Leads from ads that open WhatsApp:reply in seconds and attribute the sale
You paid for the ad and the lead is already typing. If the reply takes hours, that spend is wasted, and for the deals that do close, nobody knows which ad brought them in. An AI agent replies in seconds, qualifies, hands the ready buyers to a rep and ties every sale to its campaign in Salesforce. Here is what the chat carries, which Meta rule is worth using and how to measure the return.
How do you handle leads from click-to-WhatsApp ads?
You handle leads from click-to-WhatsApp ads by replying in seconds and knowing which ad each one came from, because the first message carries that reference. If your reply goes out within 24 hours, Meta opens a free window of at least 72 hours. Within it, you qualify the lead, route it to a rep when it makes sense and log the campaign so the sale can be attributed.
What changes with an AI agent is that the first reply no longer depends on someone watching the phone. The agent answers at any hour, picks up the offer the lead saw in the ad, asks the qualifying questions you defined, passes the ready buyers to a rep and logs the campaign, the ad and the outcome of every conversation in Salesforce.
Why every lead that waits costs you money
An ad that opens WhatsApp brings in someone with a specific question who wants it answered right then. If nobody replies, they do not wait around: they go back to the feed and tap the next ad, which may be your competitor's. The ad spend is already gone; what you lose is the sale.
Speed matters more than it seems. Companies that contact a lead within the first hour are seven times as likely to qualify it as those that wait one more hour, and more than sixty times as likely as those that take 24 hours or longer (Harvard Business Review, 2011). On WhatsApp, where the lead expects a chat-speed reply, that hour shrinks to minutes.
- Ads that run around the clock: the budget is spent at night and on weekends, while the team works office hours.
- Spikes the team cannot absorb: a campaign that performs brings in more conversations than reps can answer in time.
- The same questions over and over: price, stock, shipping and coverage area eat the time that should go to closing.
- Browsers and buyers, mixed together: the ad attracts both, and the rep does not know whom to answer first.
- Sales with no source: the lead buys days later, by phone or email, and the sale is never tied back to the ad that generated it.
What data a conversation started from an ad carries
When someone taps a click-to-WhatsApp ad and sends the message, the WhatsApp Business API delivers that first message with the ad reference attached: which ad or post they tapped, what it said and a unique click ID (Meta for Developers, 2026). It is the piece of data that tells you, from the very first line, where each lead came from.
That reference arrives through the API, with the message the lead sends from the ad. If nobody stores it at that moment, the conversation goes on, but the source is lost.
| Data | What it is | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Ad ID | The ID of the ad or post the lead tapped | Knowing which ad brought in the conversation and matching it to its campaign |
| Ad headline and body | What the lead read before writing | Picking up the ad's offer without asking what they are interested in |
| Creative type and link | Whether it was an ad or a post, whether it had an image or a video, and its URL | Comparing which creatives drive conversations that end in a sale |
| Click ID (ctwa_clid) | A unique code for that click on that ad | Sending the qualified lead or the sale back to Meta to attribute them to the campaign |
| First message | The prefilled message, the suggested question they chose or whatever the lead typed | Spotting intent from the first line |
| Number and profile name | The WhatsApp number and the name on the user's profile | Checking whether they are already a customer in the CRM before replying |
The exact fields depend on the ad type; Meta documents them in the webhooks reference of the WhatsApp Business API.
The free window of at least 72 hours: how it opens and how to use it
Meta has a rule designed for these conversations. When someone messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad or from the WhatsApp button on your Facebook Page, and you reply within 24 hours, a free entry point window of at least 72 hours opens: while it lasts, no message you send is charged, templates included (Meta for Developers, 2026).
There are conditions. The lead has to write from the WhatsApp app on Android or iOS, not from the web or desktop versions, and the clock starts with your reply, not with their message. If you do not reply within 24 hours, the window never opens and, to write to them again, you need an approved template, which is billed according to its category.
In practice, that is at least three days to qualify, quote, send the catalog and pick the conversation back up if the lead got distracted, with no messaging cost. Whatever is not settled in that time follows the API's standard rules.
| Situation | What happens to messaging costs |
|---|---|
| The lead writes from the ad and you reply within 24 hours | The free window of at least 72 hours opens: nothing you send while it lasts is charged |
| The lead writes from the ad and you do not reply within 24 hours | No free window: to message them you need a template, billed according to its category |
| The lead writes from WhatsApp Web or the desktop app | The free window does not apply: the rules of any other conversation do |
| The free window has closed and the lead writes again | The standard 24-hour window applies: replies are service messages, with 1,000 free per number per month |
| The free window has closed and the lead has not written again | Only with an approved template and their consent to receive your messages |
Rules published by Meta for Developers. Meta revises them several times a year: check the current ones in its documentation before budgeting.
Replying fast also saves money: a reply that goes out in seconds always opens the free window, and one that goes out the next day may not. Estimate your monthly spend with the WhatsApp API cost calculator; the full pricing model is in how much the WhatsApp Business API costs.
Reply and qualify in seconds, and route the ready buyers
The first reply decides whether the lead stays or leaves. The agent answers in seconds and starts from the ad: if the lead tapped a promotion for a product line, it does not ask how it can help; it shows that line and asks what it needs to move forward.
Qualification is woven into useful answers, with no forms. You define the questions with your team; in B2B sales they are usually which company it is, what volume they need, by when and who makes the decision. The agent scores the answers against your rules and only routes the leads that meet them.
- A greeting with context: the agent uses the ad headline to pick up the offer the lead saw.
- Answers from your data: list prices, stock and terms come from your ERP or CRM, not from canned text.
- Text, voice notes and photos: the lead can type, send a voice note or a photo of what they are looking for, and the agent understands it.
- Existing customers: if the number is already in Salesforce, the agent recognizes it and treats them as a customer, not a new lead.
| Lead situation | What the agent does |
|---|---|
| Qualified and ready to move forward | Assigns it to a rep based on your territory or round-robin rules and passes along the conversation summary |
| Wants to buy right now | Quotes from your price lists and, if it applies, takes the order in the same chat |
| Interested, but no timeline | Sends the catalog or the quote, logs the interest and follows up while the free window is open |
| Asks to talk to a person | Hands it off right away, with the conversation and the data already gathered |
| Writes outside the team's hours | Keeps the conversation going, quotes if it applies and schedules the rep's follow-up for the next business day |
| Outside your audience (another region, a consumer in a B2B sale) | Replies politely, logs the reason and closes it without tying up a rep |
The routing criteria (volume, strategic accounts, off-catalog products) are set by each company during implementation.
If your ads already land in a shared inbox: platforms like Wati, Kommo or respond.io organize those conversations for the team. Sellium connects to them through their API to answer and qualify the chats without switching tools; before deciding, check that the platform exposes the ad data through its API.
How to attribute the sale to the campaign that brought it in
Meta Ads Manager reports how many conversations each ad started; what it does not know is which ones ended in a sale. Closing that loop takes two things: storing the source of every conversation in the CRM and sending the outcome back to Meta.
Logging handles the first one. The lead is created in Salesforce with the campaign, the ad and the click ID, and the opportunity inherits that source: the sale that closes days later, even if a rep closes it over the phone, stays tied to the ad.
The second is Meta's Conversions API for business messaging: using the click ID, you tell Meta which conversations became a qualified lead or a purchase, and for how much (Meta for Developers, 2026). With that signal, the campaign can be optimized toward the leads that buy, not just the ones that write.
| Metric | How it is calculated | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first reply | Minutes between the lead's first message and the first reply | Conversation log |
| Leads answered on time | Conversations answered within 24 hours over all ad conversations | Conversation log |
| Qualification rate by ad | Qualified leads over conversations started, by ad and by campaign | Salesforce, with the lead source |
| Cost per qualified lead | Campaign spend over qualified leads | Meta Ads and Salesforce |
| Sales by campaign | Won opportunities and their amount, by source campaign | Salesforce |
| Messaging cost per sale | WhatsApp messaging spend over closed sales | Meta billing and Salesforce |
Measure a baseline before automating and compare the same campaigns before and after, using Salesforce data rather than estimates.
From the ad to an attributed sale, with no manual entry
This is the full path an ad lead takes, from the first message to the sale logged with its campaign.
The lead taps the ad
WhatsApp opens with the ad's prefilled message or suggested questions, and the lead sends the first message.
It arrives with its source
The API delivers the message with the ad reference: the ad ID, the headline and the click ID.
A reply in seconds
The agent answers from the ad's offer, at any hour, and that reply opens the free window of at least 72 hours.
It qualifies while it chats
It answers with your prices and stock, and asks the qualifying questions you defined with your team.
It routes or moves ahead
It passes the ready leads to a rep, with the summary; with the rest it quotes, takes the order or schedules the follow-up.
It logs and sends the signal back
The lead is stored in Salesforce with its campaign, and the outcome goes back to Meta to attribute the sale to the ad.
Speed and channel rules, by the numbers
Third-party figures with a published source, to size what a fast reply is worth. None of them is a Sellium result: every implementation is measured against the company's own baseline.
7x
More likely to qualify a lead when you contact it within the first hour than an hour later
60x
More likely to qualify it when you contact it within the first hour than after waiting 24 hours or more
72 h+
At minimum, with no messaging cost when the lead writes from an ad and you reply in time
24 h
To reply to the message that comes from the ad and open the free window; after that, templates only
Caveats: the Harvard Business Review figures measure web leads contacted by phone or email, not WhatsApp conversations, and are used as a reference for what a fast reply is worth. The free window lasts at least 72 hours from your reply, Meta may extend it, and it applies when the lead writes from the WhatsApp app on Android or iOS. Meta revises its rules and rates several times a year: check the current ones in its documentation.
Sellium: the ad brings the lead, the agent answers and logs it
Sellium is delivered configured with your catalog, your qualification rules and your Salesforce: it is not a platform to build on. It replies to every ad lead in seconds, at any hour, and leaves the rep the ones that are ready to close. If the lead wants to buy right away, the agent quotes from your price lists, as we cover in automated quotes on WhatsApp.
Sellium
AI sales agent for WhatsApp
Sellium is Vantegrate's AI sales agent for WhatsApp: it runs on the official API, answers and qualifies the leads from your ads, quotes, routes to a rep and logs every sale with its campaign in Salesforce, 24 hours a day.
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Sellium runs 100% on Salesforce and Oracle Cloud infrastructure, certified SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Vantegrate enables, the customer operates and certifies.
See the security modelISV and Consulting PartnerRuns inside your Salesforce
Sellium reads and writes your objects, respects your profiles and permissions, and works alongside Agentforce and your existing flows.
Vantegrate and SalesforceFrequently asked questions about click-to-WhatsApp ad leads
What marketing and sales teams ask before letting an agent handle the chats their ads bring in.
What are click-to-WhatsApp ads?
What are click-to-WhatsApp ads?
They are Facebook and Instagram ads that, when tapped, open a WhatsApp conversation with your business instead of sending people to a website or a form. You create them in Meta Ads Manager, they can include a prefilled message or suggested questions, and the first message arrives with the ad reference, so you can tell which campaign brought in each lead.
How long do I have to reply to a lead that comes from an ad?
How long do I have to reply to a lead that comes from an ad?
To keep the conversation free, 24 hours: if you reply within that time, Meta opens a window of at least 72 hours with no messaging cost. To avoid losing the sale, much less: according to Harvard Business Review (2011), contacting a lead within the first hour makes you seven times as likely to qualify it as contacting it an hour later. An AI agent replies in seconds, including nights and weekends.
Are messages in conversations that start from ads free?
Are messages in conversations that start from ads free?
For at least 72 hours, yes, if three conditions are met: the lead writes from the ad or from the WhatsApp button on your Facebook Page, uses the app on Android or iOS, and you reply within 24 hours. Within that window no message is charged, templates included. After that, the API's standard rules apply; you can estimate the cost with the WhatsApp API cost calculator.
How do I know which ad generated a sale on WhatsApp?
How do I know which ad generated a sale on WhatsApp?
By storing the ad reference when the conversation arrives and carrying it through to the sale. The first message includes the ad ID and the click ID; if they are logged on the lead in Salesforce, the opportunity inherits that source and the sale stays attributed even if it closes days later. To let Meta know too, the outcome is sent back through its Conversions API with the click ID.
Can you qualify Meta Ads leads directly on WhatsApp?
Can you qualify Meta Ads leads directly on WhatsApp?
Yes, and that is where it pays off most: the lead is already in the conversation, and qualification happens through questions woven into useful answers, with no forms. The agent asks what your team defined (company, volume, timeline, who decides), scores the answers against your rules and routes to a rep only the leads that meet them.
How much does it cost to handle ad leads with Sellium?
How much does it cost to handle ad leads with Sellium?
Sellium is priced in two parts: an initial implementation quoted for each company and a monthly subscription with AI credits that scale up, with no lock-in. You pay for WhatsApp messages directly to Meta, on your own account and with no markup from us, and messages inside the free ad window are not charged. For your number, request a quote with your conversation volume.
No lead from your ads should be left waiting
Tell us which ads open WhatsApp, how many conversations come in each week and who answers them. We will show you how Sellium would reply to each one, with your catalog and your rules, and how every sale would stay tied to its campaign in Salesforce.