Sending marketing messages on WhatsApp using WhatsApp API but receiving a high failure rate?
Don't worry! You're not the only one.
All businesses sending messages to users across the globe are facing this issue of failed marketing messages termed as frequency capping by Meta.
In the message failure reason of some contacts, you will see the contact marked with "Unhealthy system activity" indicating that the message failed to send due to the frequency capping placed by Meta.
In this blog, we'll discuss:
What is Meta's frequency Capping
Why has Meta implemented frequency capping
Why frequency capping is causing a high marketing message failure rate
Best Practices to counter frequency capping
Most burning FAQs on frequency capping!
So, let's begin!
What is Meta's Frequency Capping?
Frequency capping is an update rolled out by Meta to protect WhatsApp users from spam messages, ensuring that users receive a limited number of promotional messages on WhatsApp over a defined timeframe.
For example, let's say a user is receiving promotional messages from various businesses within a rolling period of 24-48 hours. However, the user is not responding or engaging with those messages. In this case, after a certain message limit (e.g. 15), the new promotional messages sent by these businesses will fail to reach the user.
The main goal of this feature is to prevent message fatigue and build a positive experience on WhatsApp, allowing users to receive fewer but more meaningful messages.
Here's the official documentation by Meta regarding frequency capping.
As per Meta,
WhatsApp may limit the number of marketing template messages a person receives from any business in a given period of time, starting with a small number of conversations that are less likely to be read. Soon, we will also start to deliver fewer marketing conversations to those users who are less likely to engage with them.
Official documentation by Meta
Meta states that since launching frequency capping, they have seen significant improvements in user read rates for WhatsApp messages. This limit is helping WhatsApp users find business messaging more valuable without making them feel like they receive too many business messages.
Note: Frequency capping is a per-user limit, not a per-business limit, meaning this limitation only applies to user accounts, not businesses sending these messages.
Here's an example of a contact to whom promotional message failed to deliver due to frequency capping. In the below image, you can see the reason of failed message to be "Unhealthy system activity", indicating the message failed to deliver due to capping placed by Meta for this user.
Why has Meta implemented Frequency Capping?
The story goes like this: In 2024, over 100,000+ businesses are using WhatsApp API to connect with users on WhatsApp, leading to a huge chunk of marketing messages getting spammed in a user's WhatsApp inbox.
To ensure WhatsApp doesn't turn into Email (a spamming tool) & prevent this message fatigue among users, Meta has introduced frequency capping to ensure only limited number of promotional messages reach a user's WhatsApp.
Key Impact of Meta's Frequency Capping on Businesses
- Reduces over-communication: Frequency capping ensures users aren't bombarded with promotional messages on WhatsApp, which might hinder their experience & lead to low engagement rates.
Talking about engagement, frequency capping enables👇 - Enhances Engagement: How does frequency capping increase engagement? Well, with a finite number of messages landing on their WhatsApp, users are much more likely to view those messages & connect with businesses.
- Operational Adjustments: Businesses need to tweak their WhatsApp marketing strategy to counter frequency capping. Move to the next section to know the best practices for higher delivery rates.
- Marketing Limitations: Frequency capping only applies to promotional messages sent on WhatsApp. It doesn't affect service (user-initiated conversations) and Click to WhatsApp Ads-based messages.
- Country-wise Impact: Many online sources state that Frequency capping is active only for Indian users. However, it's not true. It's applicable for messages sent to users across the globe using WhatsApp.
Best practices to counter Meta's Frequency Capping
1. Get Opt-in from new users: Inform leads before sending them broadcasts on WhatsApp. Mention in all your contact forms that the number the user is sharing might be used to send them notifications on WhatsApp. This ensures that the user can expect messages from your brand, prompting them not to block your contact, increasing your delivery rates.
2. Don't immediately try resending messages to failed contacts: If messages are failing to send, wait for 24-48 hours before trying to reach them again. It might be that these users have already received their quota of promotional messages from other businesses, leading to failure of your messages.
In AiSensy, you can simply go to Campaigns👉🏻Select the campaign with failed contacts👉🏻Go to failed section & resend your broadcasts. Just doing this can boost your delivery rates by 20-30%
3. Send broadcasts with a way to unsubscribe: Always mention in the footer of your message how users can unsubscribe from your WhatsApp notifications. This gives Meta a signal that your broadcasts are genuine, prompting higher delivery rates.
With AiSensy, you can simply allow users to opt-out from your notifications by adding specific keywords. E.g. STOP.
For more info, checkout this WhatsApp optin management guide
4. Don't schedule too many messages in a short duration: More messages do not necessarily mean more conversions. On the contrary, this might irritate users causing them to block you.
5. Don't just sell, send content that engages users: Another thing you can try to achieve higher delivery rates is sending messages that don't just focus on selling, rather they focus on engaging the users. Higher engagement gives Meta a signal that your business is sending quality messages, leading to higher delivery rates.
6. Send limited cold broadcasts on WhatsApp: Sending a large number of cold broadcasts is the best way to get your number blocked by a mass audience, that not only reduces your quality rating but also gives Meta a signal that you are sending broadcasts without proper opt-in, causing high failure rate.
Limit the number of cold broadcasting you do every month!
The Verdict
While there's no easy solution to Meta's frequency capping, following the above listed practices might just work out for you, like it has for many of our clients.
Frequency capping gives an insight that Meta does not want user's WhatsApp turning into a junk box.
This might be the your best chance to upgrade your WhatsApp engagement strategy.
In the words of Vijay Shekhar Sharma,
Don't use WhatsApp just for selling, use WhatsApp for your business' marketing.
Simply sending offers on WhatsApp might not work. It's the connection you create with the end user which matters the most.
Here are the most burning questions asked by users on Meta's Frequency capping👇
Meta's Frequency Capping FAQs
No, Meta's frequency capping is affecting messages sent to users across the globe. If you send messages to users outside India, you will see a chunk of messages getting failed with the remark, "This message was not delivered to maintain healthy ecosystem engagement."
This is due to Meta's frequency capping, an update rolled out by meta to build a more positive environment on WhatsApp, limiting the number of promotional messages a user can receive on WhatsApp. No defined limit has been specified for frequency capping by Meta.
You can ensure a higher delivery rate for promotional messages sent on WhatsApp by taking optin from new users, retrying sending messages to failed contacts in 24-48 hours, sending quality messages and allowing users the option to opt-out from WhatsApp updates in each WhatsApp broadcast."
This is the message failure reason you will see in your WhatsApp engagement platform like AiSensy which means that Meta is restricting your marketing messages to reach a certain users due to it's frequency capping update. Currently, there's no easy solution to counter this frequency capping.
Meta has not specified a fixed number of promotional messages you can roll out in a day in it's frequency capping update. This limit is decided randomly by Meta depending on the number of marketing messages a user might have received from you or from another business on that day. On days where a user has received multiple broadcasts, your message is likely to fail.
Like we mentioned earlier, Meta's frequency capping happens randomly depending on how many promotional messages a user has received on a particular day. If they have received many messages on a particular day, it's very likely that your message will fail to deliver.
No, frequency capping doesn't apply to existing marketing and utility conversations.
Yes. Although the number of failed messages is low for utility conversations, frequency capping does apply for these conversations and you might see a few messages getting failed to deliver due to this update.
