1. [Help](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs) 2. [Campaigns](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19377976-campaigns) 3. [WhatsApp Campaigns](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19433179-whatsapp-campaigns) # How to create and launch a WhatsApp campaign in Nuvia Send personalized WhatsApp sequences with Nuvia's Campaigns module. Available on All plans Who can do it Any user with permission to view campaigns Updated on October 2, 2026 [WhatsApp Campaigns](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19433179-whatsapp-campaigns) 1. [How to create and launch a WhatsApp campaign in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14501312-how-to-create-and-launch-whatsapp-campaign-nuvia) 2. [How the default text for template variables works](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16891724-how-default-text-for-template-variables-works) 3. [How to use variables in WhatsApp templates in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353096-how-to-use-variables-in-whatsapp-templates) 4. [How to verify your business on Meta](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16548621-how-to-verify-your-business-on-meta) 5. [Best practices for Meta marketing templates](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16736964-best-practices-for-meta-marketing-templates) A campaign lets you send messages at scale to a contact list via WhatsApp, LinkedIn, or other channels. **Available on:** All plans. **Who can do it:** Any user with permission to view campaigns. ## What you need before you start - At least one [connected WhatsApp channel](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14489425-how-to-connect-whatsapp-to-nuvia) - A contact list with phone numbers filled in - At least one [HSM template](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs) approved by Meta (for campaigns via the WhatsApp Cloud API) ### How to create and launch a campaign #### Step 1: Start creating the campaign 1. In the side menu, click **Campaigns** 2. Click **New Campaign** 3. Fill in the **Campaign name** field (maximum 100 characters). E.g., “Enterprise Prospecting Q1” 4. Select the **Campaign type** – choose **WhatsApp** for your campaign 5. Click **Next** Tip the available channel types depend on the integrations already set up. If WhatsApp doesn't appear, check that the channel is connected on the **Channels** screen. #### Step 2 – Define the audience 1. For the activation type, select **Manual** (for your first campaign, start with manual activation) 2. Under audience source, select **List** 3. Choose the contact list to use as the audience 4. In the side panel, check the audience preview, which shows the number of eligible and ineligible contacts per channel 5. Under **Exclusion rules**, define who should be left out of the campaign (see the section below) 6. Under **Additional settings**, decide on the **Ignore business hours** toggle. It comes off by default, which makes the campaign send only Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Only turn it on if you want to send at any time, including overnight and on weekends 7. Click **Next** Watch the toggle's direction turning **Ignore business hours** on is what **allows** sending outside business hours. Off (the default) is the most restrictive and is recommended for cold prospecting. The setting applies to the whole campaign, all of its steps. Important once you move past this step, the campaign is created as a **Draft** and you can no longer change the audience. Review carefully before continuing. The **Ignore business hours** toggle can still be turned on or off while the campaign is in Draft, and the change is saved in both directions. #### Exclusion rules: who shouldn't receive the campaign Under **Exclusion rules**, you define who is left out of the campaign, even if they're in the audience. People who match these rules don't receive the campaign. - **Exclusion lists** – click the field, use **Search list**, and select one or more lists. Anyone in any of them doesn't receive the campaign. The list chosen as the audience can't also be used as an exclusion list - **Already has an open conversation** – anyone who replied within the chosen period, counted from their last reply, doesn't join the campaign, whether they're talking to Autopilot (AI) or to an agent. You choose the period in minutes, hours, or days: at least 15 minutes and at most 30 days Warning after the campaign is activated, you can no longer add or remove exclusion lists. Only the contents of the lists can change. Tip a list being used as an exclusion list in an active or paused campaign can't be deleted. The platform shows which campaigns use the list; end those campaigns before deleting it. #### Check the campaign's reach In the side panel, the **Campaign reach** card shows, in real time, how many people will receive it: - **In the list** (or **in the stage**, when the audience comes from a funnel) – total people selected in the audience - **Eligible** – people who passed the campaign's rules and filters - **Will receive** – eligible people the campaign can act on in the channel, either by sending a message or requesting a connection - **Channel** – how many eligible people have a WhatsApp number and/or a LinkedIn profile - **Excluded from sending** – how many people were left out, broken down by reason: **Outside filters**, **Exclusion list: list name**, **Already has an open conversation**, and **No WhatsApp number** / **No LinkedIn profile** When you change a rule, the previous numbers stay on screen, with a loading indicator in the title, until the new ones arrive. Meanwhile, the **Next** button is locked so you don't move forward with an old number. If everyone in the audience is excluded, the **Nobody will receive it** warning appears. Adjust the audience or the rules to be able to activate the campaign. #### See who was left out When at least one person is excluded, the card shows the **See who was left out** button. It opens the **Who was left out of the campaign** panel: 1. Use **Search by name** to find a person (the search ignores accents and capitalization) 2. Filter with the reason buttons, which show the count for each: **All**, **Outside filters** (appears when the audience is a funnel or when there are people with this reason), **Already has an open conversation**, **Exclusion list**, and **No channel** 3. In the table, see the **Person**, the **Reason** (with details, such as “List: list name” or “Conversation open for 2 hours”), and the **Channels** they have 4. Use the link next to the name to open the contact, and use pagination to see the other people Good to know the rules are evaluated again at the time of sending, so this list may change until then. #### Step 3 – Set up the message sequence 1. Click **Add step** to create the first step of the campaign 2. For each step, set: - **Template** – select an HSM template approved by Meta (for the WhatsApp Cloud API). The dropdown filters the available templates by the selected inbox - **Default variable text** – optional. Appears when the step has a variable (in a template or in text), with one field per variable. It's the text that goes into the message when the contact doesn't have that data; without it, contacts missing the data don't receive the message - **Interval** – set the waiting time between this step and the next (if there's more than one step) - **Conversation owner** – required. Defines who follows the lead. See the details below - **Assignments** – in the **Handling** field, define who takes over the conversation when the contact replies: - **AI agent** – the conversation is handled by the Smart Funnel (default agent set up in the funnel) - **HubSpot owner** – assigns the conversation to the Nuvia agent mapped to the contact's owner in HubSpot. Only appears with the integration connected; without a contact, owner, or mapping, the conversation has no assignee and sending isn't blocked - **Unassigned** – the conversation has no assignee - **Agent** – select an active platform user to receive the conversation directly 3. The **Keep assignment for existing conversations** option (checked by default) keeps whoever is already in the conversation, owner or agent alike; uncheck it to reassign those conversations too. Under **Advanced settings**, adjust the **Service funnel** and the **Funnel stage**; the default funnel and the first stage come preselected 4. Use the preview in the side panel to see how the message will look with a contact's real data. Move between contacts using the **Previous** and **Next** arrows ##### **If you want, add more steps by repeating the process** #### Set the step's conversation owner The **Conversation owner** field sits right above the **Assignments** block and is **required**: until you choose an owner, the **Handling** field stays disabled and the button to save the step isn't enabled. Owner and handling are different things. The **owner** is who follows that lead; **handling** is who replies in the conversation. That's why the owner can't be the AI agent; only handling can. The options appear in two groups: - **Special assignment** – **Unassigned** (the conversation has no owner) and **HubSpot owner** (uses the Nuvia agent mapped to the contact's owner in HubSpot; only appears with the integration connected) - **Users** – any active platform user, who becomes the fixed owner of the conversations generated by this step Good to know when the step has a different owner and handling, the **owner** is recorded as the one responsible for the conversation. That's what lets you combine, for example, **HubSpot owner** as owner with **AI agent** as handling. The AI replies, and the owner remains the HubSpot salesperson. Warning steps created before this feature have no owner set and are treated as **Unassigned**. When you open one of these steps to edit it, the **Conversation owner** field appears empty and you need to choose an option before saving. On the step card, the configured owner appears as the **Owner** tag; older steps without an owner don't show this tag. ### Step 4 – Launch the campaign 1. On the summary screen, review all settings: name, channel, audience, steps, and variable mapping 2. Click **Launch campaign** 3. Confirm in the confirmation dialog that appears 4. The campaign changes to **Active** status and sends start being processed, within the sending window Important after you launch the campaign, the template and variable mapping can no longer be edited. If you need to make changes, you'll need to pause the campaign and create a new one. ### Sending window and business hours By default, every campaign respects the **sending window**: **Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.**, Brasília time. At 5:59 p.m. the campaign still sends; at 6:00 p.m. it stops. Saturday and Sunday are entirely outside the window. The window applies to **WhatsApp and LinkedIn**. The only way out of it is to turn on the **Ignore business hours** toggle in Step 2. #### What happens to what falls outside the window Nothing is discarded. Whatever was due to go out outside the window is **held** and released at the next opening: SituationBehavior A **scheduled** campaign whose time arrived outside the window It waits and is sent when the window opens. The campaign stays **Active** while it waits **Next steps** in the sequence whose interval ran out outside the window They go out at the next window opening. The cadence is re-anchored at the opening, so the sequence isn't dragged into the middle of the night because of the time of the first message Campaign **activated from the screen** outside the window (e.g., on Saturday) Contacts are enrolled right away, but the first send only goes out when the window opens **External CRM trigger** fired outside the window (e.g., lead created at 11:45 p.m.) The send is held until the window opens **Manual send** of a step outside the window The batch is queued, but the messages only go out when the window opens To keep everything from going out at once at 8:00 a.m. and creating a spike, the platform **spreads** held sends over up to **1 hour** after the opening. That's why, on a Monday, the sends held over a weekend appear spread between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. instead of all in the same minute. Warning for a **manual send** of a step, the screen doesn't tell you the batch was held. If you trigger a step outside the window, the messages don't go out at that moment: they go out at the next opening. If you need to send right away, turn on **Ignore business hours** first. #### The window is fixed The 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday to Friday range can't be configured per customer. What you control is the **on/off** through the **Ignore business hours** toggle. If your operation needs a different range (e.g., 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.), talk to the Nuvia team. Good to know the campaign window (8 a.m.-6 p.m.) is different from the automatic follow-up window in conversations already in progress. Campaigns are cold prospecting, which is why they're more restricted. ### Track the campaign after launch At the top of the campaign screen, right below the name, there's a strip with **Created on** and **Last updated**, with date and time. Both dates are in Brasília time: hover over the strip's info icon to confirm the time zone. Use the last updated date to know whether someone changed the campaign after launch, for example who added a new step. To check how the campaign was set up, open the **Campaign details**. When the toggle is on, the **Ignore business hours** badge appears with the note “Sends made at any time, with no 8 a.m.-6 p.m. restriction”. If this badge doesn't appear, the campaign is respecting the window. ## Frequently asked questions ## Frequently asked questions **What is an HSM template?** HSM (Highly Structured Message) is a message template pre-approved by Meta for sending in WhatsApp campaigns. You can only start a conversation with a contact using an approved template. You [create and submit templates for approval](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs) through Nuvia. **What's the difference between Conversation owner and Handling?** The **owner** is who follows the lead; **handling** is who replies in the conversation. They may or may not be the same person. When they're different, the owner is recorded as the one responsible for the conversation — that's why you can have the AI replying (**AI agent** handling) and still keep the salesperson as the owner. **Why doesn't Conversation owner have the AI agent option?** Because owner means follow-up, not handling. The AI can reply in the conversation, but it can't be responsible for the lead. If you want the AI replying, choose **AI agent** in the **Handling** field and set the owner separately. **My old steps have no owner. Does that change anything about sending?** No. Steps created before this feature keep working as before and are treated as **Unassigned**. The difference only shows up when you open the step to edit it: then the **Conversation owner** field must be filled in before saving. **The Handling field is gray and won't open. Why?** Because the **Conversation owner** hasn't been selected yet. Choose the owner first — Handling only unlocks after that. **Can I edit a campaign after it's launched?** No. After launch, the template, variables, and audience are locked. If you need to adjust something, pause the campaign and create a new one with the fixes. **Can I send the conversation to a specific agent?** Yes. In the step's **Assignments** block, under **Handling**, select the agent you want from the user list. When the contact replies, the conversation is assigned directly to that person. If you'd rather use the owner already set in HubSpot, choose **HubSpot owner** (available with the integration connected). **What are the default business hours for sending?** Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the America/Sao_Paulo time zone: at 5:59 p.m. the campaign still sends; at 6:00 p.m. it doesn't. This applies to WhatsApp and LinkedIn. You can turn off this restriction by turning on the **Ignore business hours** option in the audience setup. **Does turning on the Ignore business hours toggle restrict or allow sending?** It allows it. On means “send at any time”. Off (the default) means “respect the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. window, Monday to Friday”. **Can I change the window's time range?** No. The 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday to Friday range is fixed and can't be configured per customer. What you control is turning the toggle on or off. If your operation needs a different range, talk to the Nuvia team. **I activated the campaign at 10 p.m. When do the messages go out?** At the next window opening: if it was a Tuesday at 10 p.m., they go out Wednesday from 8 a.m.; if it was Friday night or the weekend, they go out Monday from 8 a.m. Sends are spread over the first hour so they don't all go out in the same minute. **Does the cadence get delayed when a step is held?** The step goes out at the next window opening, and the following steps are counted from there. In practice, the sequence is re-anchored to business hours instead of being dragged into the middle of the night. **Can I change the toggle after launching the campaign?** The toggle is in Step 2 and can be edited while the campaign is in **Draft**. After launch, to check how it was set, open the **Campaign details**: the **Ignore business hours** badge only appears when the toggle is on. **Where do I see when the campaign was created and when it was changed?** At the top of the campaign screen, in the strip right below the name: **Created on** and **Last updated**, with date and time in Brasília time. The strip's info icon confirms the time zone. **Can I send the same campaign to more than one list?** Each campaign is linked to a single audience source (one list or one funnel stage). To send to multiple lists, create separate campaigns or consolidate the contacts into a single list before launching. **How do I know who was left out of the campaign and why?** In Step 2, click **See who was left out** on the **Campaign reach** card. The panel shows each excluded person with the reason (outside filters, already has an open conversation, exclusion list, or no channel). [NextHow the default text for template variables works](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16891724-how-default-text-for-template-variables-works) Was this article helpful? ## Related articles - [How to create and launch your first WhatsApp campaign in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14489458-how-to-create-and-launch-your-first-whatsapp-campaign) - [How to improve the response rate of WhatsApp campaigns](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14501604-how-to-improve-response-rate-whatsapp-campaigns) - [How to create and launch your first LinkedIn campaign in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15181600-how-to-create-and-launch-your-first-linkedin-campaign) - [WhatsApp Business Coexistence with Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15554165-whatsapp-business-coexistence-with-nuvia) - [How to enroll leads/contacts in Nuvia campaigns directly from a HubSpot workflow](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15879734-enroll-contacts-nuvia-campaigns-from-hubspot-workflow) [WhatsApp Campaigns](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19433179-whatsapp-campaigns) 1. [How to create and launch a WhatsApp campaign in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14501312-how-to-create-and-launch-whatsapp-campaign-nuvia) 2. [How the default text for template variables works](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16891724-how-default-text-for-template-variables-works) 3. [How to use variables in WhatsApp templates in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353096-how-to-use-variables-in-whatsapp-templates) 4. [How to verify your business on Meta](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16548621-how-to-verify-your-business-on-meta) 5. [Best practices for Meta marketing templates](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16736964-best-practices-for-meta-marketing-templates) ## Still need help? Customers reach support through the chat inside the platform. Not a customer yet? Talk to our team. [Talk to support in the platform](https://app.nuvia.ai) [I'm not a customer yet](https://nuvia.ai/en/contact) --- Source: https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14501312-how-to-create-and-launch-whatsapp-campaign-nuvia