Marketer’s Space - WhatsApp Pricing Update: What Marketers Need to Know and Do

Marketer’s Space - WhatsApp Pricing Update: What Marketers Need to Know and Do

Hello Marketers, 
This week’s post focuses on what these changes mean for your WhatsApp campaigns inside Zoho Marketing Automation, and how you can stay optimized while keeping costs under control.

Tips to Optimize WhatsApp Marketing in Zoho Marketing Automation   

Group your audience by country for better cost management 

WhatsApp’s new pricing varies by country code, so you need to be mindful of this when sending a campaign to a global list. 
You can use Segments or Lists in Zoho Marketing Automation to group contacts by country.



Inside Journeys, use the Criteria Match component to filter contacts by mobile number (e.g., starts with +91, +1) and add a ‘Country is’ condition for an extra layer of accuracy. This lets you target region-specific audiences with tailored content and avoid unnecessary costs.

Every WhatsApp message now has a cost - make it count 

Since Meta now charges for every initiated message, planning becomes crucial. Don’t send for the sake of it - send with a purpose.


Use personalization and clear CTAs in your campaign messages to boost relevance and engagement. In Zoho Marketing Automation’s message composer, you can personalize the text in the header section and also tailor the content in the body section. These small details can make a big impact on how your message is received.

Review your Journeys that use WhatsApp Campaign actions 

If you’re already using the WhatsApp action inside your Journeys, now’s the time for a quick audit.
  • Ensure your message templates are correctly categorized as utility or marketing, based on Meta’s guidelines.
  • Verify that you’re targeting the right country (country code) using the conditions in the Criteria Match.
This helps you avoid unnecessary marketing template charges and send only what truly matters to your audience.

Use utility messages where applicable 

Under Meta’s pricing model, utility messages are usually cheaper than marketing messages. So when creating templates in Zoho Marketing Automation, it’s important to tag them correctly based on the actual content and purpose.

  • If a reminder, confirmation, or update falls under Meta’s approved utility categories, make sure it’s tagged as utility - not marketing. Incorrect tagging can lead to higher charges for messages that could’ve cost less.
  • Create your templates within Zoho Marketing Automation and review their purpose carefully before assigning a category. Then link them to your Journeys to automate communication effectively and cost-efficiently.

Track your message volume and performance 

Now that each message counts, it’s more important than ever to monitor your message volume and evaluate what’s working.
Use Zoho Marketing Automation’s Reports and Journey Insights to see how many WhatsApp messages are being sent, where they’re going, and what engagement they’re driving.


Stay informed, stay targeted, and stay efficient. With the right setup, WhatsApp marketing can still deliver great ROI - even with the new pricing. More questions? Drop them in the comments and let’s discuss how you’re adapting! Until then, happy marketing!

Regards,
Pearlin Nitika
User Education | Zoho Marketing Automation
 

    • Recent Topics

    • Restoring records from the recycle bin programatically

      Background I'm working on a piece of software to automate conversion of Leads into Deals based on order status from my company's website. The process is mostly complete, right now I'm just working on handling a few edge cases to ensure data integrity.

    • Does Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?

      Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?

    • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

      Availability Update: 29 September 2025: It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition exclusively for IN DC users. 2 March 2026: Available to users in all DCs except US and EU DC. Latest

    • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

      Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

    • SalesIQ Identity Update for Logged In Wordpress User

      Hey folks, SalesIQ does not automatically detect when a visitor logs in to WordPress and update their identity to match. For example, if a client of ours visits the site and logs in, SalesIQ will not track them correctly by default. The Solution The solution

    • Feature Request – Conditional Visitor Information Request in Zoho SalesIQ

      We would like to request the ability to conditionally ask for visitor details based on the communication channel used in Zoho SalesIQ. Specifically: When a visitor initiates a conversation through the live chat widget on the website, we want to continue

    • Add zoho calendar to google calendar

      Hi I keep seeing instructions on how to sync Zoho CRM calendar with google calendar but no instructions on how to view Zoho calendar in my google calendar.

    • Promote a layout to standard so I can delete one layout

      Similar to this and many other topics: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/set-layout-as-standard The problem, every model has a standard layout, which is what we use most of the time... But as the business grows and evolves we may have to

    • Workdrive on Android - Gallery Photo Backups

      Hello, Is there any way of backing up the photos on my android phone directly to a specific folder on Workdrive? Assuming i have the workdrive app installed on the phone in question. Emma

    • Auto sync Photo storage

      Hello I am new to Zoho Workdrive and was wondering if the is a way of automatically syncing photos on my Android phone to my workdrive as want to move away from Google? Thanks

    • Is anyone experience missing functions in the new UI until hard refresh?

      The set of functions including search is almost always missing upon loading an app in the new UI. If you refresh, the functions return. (see second screenshot) Anyone else experiencing this?

    • Conversion Rate – Won Deals over Assigned Prospects

      Hello, I would like assistance configuring a KPI in Zoho Analytics titled: Objective of the calculation: Number of Won Deals divided by Total number of assigned prospects (not only converted prospects). Important clarification: The denominator must include

    • Not receiving New Ticket Emails

      Hello! The company I work for uses the Zoho ticketing system, however, I've noticed I'm not receiving email notifications when new tickets are published. I have admin rights to see these tickets on Zoho Desk and respond to them, but am not receiving the

    • Can't update a field on a parent form from a child form's On Success workflow

      Title: Can't update a field on a parent form from a child form's On Success workflow Hi everyone, I'm building a simple Golf Lesson Tracker app and I'm stuck on what should be a basic operation — updating a number field on a parent form when a child form

    • Approvals in Zoho Creator

      Hi, This is Surya, in one of  my creator application I have a form called job posting, and I created an approval process for that form. When a user submits that form the record directly adding to that form's report, even it is in the review for approval.

    • Upload from Zoho Creator File Upload field to OpenAI Vector Store

      I’ve struggled for quite a while to get this working properly. For a long time we relied on Azure Functions as a workaround to handle file transfers between Zoho Creator and OpenAI Vector Stores. It worked, but added unnecessary infrastructure and complexity.

    • Allow Admin to Configure Report > More Options Button

      As an Admin, I want to configure the options of the Report > More Options button to improve UX and reduce Developer overhead. See attached screenshot. Original question posted here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/modify-standard-rep

    • Calendar start time limit

      Hi all, Has anyone found a magical way to filter calendar reports to start from, let's say 8:00, and not 0:00? Or at least to auto scroll there like Google Calendar for example?

    • Enable Free External Collaboration on Notecards in Zoho Notebook

      Hi Zoho Notebook Team, I would like to suggest a feature enhancement regarding external collaboration in Zoho Notebook. Currently, we can share notes with external users, and they are able to view the content without any issue. However, when these external

    • EU Problem

      Hi all, we've been facing issues with the Europe data center for two days. It's starting to disrupt our daily workflow. Any word on when this will be resolved?

    • How can I clone my website in order to try new templates?

      I want to try a new template for my existing Zoho website without the risk of changing the current site or accidentally publishing the wrong template. Therefore I thought a 'clone website'-option should be somewhere, but I can't find it. How do I try

    • Is it possible to update multiple work items at once?

      Hi, Is it possible to update the statuses/release tags of multiple work items at once? I came across this thread that says it's not possible at the moment, but it was related to the Sprints mobile app. Does this feature not exist in the website as well?

    • Custom Module Missing from Roles & Permissions List

      Hi Zoho Community, I created a new Custom Module in Zoho Expense. The module is fully built and I can see it in the Module Builder (Settings > Customization > Modules). However, I am unable to deploy this to my users because the module does not appear

    • Custom view inconsistencies

      Why is "is not" missing from criteria, along with other comparison operators ??? It makes it almost impossible to build required custom views, I don't want "void" invoices listed & why on earth would "Void" invoices be showing when the criteria includes

    • Need Customer Item Inward Module along with QC

      Need Customer Item Inward Module along with QC 1. Using Transfer Orders hit the item balance sheet 2. Items without inventory it becomes difficult for tracking purpose. 3. Custom Modules become tedious to capture multiple items, item subforms are not

    • Zoho CRM Quotes – Subform and PDF/Writer Limitations

      Hello, I am encountering the following limitations in Zoho CRM Quotes: Custom product images cannot be uploaded in the subform – the image upload field cannot be added; only the file upload field is available. File upload placeholders cannot be used in

    • Apple Messages for Business in Omnichannel communications?

      Hello, Apple launched "Apple Messages for Business" but Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk don't appear in the list of possible integrators. Zoho already promotes https://www.zoho.com/crm/omnichannel.html Omni Channel integration, but Apple Messages does not yet appear.

    • Possible to Turn Off Automatic Notifications for Approvals?

      Hello, This is another question regarding the approval process. First a bit of background: Each of our accounts is assigned a rank based on potential sales. In Zoho, the account rank field is a drop-down with the 5 rank levels and is located on the account

    • Will be possible to create a merge mail template for products?

      Hi, we would need to create a mail merge template for products (native) module. Will be possibile? or do you have a smart solutions to merge products data with a mail merge? thanks Chris

    • Maximum incoming email (attachment size) limit

      I see that the maximum size of received emails can now be set to 20MB, however I'd still like to see it be larger. It's embarrassing when a client sends me an email with a large attachment and I can't receive it. 50, even 100 MB seems reasonable these

    • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - Multi-currency management in Zoho Creator

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to another edition of the Learning Table Series webinar. As you may already know, we've moved to a purpose-based approach in the Learning Table Series this year. Each session now focuses on how a Zoho Creator

    • Outlook/Hotmail Blocking Zoho SMTP IPs (S3150)

      We are currently facing a serious deliverability issue with Zoho SMTP while sending transactional OTP emails for our production application. Emails sent to Outlook / Hotmail addresses are being rejected with the following error: 550 - 5.7.1 Unfortunately,

    • Outlook is blocking incoming mail

      Outlook is blocking all emails sent from the Zoho server. ERROR CODE :550 - 5.7.1 Unfortunately, messages from [136.143.169.51] weren't sent. Please contact your Internet service provider since part of their network is on our block list (S3150). It looks

    • LESS_THAN_MIN_OCCURANCE - code 2945

      Hi I'm trying to post a customer record to creator API and getting this error message. So cryptic. Can someone please help? Thanks Varun

    • Ranking by group in report

      Dears, I am new to Zoho Analytics and I would like to ask you guys help to creating a ranking column. Report type: Pivot Matter: I want to create a ranking column on the right of Percentage. This ranking is group by column Type, and ranking by Final Score/Percent.

    • How do I add a project template to a pre-existing project?

      Help....How do I add a project template to a pre-existing project? Right now I have to delete the old project, make a new one and add the project template at the time of creating the new project.

    • How to add line breaks in zoho.cliq.postToUser(...) message?

      In a CRM function using Deluge I'm sending this message and attempting to add some line breaks but they are ignored. Is there another way to add these breaks? My message: message: New urgent task\nDescription \nThis is a fake description.\n A new line?

    • Passing the image/file uploaded in form to openai api

      I'm trying to use the OpenAI's new vision feature where we can send image through Api. What I want is the user to upload an image in the form and send this image to OpenAI. But I can't access this image properly in deluge script. There are also some constraints

    • Users may not pick the fields to be shown as columns in the Choose Account window when creating a new Deal record

      Hi there, by talking with other users I found out that I, as an Admin, am the only one who can pick fields to be shown as columns in the Choose Account window when creating a new Deal record. In fact, if other users click on the "Add Column" symbol on

    • {Action Required} Re-authenticate your Google Accounts to Continue Data Sync

      Hello Users! To align with Google’s latest updates on how apps access files in Google Drive, we’ve enhanced our integration to comply with the updated security and privacy standards, ensuring safer and more reliable access to your data. With this update,

    • Next Page