How to Get WhatsApp API for Business in 2024

Have you wondered what it would be like to grow your business without communicating with your customers? Or expecting your audience to know about your products without running marketing campaigns?

Sounds impossible right? This is because, in today’s world, your customers will not wait for days to hear back from you. You have to utilize communication channels for instantaneous support and connecting with your customers on the go. 

Now, there are countless communication platforms that your customers can use, you cannot hope to include all of them in your marketing and sales engagement model. But WhatsApp is one such platform that is head and shoulder above others when it comes to active users and outreach capabilities. 

One of the ways to use WhatsApp for your business communication is to utilize WhatsApp API, a robust backend program designed by Meta to allow you to send personalized WhatsApp messages at scale. Having said that, let’s look at what WhatsApp API is and how you can get it for your business. 

What is WhatsApp API?

WhatsApp API is a part of the WhatsApp Business Platform that is built for businesses of all sizes allowing them to streamline conversations across WhatsApp. Also, sending bulk messages is just one aspect of WhatsApp API. 

With the WhatsApp API, you can customize your WhatsApp outreach however you want. Unlike the WhatsApp Business app where you are restricted to the number of functions you can use, you can use the WhatsApp API to set up canned responses, build AI chatbots, and craft tailored conversation flow to best match the requirements of your audience.

However, there is one thing you have to remember if you want to include WhatsApp API in your outreach strategy. WhatsApp API, as the name indicates, is an Application Programming Interface (API) and doesn’t have a frontend UI.

What that means is you cannot use the WhatsApp API on its own as you cannot interact with it without a UI. You have to integrate it with a marketing platform to use it (more on this later.)

What are the advantages of using WhatsApp API?

Although, earlier I mentioned that businesses of all sizes can utilize WhatsApp API, but in reality, it’s the medium and large companies that can make the most of it. On top of that, it is important to understand the benefits of a new technology before incorporating it into your current infrastructure.

That being said, below are some of the advantages of using WhatsApp API to effectively communicate with your customers:

Increased engagement rates

WhatsApp offers much better engagement rates in comparison to other marketing channels. By having a verified business profile on WhatsApp, your audience can trust the credibility of your business and communicate with you more effectively. 

In fact, 68% of people have said that WhatsApp is the simplest way to communicate with a brand. This goes to show that your customers are willing to connect over WhatsApp. You can use the WhatsApp API for your WhatsApp marketing efforts and get in touch with your contacts to answer their queries quickly.

International reach

The biggest benefit of WhatsApp, that no other communication platform can compete with, is its massive user base. WhatsApp is used in more than 50 countries worldwide with an active user count of over 2 billion. With this many people actively using WhatsApp, you have an excellent channel to promote your business in front of an international audience and expand your reach. 

Affordable outreach solution

There is no signup cost for setting up your WhatsApp Business Account and you can get the WhatsApp API for free.

On top of that, Meta allows you to send 1000 free messages to your customers each month. After you have sent those 1000 messages, you will be charged on a per-conversation basis rather than a monthly subscription. To learn more about WhatsApp API pricing, check out this page.

That is not all. You won’t be charged for conversations initiated by your customers given that you reply to them within 24 hours of their last message. All these factors make WhatsApp API a relatively economical communication option. 

How to get the WhatsApp API for your business? 

Now comes the crucial part, how to get the WhatsApp API. There are two ways in which you can set up the WhatsApp API for your business: 

• Getting it yourself 
• Setting it up with a WhatsApp API provider

Let’s explore each of these methods separately. 

Set it up yourself

Meta enables you to set up the WhatsApp API yourself according to your business needs. You have to sign into the Meta for Developers, set up your Meta Business Manager, validate your business details, and access the WhatsApp API. 

It’s a little complicated process so I’ll explain each step in detail. 

First up, head over to the Meta for Developers and log in to your Facebook account. Since WhatsApp is part of Meta’s product suite, you will need a Facebook account to access WhatsApp API. 

Once you are in, review and accept the Terms & Conditions and click the Create New App button. After that, select your app type as Business, and click next. 

On the following screen, provide general information about your business, like Display Name and Contact Email. Also, select a Business Account from the drop-down list to link the app with that account. If you don’t have a Business Account, you can leave this option as is for now.

After clicking the Create App button, you will be sent to the Add Products to Your App screen. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Set up option under WhatsApp. 

On the WhatsApp Business Platform API screen, you have to create or select a Meta Business Account. Again, you can choose an already existing account with the phone number you want to use in your WhatsApp marketing strategy or you can click Continue without creating one and Meta will create one for you automatically. 

With that, you will now be on the Getting Started page. Now, if you have chosen a Business Account in the previous step, your phone number linked to the account will be used for sending messages via the WhatsApp API.

But if you reach this point without creating a WhatsApp Business Account, you will have to add a phone number that the WhatsApp API will use for sending messages to your customers. 

To add a phone number, click the Add Phone Number option on the same screen. Add and verify your phone number on the pop-up that opens.

And by adding the phone number, you have completed the necessary steps for getting the WhatsApp API for your business. However, as I said before, WhatsApp API allows you to completely customize your messages to deliver a tailored experience to your customers. 

And to do that, you will need a decent amount of technical and coding knowledge. Also, it is a tedious process to completely customize the WhatsApp API until you can begin using it for your WhatsApp outreach. 

So, if you decide to set up WhatsApp API on your own, make sure you have an experienced developer by your side to help you get started and resolve any issues that might arise in the future. 

Getting it via a WhatsApp API provider

If setting up the WhatsApp API by yourself seems too much work for you, you can reach out to a WhatsApp API provider and access it through their platform. An API provider can help you get started with the WhatsApp API and it also offers additional features that you can use to effectively utilize WhatsApp as a communication channel. 

But which API provider should you go for with so many of them in the market? There is a solution that is free to use, allows quick integration with WhatsApp API, and allows you to run personalized WhatsApp campaigns directly from the platform. And that solution is Zixflow.

Zixflow is an AI-powered communication platform that comes with multichannel (WhatsApp, email, and SMS) outreach facilities, allowing you to engage customers and generate revenue. 

To get WhatsApp API through Zixflow, you first need to sign up for a Zixflow account, which takes a minute to create and is completely free. Once you are logged in, navigate to the Campaign module and click Manage under the WhatsApp option.

Click the Add Number button and a pop-up with instructions will open. After reading the instructions, click the Continue with Facebook button and a new window will open asking you to log in to your Facebook account. 

After logging in to your Facebook account, a new screen will appear asking for your business information. Here, you have to select your Meta Business Account from the list or create a new one.

The next step includes choosing your WhatsApp Business Account from the list of existing ones and creating or selecting a WhatsApp Business Profile.  

If you choose to create a new WhatsApp Business Profile, you have to enter a few details about your company, such as your WhatsApp Business account name, WhatsApp Business profile display name, timezone, your business category, business description, and your website’s URL.

Lastly, add the phone number you want to link to ZIxflow for sending WhatsApp messages and verify it using an OTP. And that’s it. After verifying your phone number, you will see the following image that your account is under review. Click the Finish button to complete the integration process.

After your account is validated, it will appear in your Zixflow account and its status will say Verified. At this point, you can start using this number to run WhatsApp initiatives using Zixflow. 

To start running tailored WhatsApp campaigns using Zixflow, check out the following video. It will guide you through the process of setting up your WhatsApp campaign to interact with your contacts over WhatsApp effectively. 

Scale your business to new heights with WhatsApp API

No doubt, WhatsApp API is one of the best tools for streamlining your communication and growing your business. Its dynamic nature to support numerous kings of messages ranging from simple text messages to highly interactive media-rich ones, makes it the perfect platform for engaging customers and driving sales. 

Even though WhatsApp API offers so many versatile use cases, its usage might get restricted based on the communication platform you link it with. That’s why you need an equally robust platform that lets you use the API to its full potential. 

Zixflow is that platform that allows you to make the most of the WhatsApp Business API. And just the API, it can help you simplify your sales process with additional features. 

For example, its centralized inbox enables you to manage your chats from a single location, saving you the hassle of going to-and-from multiple inboxes for responding to your customers.

This is just one example of how you can use Zixflow to deliver a better customer experience. There’s still a suite full of features left for you to utilize and drive your ROI even higher. 

Sign up for Zixflow’s free forever account and get a firsthand experience of a revolutionary solution designed with the goals of saving time, boosting productivity, and scaling your business. Try it out today. I bet you won’t regret it.