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Send one approved Marketing template to many contacts at once: ready-made broadcasts, the wizard and drafts, who gets it and who is skipped, variables, scheduling, pace, pauses, limits and fixes.
A broadcast sends one approved Marketing template to a group of your contacts at once: a sale, a restock, an event, a seasonal greeting. You pick the template, choose who gets it, check the numbers, confirm that everyone on the list agreed to hear from you, and Avox sends it at a pace your WhatsApp number can handle. Then a live report shows what happened.
Open Broadcasts in the dashboard sidebar to see your broadcasts and make a new one.
Add the ready-made Stop and unsubscribe automation before your first broadcast, so anyone who replies STOP is left out of the next one. See Stop and unsubscribe.
WhatsApp lets a business start a conversation with someone only through a template Meta has approved. Offers, news, invitations and greetings sent to many people at once count as Marketing in WhatsApp's rules. Utility templates (an order update, a booking reminder) and authentication templates (sign-in codes) are for one person at a time, about something they did, so the wizard doesn't offer them.
That's why the template step lists only your approved Marketing templates. If you have none yet, create one or add a ready-written one from the template library, then come back once Meta approves it. See Template categories for how Meta sorts templates.
Avox has written thirteen ready-made broadcasts: New offer, Back in stock, Price drop, Event invite, Event reminder, We miss you, What's new, Appointment slots open, Order on WhatsApp, We're open again, Seasonal greeting, Feedback request and Ask for a review. Each comes with its template from the Avox library, a suggested list and tips.
Start from a ready-made broadcast on the Broadcasts page shows four of them, the ones whose template you already have first. See all opens the Broadcasts library with every one, a phone preview of its message and its tips. See Broadcasts library and ready-made broadcasts.
Each card says Template ready when you have an approved copy of its template, or Needs its template when you don't:
Click New broadcast (or Use this on a ready-made one). The wizard has six steps. Beside them, a phone shows your message the way WhatsApp will show it, and from the third step on, a count of who gets it. See The phone preview.
Name
Name is for you and your team only ("November sale"), up to 80 characters. Pick the WhatsApp number it goes out from (with one connected number, it's picked for you).
Template
Pick one of your approved Marketing templates. Each shows its language, its reference and a preview.
Variables
Fill in each of the template's variables. See Variables and fallbacks.
Audience
Choose who gets it. See Who gets it.
Extras
Optional: the pace, a smart link to count clicks and a tag to count conversions. Check runs the check.
Review
The before-you-send check, the permission sentence to tick, and Send now or Schedule for later.
Each Next saves the broadcast as a draft, and Save draft at the top saves it at any step ("Saved as a draft"). What you type is also kept in this browser until it's saved, so a closed tab doesn't lose your work.
The phone beside the wizard shows the template you picked as WhatsApp shows it: header, text, footer and buttons, under your business name. From the Variables step on, it fills in the variables for a sample contact from your list ("Preview for ..."), so you read the message the way they will. A template with a picture, video or document header shows a short line about where the file goes.
The Audience step narrows down your contacts. Every part is optional: with nothing set, the broadcast goes to every contact. Parts you set all have to match.
Beside the steps, the count updates as you change the list: how many people get it, how many contacts match, how many are left out and why, and a few examples. One broadcast can go to at most 100,000 contacts (AVX-3863): narrow the list or split it into more than one broadcast.
Contacts with the Unsubscribed tag are always left out, whatever the list says. This can't be switched off. See Stop and unsubscribe.
Some contacts who match the list don't get the broadcast. The check, the count beside the wizard and the report all say how many, and why:
When a contact matches more than one reason, the first one in this table is shown.
Most templates have variables, like {{1}} for a name or a discount. On the Variables step, pick
what goes in each one:
city).A variable from a contact has If they don't have it: the fallback for contacts without that detail, like "there" for a missing first name ("Hi there"). Leave it empty and those contacts are skipped instead of getting a message with a gap (AVX-3860).
Templates can also need:
https:// link
that opens for anyone. Everyone gets the same file.The preview beside the wizard fills the variables in for a sample contact from your list, so you can read the message the way they will.
A template with no variables needs nothing on this step: everyone gets the same message.
On the Review step, after the check and the permission sentence:
When you press the button, Avox runs the check once more. If anything changed since you looked (a contact was tagged, the draft or its template changed), nothing is sent: the new numbers show, and you tick the sentence again (AVX-3866).
The list itself is put together when sending starts, with the same rules as the check: straight away for Send now, at the chosen time for a scheduled one. Contacts tagged or untagged in between are counted as they are then.
Once a broadcast is sent or scheduled, it can't be changed (AVX-3864), so its report always matches what was sent. Duplicate (in the ... menu) copies it into a new draft.
A broadcast goes out at a steady pace, in messages a minute, never all at once. Pace it for me (on the Extras step, on by default) picks a speed from your number's messaging limit, the number of different people WhatsApp lets it start chats with in 24 hours:
Switch it off to set Messages a minute yourself, from 1 to 1,000 (AVX-3892). Slower is safer for your number's quality: complaints that arrive while a broadcast is still sending can pause it before it reaches everyone.
Two more things set the pace:
See Quality and limits for how messaging limits work and grow.
Each broadcast shows its state next to its name. The list can be filtered (All, Drafts,
Scheduled, Sending, Paused, Completed, Stopped), and searched by name or reference
(like BRD-000123).
While a broadcast is scheduled, sending or paused, its page shows Sent so far and refreshes every few seconds.
On a broadcast's page:
When you resume, your number's quality at that moment becomes the new starting point for the quality check, and only messages sent after you resumed count towards the failure checks.
Avox watches every batch while a broadcast sends, and pauses it to protect your number when something goes wrong. The broadcast shows Paused by Avox with the reason and what to do, and the team is told: a notice in the bell at the top of the dashboard, and an email to your Admins (unless WhatsApp account alerts is turned off in Email preferences).
People who turned off marketing messages in WhatsApp don't count towards the failure check: that's their choice, not a problem with your list.
A broadcast the Avox team paused can't be resumed from your dashboard (AVX-3876),
and one the Avox team stopped stays stopped (AVX-3893). The reason shows on the
broadcast's page. Email hello@theavoxai.com with its reference (like BRD-000123).
Sometimes a sending broadcast waits on its own and carries on by itself. It stays Sending, with a note that says why:
Nothing is sent twice while a broadcast waits.
Each message a broadcast sends shows in that contact's conversation in the Inbox, and their replies arrive there like any other message, ready for your team. Broadcast messages never count as a reply from your team, so they don't clear chat signals like "Waiting for a person" or change your wait times.
Your plan sets how many broadcasts a Switchboard can send each calendar month, and a plan can allow unlimited broadcasts. See Plans and Broadcast limits.
The limit counts broadcasts, not messages. What Meta charges for the messages is separate and billed to your own Meta account: see the cost estimate.
Broadcasts reach many people at once, so Managers can see them but not send them by default. Admins have both. An Admin can give Create and send broadcasts to anyone: see Members and roles.
Hover it to see why. Usually it's one of these:
Something changed between the check and pressing the button, so Avox showed the new numbers instead of sending (AVX-3866). Look them over, tick the sentence again and send.
Look for the note under the title: the number may have reached its daily limit, the Switchboard may be paused, or Avox may have paused sending for a short while. See Waiting while sending. It carries on by itself.
Every contact in the list was skipped (AVX-3862). The check shows why, for each reason. Change who it goes to, or give a variable a fallback.
Broadcasts skip only contacts with the Unsubscribed tag. If they replied STOP and the Stop and unsubscribe automation wasn't on, or they asked in other words, add the tag to them by hand. See Stop and unsubscribe.
Your Switchboard already has 10 broadcast drafts (AVX-3894). Open Broadcasts, pick Drafts, then send one you're happy with or delete one you no longer need.
If broadcasts, or creating them, were turned off for your account, the message says so (AVX-3870, AVX-3871). Contact hello@theavoxai.com.
Broadcasts are paused across Avox for a short while (AVX-4017). Nothing new can be sent, scheduled ones wait, and ones already sending carry on by themselves once it's back. Drafts can still be edited. The status page shows when broadcasts are back.
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