WhatsApp Ads
Send approved marketing messages to patients who agreed to hear from your clinic
WhatsApp Ads lets your clinic send marketing campaigns, like offers, new services or check-up reminders, to your patients on WhatsApp. Messages go from your clinic's own WhatsApp number, only to patients who said yes to receiving them.
Who can use it
- Owners and admins only. The WhatsApp Ads item appears in their sidebar.
- Your clinic must be on a trial, active or grace subscription. Otherwise the page shows "Available for active clinics only".
How it works
Patients opt in
After a patient books on WhatsApp for the first time, the AI asks if they'd like to receive messages from your clinic, with yes and no buttons. Those who say yes join your recipients list.
Buy a message pack
Credits are bought in packs and paid offline. See Message Packs.
Create a campaign
Write your message, add media or buttons, and submit it. See Campaigns.
Meta reviews it
Every campaign is a WhatsApp template that Meta must approve before it can be sent.
You start sending
Once approved, click Start sending on the campaign. It goes to your opted-in patients, and one credit is used for each message delivered. See Send a campaign.
The WhatsApp Ads page
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Available message credits | Credits left across your active packs, how many you've used, and a usage bar |
| Opted-in patients | How many patients agreed to receive your messages |
| Campaigns | Your 20 most recent campaigns with their status. Click one for details. |
| New Campaign | Shown when you have credits |
| Buy Pack | Request a new message pack |
If you've requested a pack that isn't paid yet, a Pack request awaiting payment card shows the amount, a reference number and how to pay.
Consent rules
You can only message patients who opted in. You can't upload outside contact lists or add numbers yourself.
- A patient who says no never receives marketing messages from your clinic.
- Each patient's choice shows on their profile under WhatsApp messages as Opted in or Opted out.
- Consent is per clinic. A patient who opted in with another clinic on Docistra hasn't opted in with yours.
- Messages to anyone who hasn't opted in are skipped and don't use credits.
Policy
Before your first campaign you'll be asked to accept the WhatsApp Ads Policy (read it here). In short:
- Send content that's genuinely useful to patients, and avoid heavy promotion
- Don't message the same patients repeatedly in a short time
- If patients report or block your messages, Meta may suspend the template, and Docistra may pause campaigns that break Meta's or Docistra's rules