact your overall ROI for the channel. It can also damage your brand’s reputation if consumers feel you’re wasting their time.

High opt-out rates may be due to:

• Irrelevant or uninteresting messaging content

• Poorly calibrated messaging frequency

• Non-compliance with local or international regulations

To reduce opt-out rates and keep them to a minimum, you must:

• Craft pertinent content that addresses the right pain points and interests

• Adjust messaging frequency to avoid inundating potential buyers

• Ensure WhatsApp compliance with all privacy and security obligations

Also, keep in mind that you can’t make the opt-out process difficult or impossible for consumers. To stay compliant, you owe them a frictionless way to unsubscribe from your marketing messages. Otherwise, your organization can be hit with severe consequences, including fines.

That said, if your messaging content, frequency, and CTAs are on point, recipients shouldn’t feel the urge to cut the cord with your marketing campaigns.