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Pro plan. WhatsApp is part of Pro and Agency, as a paid add-on: US$7 a month per number. Not included in the free trial. See Add-ons and Plans and billing.
Campaigns can send a WhatsApp message next to their LinkedIn, email and text steps: a short, personal follow-up from your own WhatsApp number to a contact you are already talking to. You connect your number once by scanning a QR code with your phone, the same way you open WhatsApp Web, then add a Send WhatsApp step on the canvas. Kerux doesn’t give you a number: it always sends from yours.
WhatsApp is for following up a few contacts in conversation, never for cold mass messages. WhatsApp can ban numbers that message many strangers. Every number keeps to a daily limit that grows step by step (see Limits), with a few minutes at random between two messages, and you can lower it. A Send WhatsApp step only reaches contacts who gave you their number and agreed, or who wrote to you first. Record it on the contact page, when you import, or for every contact you add with WhatsApp under Contacts’ consent in Settings > Sending rules (owners and admins). The others wait with Waiting for consent: WhatsApp goes only to people who agreed. Record it on the contact. See Sending rules and consent.

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Connect your number

1

Add a number in Billing

Go to Settings > Billing > Add-ons. In WhatsApp numbers, choose how many numbers and click Add numbers. Pay in the checkout that opens (US$7 a month per number, plus taxes). Back in Kerux you see Payment received. Next, connect your number in Connect accounts > WhatsApp: scan the QR code with your phone., and the card shows Connect a number.
2

Open Connect accounts

Click Connect a number on the card, or in the menu on the left click Connect accounts and scroll down to WhatsApp (below Email inboxes).
3

Connect

Click Connect a number. A page with a QR code opens.
4

Scan the QR code

On your phone, open WhatsApp, go to Settings > Linked devices > Link a device and scan the code, like WhatsApp Web.
5

Done

You come back to Kerux and, after a moment, the number shows as Connected.
Each number paid for connects one WhatsApp number. To connect another one, add another number in Settings > Billing > Add-ons first: until then the WhatsApp section says Each number is an add-on at US$7 a month. Add one in Billing, then connect it here. with an Add a number link. Keep the phone with WhatsApp installed and online now and then: if WhatsApp unlinks the device (or the phone stays offline too long), the number shows Disconnected and steps that send from it wait. Click Scan again next to it to link it again. Next to each number you see two small meters, Messages and New chats (how many it sent in the last 24 hours out of its limit), a chip with its step (Warming up: 20 a day, or Up to 100 a day once it is done; the (i) says when the next step starts), Next send in about 4 min while it waits between two messages, its own limits (Per day and New chats) and Remove. Members, admins and owners can connect, change or remove a number; viewers can only look.

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Limits

Above the numbers, five chips sum up the limits; the (i) on each says more. A number goes up these steps from the day it is connected:
  • To send fewer, type a lower number in Per day or New chats next to the number. You can lower a limit, never raise it above the number’s current step.
  • A contact that waits for a limit says so in the campaign’s Logs under Right now: Daily limit (the number sent its messages for today), New chat limit (it started its new chats for today; it goes on tomorrow by itself) or Spacing sends (the gap between two messages, with when the next one goes). Nothing to fix: they go on by themselves.
  • A reply you type in the inbox goes at once: it is never held for the gap, and it isn’t a new chat.
  • A brand-new WhatsApp number (one you just created) should be used normally for a few weeks, chatting with people you know, before a campaign starts chats from it.
What gets numbers banned: cold mass messages to people who don’t know you, and many people blocking or reporting you. Write to people who expect your message, and start with the ones most likely to reply.

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How messages are sent

  • To the contact’s Phone, written with its country code, like +54 9 11 2233 4455 or 0049 151 1234 5678. A number without a country code (like (555) 123-4567) isn’t guessed: the contact waits in Needs attention until you fix the phone, so a message never reaches a stranger. A contact without a phone waits the same way.
  • In the existing chat with that person when there is one; otherwise it starts the chat.
  • Within the number’s limits: its messages a day and its new chats a day (see Limits).
  • 2 to 10 minutes apart, at random, whatever campaign or broadcast the messages come from, and only inside the campaign’s hours.
  • Never with a hole: an empty variable stops the contact, which shows what is missing. See Variables.
  • If Kerux can’t confirm a message went out (for example, WhatsApp didn’t answer in time), it is never sent again on its own: it waits in Home > Tasks (under Unconfirmed sends) for you to check the chat on your phone and choose It was sent, Send again or Skip this step.
  • A test run with Rehearsal on goes through the step but doesn’t send the WhatsApp message.

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Which number sends

In the Send WhatsApp step, the Message comes first; the (i) next to it sums up who gets it (recorded consent) and the limits. Send from, the line under it, picks the number. Left on The contact’s account owner’s number (automatic), the message goes from the number connected by the person who connected the LinkedIn account that runs that contact, or else from the first connected number. A step set to one number waits while that number is disconnected or removed. A step left on automatic uses another connected number, if you have one.

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Replies

When a contact answers on WhatsApp from the phone in their details, the reply shows in their timeline as Replied on WhatsApp and stops the campaign for them, like a LinkedIn reply (unless you turned off the Replies switch, Stop when the contact replies, in the campaign’s Settings; then a Wait until step waiting for their reply moves on). A reply can also start another campaign with the WhatsApp reply received trigger (see Kerux triggers). Messages from people who aren’t contacts are ignored. If two contacts share the same phone, Kerux uses the one your number wrote to; if it can’t tell, it moves nobody. The reply also shows in the inbox, in the contact’s WhatsApp conversation with that number, with your campaign’s messages to them. Answer it there (it goes from the same number at once, within its daily limit) or on your phone.

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Common problems

The WhatsApp section says why:
  • Each number is an add-on at US$7 a month. Add one in Billing, then connect it here.: every number you pay for is already connected (or you haven’t added one yet). Click Add a number and add one in Settings > Billing > Add-ons.
  • WhatsApp numbers are an add-on billed by Kerux and are not included in the free trial.: choose Pro or Agency first (Choose a plan). A plan still in its trial period can add numbers once it is paid.
  • WhatsApp is part of Pro.: you are on Starter. Upgrade to Pro or Agency in Settings > Billing.
A cancelled number keeps working until the end of the period already paid (nothing is refunded). After that, Kerux disconnects it: it shows Disconnected by Kerux because it isn’t paid for. and Send WhatsApp steps that use it wait. If you connected more numbers than you pay for, the most recently connected ones are disconnected first. Add a number again in Settings > Billing > Add-ons, then connect it.
Click the Needs attention number in the campaign’s Contacts tab, type the phone with its country code (for example +34 612 345 678) under Fill it in on the contact (the step goes on by itself) and click Save and continue. You can also add it on the contact page. The step goes on by itself.If the contact already had a phone without its country code, correct it the same way (in the window or on the contact page): the step goes on by itself once the phone has its country code. Retry sends it again after you fixed it somewhere else, and Skip this step moves the contact on without the WhatsApp message. Send anyway and fallbacks aren’t offered here: nothing can stand in for a phone.
WhatsApp unlinked it, or restricted the number. Nothing is sent from it meanwhile: contacts at a Send WhatsApp step wait and show in Needs attention with a Fix that brings you here. Click Scan again and scan the new QR code from Settings > Linked devices on your phone; the steps go on by themselves, and the number keeps the step it had reached.
The campaign has a Send WhatsApp step and no WhatsApp number is connected in this workspace (or the step is set to a number that is disconnected). Click Fix to go to Connect accounts > WhatsApp and connect one, or remove the step, then launch again.