Entry links, QR codes and ads
An entry link is a WhatsApp link of your own — for a flyer, a poster, a shelf label, your social profile or a campaign. Opening it starts a chat with your store with a first message already typed, and that message ends with a short code such as (ref K7Q2MX). When the customer sends it, WhatsApp Shop knows which link the chat came from: the conversation is counted under that link on the Metrics page, and the bot opens where you chose instead of answering the words.
Entry links use the number under WhatsApp Shop settings → Chat button on your store. Set it there first; until then the page tells you so and no link can be made.
Create a link
- Open Customers → WhatsApp Shop → Entry links and click New entry link.
- Give it a Name you will recognise in reports, for example Shelf QR, kitchen aisle.
- Add a Campaign reference if you like, such as
spring-flyer. It is your own label, shown next to the link in Metrics; customers never see it. - Write the First message. WhatsApp types it into the customer's chat and they can change it before sending. The code is added at the end for you; the form shows the message as the customer will see it.
- Choose what the bot opens when they write: The menu, A product (its card, with Add to cart), A category (its products) or Talk to us (the chat goes straight to your team, as if they had asked for a person).
- Click Create link.
Each link on the list has Copy link and QR code. The QR code opens in a window with Download PNG (for print) and Download SVG (for designers; it scales to any size). Print it at least 2 cm (0.8 in) wide and scan it with your phone before printing many.
You can rename a link or change its message and landing at any time: its code never changes, so links and QR codes already printed keep working. Deleting a link stops new chats being counted under it; the link itself still opens a chat with you.
Click-to-WhatsApp ads
When a customer starts a chat by tapping a Facebook or Instagram ad (or a post) that sends them to WhatsApp, Meta tells WhatsApp Shop which ad it was: its id, headline and link. The ad is kept on the conversation, and Metrics → Click-to-WhatsApp ads lists each ad with the conversations it started. There is nothing to set up. Ad spend is not read, so cost per conversation is not shown.
Ask about this product
With the chat button on, every product page also shows Ask about this product on WhatsApp. Tapping it opens a chat whose first message names the product, and the bot answers with that product's card. Taps are counted per product (nothing about the shopper is kept), and Metrics → Ask about this product shows the taps, the conversations they started and what those became.
Reading the numbers
The tables under Entry links and ads on the Metrics page use the page's date range:
- Conversations: chats that came through the link (or ad) in the range. A chat counts under the link it came from last: if a customer later writes through another link, the chat moves to it.
- Checkout links opened: checkout links sent in those chats since then that the customer opened.
- Orders and Revenue: orders those chats produced since then, through a checkout link or in the chat itself; cancelled, refunded and failed orders are left out, and revenue is in your store currency.
Your plan decides whether entry links, the product button and these tables are available; if it does not include them, the page says so and links to the add-on.