Click-to-WhatsApp ads: how the free 72-hour window works

Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram open a chat with your business instead of a website. They come with a useful extra: a free 72-hour window for messages to that customer.

How it works

• A customer taps your Click-to-WhatsApp ad, or the WhatsApp button on your Facebook Page.
• You reply within 24 hours. That reply opens Meta’s free entry-point window.
• For the next 72 hours, everything you send to that customer is free, including templates.
• After 72 hours, normal pricing applies again.

If you miss the first 24 hours, there is no free window: normal pricing applies from the start.

The 24-hour rule still applies

The free window decides what you pay, not what you can send. If the customer goes quiet for 24 hours, you can only send templates, but within the 72 hours those templates are free too.

How to make the most of it

• Reply fast: within minutes, never later than 24 hours. A welcome message or AI bot can reply instantly, even at night.
• Aim to answer questions, send prices and take the order within the 72 hours.
• Use a flow with buttons, such as “Price list”, “Delivery” and “Order now”, so customers get answers without waiting.

In WhatsRay

Chats from ads arrive in the inbox with an ad-lead banner showing the post they came from, and the chat shows when the free window is open and when it ends.

Meta’s pricing and rules change from time to time. The Help Center has the current details and a cost estimator.