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CRM To Boost Business
Ab Initio’s Rhonda Ridge looks at what the market holds in 2025 and explains how an integrated CRM will help them to win sales in a highly...
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What’s Up With WhatsApp?
WhatsApp, which has become a popular business communication tool, is introducing advertising. One organisation is raising the spectre of a consumer backlash against the App and those using it commercially.
The home delivery expert Parcelhero says that since its creation in 2009, WhatsApp has become one of the leading instant messaging platforms. Its end-to-end encryption means only the sender and recipient can read messages, making it a highly trusted platform. Today, WhatsApp has around 3 billion users worldwide and 41.4 million monthly users in the UK. With a strong reputation and huge user base, that would seem to make it the ideal platform for advertisers.
However, sellers and brands need to consider the potential consequences of marketing on the App and finding that legitimate. However, at this time, it is planned that messages between you and your customers do not leave advertising slots getting in the way of important delivery or service updates.
Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks says: “WhatsApp’s biggest strength could also prove to be its biggest weakness when it comes to advertising. The messaging service has a loyal user base precisely because it is seen as extremely private, secure and non-commercial. In 2012, the company famously said in a blog: ‘eemember, when advertising is involved, you the user are the product’.
“However, that was before the company was bought by Facebook – now Meta Platforms – for $19bn in 2014. One improvement made two years later was to scrap its $1 annual subscription fee. However, that begged the question, how would Meta eventually monetise its substantial investment? Now it seems we know the answer. It’s rolling out advertising to many countries over the coming months.”
Not popping just yet
Jinks adds: “To be clear, users won’t immediately see ads popping up in the middle of their chats. Instead, WhatsApp says: ‘Our ads will appear in the Updates tab, in Status and Channels, where people are open to discovery. The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads’.
“Meta says it has designed the new advertising features with ‘privacy as the core principle’. Instead of utilising information from users’ messages, WhatsApp will use less sensitive data to target ads. This will likely include users’ locations, the channels they follow and their interactions with other ads. Perhaps most controversially, users of WhatsApp’s Meta Accounts Centre, which links to services such as Facebook and Instagram, may also see more tailored ads based on their activity on those platforms.
Most popular App
“There’s no doubt that WhatsApp could quickly become a top platform for business-customer interaction. In many ways it already is. Recent research from Virgin found WhatsApp is the most-used communications App for UK companies to conduct business, communicate with customers and send billing messages.
“It’s already moved beyond customer services and into indirect selling. Businesses can send marketing messages through personal chats if the customer opts in to them and the platform reportedly has a 45-60% click-through rate.
“This latest development will give small traders and big brands alike the opportunity to advertise to customers on this popular platform for the first time. The ability to push Status content or gain traction through sponsored Channels will create conversations with users. WhatsApp ads may also help smaller sellers compete more easily with large retailers in a messaging-first environment.”
Picture: WhatsApp offers business services and advertising opportunities.
Article written by Cathryn Ellis
15th July 2025