Skip to content
Sign inSign up free

For launches and online events

WhatsApp for launches: waitlist, announcement calendar and the cost at Meta

A WhatsApp launch packs a lot of volume into a few days, and that is where the official API charges most: per marketing message, through the cap on how many people Meta lets you reach in 24 hours, and through how recipients react. This page sets up the waitlist through a link, the warm-up, the batched opening and the cost of a launch at Meta's rates, saying what InvestCRM does and what stays with you.

Sign up freeSee plans

The problem

What happens when the whole list gets everything in the same week

In a launch, the list grows for weeks and then gets almost everything within a few days: the class, the class reminder, the sales opening and the last day. On the official API, every announcement to someone without an open chat is a marketing template paid per delivery, and the portfolio has a cap on how many people it can reach each day.

  • 3,000 people do not fit into one day on a new portfolio: on the first tier, Meta lets you reach 250 different people in 24 hours outside the customer service window. Getting "class starts today" to the whole list would take 12 days.
  • Meta also holds back marketing per person: someone who gets plenty of marketing and reads little may not receive your announcement. The failure comes back with code 131049, and the guidance is to wait 24 hours before trying again.
  • Blocks and reports count: WhatsApp's policy says its systems may limit how many messages a business sends based on people's feedback. A last-call message to people who barely remember joining is the fastest way to collect reports.
  • Made-up scarcity is misleading advertising: "last spots" that are not the last ones falls under article 37 of the Brazilian Consumer Protection Code, and on WhatsApp the claim goes out in writing to thousands of people.

InvestCRM does not raise Meta's limit or change your number's rating. What it does is organize the list, spread announcements into daily batches, warn you when a broadcast goes over 100 messages in a day, and pause the number's broadcasts if Meta penalizes the account. Those safeguards belong to broadcasts: sequences skip them, which is why the dated announcements below go out as broadcasts.

Setups in InvestCRM

Four setups for the launch calendar

Screen labels in bold (in Portuguese). The setups follow the launch order: capture, warm up, open sales and handle the replies.

From the Start plan

1. A waitlist through the WhatsApp link

Starts when

The person taps the link on the opt-in page and sends the prefilled phrase, which fires the O contato envia uma mensagem trigger (contact sends a message).

How to set it up

  1. In the link generator, build the wa.me link to your number with the prefilled phrase, for example "I want to join the launch list", and download the QR code for the opt-in page.
  2. In Automations, pick the O contato envia uma mensagem trigger, put the same phrase under Palavras que ligam o fluxo (trigger words) and, under Como comparar (how to compare), choose A mensagem é exatamente a palavra (exact match). The dedicated link and QR code trigger currently fires only when Meta sends the click origin along with the message, and a plain wa.me link does not.
  3. Connect an Enviar Mensagem block that confirms the sign-up and says what the person will receive, with the class and opening dates. Since they wrote first, the chat is open and the reply goes out as a service message, with no template.
  4. Next, Ações → Adicionar Tag "Launch list [month]". That tag is what receives the classes, the opening and the final hours, as scheduled broadcasts; if you want welcome material timed from each person's sign-up, also use Inscrever na sequência (subscribe to sequence).
  5. To test different phrases on different pages, generate one link per phrase; each phrase can be its own automation with its own tag.

What happens next

The list starts with each person's request on record in the chat: they wrote first, to your number, with a phrase that says what they want. The automation only starts when that exact phrase arrives; opening the link without sending triggers nothing. In the Origem do opt-in filter, people who joined this way show up as Mandou mensagem (WhatsApp).

InvestCRM screen: a sample automation editor that starts from words sent by the contact, with a three-button message, an Atendimento com IA block, actions that add a tag and add to the pipeline, a tag condition and a 10-minute Atraso Inteligente delay
Real InvestCRM screen, with sample data.

From the Start plan

2. Warm-up: a class with a fixed date goes out as a scheduled broadcast

Starts when

The day of each class: a broadcast to the list tag, scheduled under Agendar Transmissão → Envio Básico (basic sending).

How to set it up

  1. In Transmissões, pick the aula_comeca_hoje template and set Público alvo to the Tag "Launch list [month]". In Agendar Transmissão, on the Envio Básico tab, set the Data e hora (date and time) on the class day, a few hours before it starts. The second class is another broadcast, with its own date.
  2. Do not put these announcements in a sequence. In a sequence, each delay counts from the previous message to that subscriber: someone who joined three weeks early and someone who joined the day before would get "class starts today" on different days. Sequences also skip Envio Avançado, the 100-a-day warning and the pause when Meta flags the account.
  3. Keep the sequence for content timed from each person's sign-up, such as prep material one day later: in Sequências, + Mensagem with Após 1 dia(s) (after 1 day). It holds up to 50 messages, all approved templates; it puts the contact's name into every variable, and the screen reminds you the first message should carry no ads or promotional material.
  4. If you put the opt-in page spreadsheet into that sequence, Inscrever contatos (subscribe contacts) subscribes up to 5,000 contacts from the chosen audience, skips anyone on the block list and sends the first step to all of them at the same time: split the spreadsheet into lists that fit your portfolio limit. Do not click again on the same audience: anyone who was removed or finished starts over.

What happens next

Each class goes out to the whole list on the same day and goes through the broadcast safeguards: Confirmo o opt-in, the over-100-a-day warning and the pause if Meta flags the account. Anyone whose chat is in the queue or with an agent at send time only gets it once that conversation is closed, so wrap up open chats before the class. The prep sequence shows Inscritos, Em andamento, Concluídos and Parados (opt-out) (subscribed, in progress, completed, stopped), and it does not take one of the plan's active automation slots, although it does need a plan with automations.

From the Business plan

3. Opening sales in batches with Envio Avançado

Starts when

Opening day, when the list does not fit into one day's limit: the carrinho_aberto announcement to the list tag, split up from the Envio Avançado tab (advanced sending).

How to set it up

  1. In Transmissões, pick the carrinho_aberto template and set Público alvo to the list Tag. Under + Excluir público, remove the "Bought" tag for anyone who already bought in the pre-sale.
  2. Before you announce the opening date, check your tier in Settings → WhatsApp under Limites de mensagens and do the math for your list. The limit is shared with the portfolio's other numbers and with any sequence sending templates that day, so keep each batch below it, with room to spare.
  3. With 3,000 people on the 2,000 tier: set Contatos por lote (contacts per batch) to 1,500 and Um lote a cada (one batch every) to 1 day; the opening wraps up in 2 days. On the 250 tier, batches of 200 take 15 days, nearly the whole launch. The interval can be 1, 2, 3 or 7 days, with 2 to 30 batches.
  4. In Pronto para transmitir?, choose the pace. A batch like that goes over 100 messages in a day and triggers the Mais de 100 disparos por dia warning: InvestCRM's own recommendation is to stay at 100 or fewer, because a lead's report can get the number blocked even on the official API. Going ahead with Entendi, enviar mesmo assim (send anyway) is your call, and it only makes sense for a list that asked for these announcements.

What happens next

Each batch shows up in the broadcast list as a separate send, on its scheduled day and time, in Brasília time, with sent, delivered, read, replies, failures and Pulados (skipped): anyone who opted out between scheduling and sending is left out. If Meta penalizes the account in the middle of the opening, running and scheduled batches are paused and only resume when you restart them.

From the Start plan

4. People who reply to the opening go into the pipeline

Starts when

The person replies to the opening announcement with a question, using words like "installments", "boleto" or "question" (trigger O contato envia uma mensagem).

How to set it up

  1. In the flow, an Ações block with Adicionar ao funil, at the "Question at opening" stage of the launch pipeline.
  2. Connect an Atendimento com IA block with an agent that knows the offer terms from its knowledge base; in the rules, forbid promising results or making up deadlines.
  3. In the Pipeline, the team moves the card to "Payment link sent" when they send the link, and marks the deal as lost, with a reason, when the person gives up.
  4. The day before closing, create a task for every card still in "Payment link sent": it shows up in Tasks and in the Calendar of whoever will pick the conversation back up.

What happens next

The pipeline shows how many conversations sit at each stage and how many days each card has been idle. On Enterprise, the Conversion view brings together win rate, time per stage and loss reasons. Replies inside an open chat, from the AI or the team, are service messages, far cheaper than one more marketing announcement.

InvestCRM screen: sales pipeline board with sample cards in the Novo lead, Em contato, Proposta enviada and Negociação columns, each card showing stars, a phone number, tags and the deal value
Real InvestCRM screen, with sample data.

Message templates

Templates for the launch, in the right category

Launch announcements go out days after sign-up, with the chat closed, so they are templates Meta approves in advance, and nearly all of them land in marketing. On the creation screen, the Marketing category comes preselected, and the brackets mark the class name, the course name and the dates.

  • List sign-up confirmation

    Utility

    Template name: confirmacao_inscricao

    Hi {{1}}, we confirmed your sign-up to get updates here about the [class name] live class, scheduled for [date]. If you change your mind, reply STOP.

    Why this category

    It confirms an opt-in the person gave on another channel, such as the sign-up page, and Meta lists that case among its utility examples. The text says nothing about the product or the sale. It goes out as a broadcast to the tag of the imported spreadsheet; people who joined through the WhatsApp link already have an open chat and get the confirmation as a regular reply, billed as service.

  • The class starts today

    Marketing

    Template name: aula_comeca_hoje

    Hi {{1}}! The [class name] class starts today at [time], and the link opens 10 minutes early. To stop getting messages from this number, reply STOP.

    • Send me the link

    Why this category

    Event invitations appear among Meta's marketing examples, and a launch class sets up a sale. Filing it as utility only delays the recategorization. It goes out as a broadcast scheduled for the class day to the list tag, not through a sequence, so the "today" in the text is the same day for everyone.

  • Enrollment is open

    Marketing

    Template name: carrinho_aberto

    Hi {{1}}, enrollment for [course name] is open until [date and time]. Price and payment options are listed in full on the page behind the button below. To stop getting messages from this number, reply STOP.

    • See the terms
    • I have a question

    Why this category

    Opening sales is the clearest example of marketing. The closing date has to be real, and the full terms sit on the page behind the button, so the message does not leave out anything essential about the price.

  • Final hours

    Marketing

    Template name: ultimas_horas

    Hi {{1}}, enrollment for [course name] closes today at [time], and the next cohort has no date yet. To stop getting messages from this number, reply STOP.

    • I want in

    Why this category

    A last call is marketing too. Only send it if the deadline is real, and say what happens next without inventing scarcity. It is the announcement most likely to be reported: send it to the tag of people who have not bought, with buyers excluded.

What it costs

A launch month, at Meta's rates

An example launch with 3,000 people on the list and one number. Of those, 1,800 joined through the WhatsApp link and got their confirmation as a reply in the open chat, billed as service; 1,200 joined through the page and got the confirmation template, a utility message. Each person gets four marketing announcements (two classes, the opening and the final hours), and sales week adds the chats with the AI and the team. This is the whole launch month, not a single announcement.

Sample bill using Meta's official rate card, Brazilian number
What forCategoryMessages a monthBilledPrice per messageCost for the month
Confirmation template for people who joined through the pageUtility1,2001,200R$ 0.0350R$ 42.00
Classes, sales opening and final hours for the listMarketing12,00012,000R$ 0.3217R$ 3,860.40
Confirmations for link sign-ups and replies during sales weekService (support)5,8004,800R$ 0.0350R$ 168.00
Estimated monthly total, paid straight to MetaR$ 4,070.40

The first 1,000 service messages of each number, every month, are free.

If the utility templates in this bill were classified as marketing, the same month would go from R$ 4,070.40 to R$ 4,414.44.

Almost all of a launch's cost sits in the marketing row, and it grows with every announcement: a fifth message to the whole list, or one prep message through the sequence, adds another 3,000 marketing messages. Cut announcements before you cut the audience. Meta charges per delivered message, so whatever it held back because of the limit is not billed.

The volumes are an example to show the math, not data from a customer.

Meta's BRL rate card for Brazilian numbers, effective Oct 1, 2026, checked on Oct 9, 2026. See the rate card at Meta

Run your own numbers in the calculator →

Launch rules

What Meta, the Consumer Code and the LGPD require in a launch

In a launch, Meta caps the volume, the Brazilian Consumer Protection Code caps the promises, and the LGPD governs the list. Each card links the official text. The content, the list and the promises are yours; InvestCRM organizes and delivers the announcements.

  • How many days your list needs to hear about the opening

    Meta's messaging limit counts different people reached outside the customer service window in a moving 24-hour period, adding up every number in the portfolio. For a 3,000-person list, the math goes like this: on the 250 tier, where a new portfolio starts, the whole list takes 12 days; on the 2,000 tier, reached through business verification or 2,000 quality deliveries within 30 days, it takes 2 days; from the 10,000 tier up, it fits in one day. How to move up a tier is in the official API guide.

    In InvestCRM

    Check your tier in Settings → WhatsApp, under Limites de mensagens, before you put a date in the announcement: on the 250 tier, the honest promise is "enrollment opens this week", not "tomorrow at 8 pm for everyone". InvestCRM does not change the tier; what it does is split the opening into batches.

    Source: Messaging limits (Meta)

  • Meta holds back marketing per person

    Meta adjusts how many marketing messages each person receives based on their recent engagement. When a message is held back, the failure returns code 131049; the guidance is to wait at least 24 hours before resending, and retrying sooner can make further attempts to those people unavailable for up to 24 hours. Marketing sent while the chat is open does not count toward that limit.

    In InvestCRM

    In the broadcast report, those deliveries show up under Falhas and Por que falhou (failures, why it failed). Resending is your call: if you do, wait until the next day, as Meta asks.

    Source: Per-user marketing limits (Meta)

  • Blocks and reports weigh on the number

    The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy says people should expect the messages they get and that its systems may limit how many messages a business sends based on user feedback, since users can block and report. It recommends separate opt-ins per message category, with clear instructions on how to leave.

    In InvestCRM

    Broadcasts ask for "Confirmo o opt-in" before publishing, and the over-100-a-day warning reminds you that reports can get a number blocked even on the official API. When Meta sends a notice about the account, InvestCRM pauses the number's running and scheduled broadcasts; sequences keep going, so use the prep sequence's Pausar (pause) button yourself.

    Source: WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy

  • Deadlines and spots have to be true

    The Brazilian Consumer Protection Code bans misleading advertising: any communication that is wholly or partly false, or that, even by omission, leads consumers into error about price, quantity or other product details is misleading (art. 37, § 1). Leaving out essential information makes it misleading by omission (§ 3).

    In InvestCRM

    InvestCRM does not read your template text. If sales do not close at the announced time, do not resend "final hours" to the same audience: send a new announcement that says what changed.

    Source: Consumer Protection Code (Law 8,078/1990)

  • Consent is for a purpose, and the proof is on you

    Under Brazil's LGPD, whoever controls the data must prove consent was obtained lawfully (art. 8, § 2), and consent must refer to specific purposes: blanket authorizations are void (§ 4). A list built for a launch class does not, on its own, become permission for any future offer.

    In InvestCRM

    The contact card in the inbox shows the opt-in date and source, and the link phrase leaves a record in the chat of what the person asked for. One tag per launch tells you who asked for what.

    Source: General Data Protection Law (Law 13,709/2018)

  • A launch dressed up as utility has its own penalty

    Meta treats any template with promotional intent as marketing and penalizes businesses that repeatedly file marketing as utility: first a written warning, then a cap on utility volume within 24 hours for at least 7 days, then every utility template on the account moved to marketing for 7 days (30 for repeat cases) and, if it continues, a restriction across the whole portfolio.

    In InvestCRM

    On the template creation screen, the Marketing category comes preselected. If Meta changes a template's category, the templates table in Settings → WhatsApp shows a warning next to the new category.

    Source: Meta's template categories

Rules checked against the official sources on Oct 18, 2026. This is not legal advice: when in doubt, ask your professional council.

Plan

Which plan a launch needs

For a launch, the plan is Business. Envio Avançado, which splits the list into daily batches, starts there; broadcasts have no monthly message cap; and you get 5,000 included contacts, room for you plus 3 people to handle sales week, and 10 active automations for link sign-ups and opening-day questions; the classes go out as broadcasts, which take no automation slot.

Start works for testing with a small list: it includes 1,000 broadcast messages a month, and a broadcast bigger than what is left in the month is refused entirely, not halfway. A 400-person list with three announcements already goes over that cap.

If the list grows beyond 5,000 people, compare it with Enterprise, which has no cap on included contacts. Meta's reach limit still applies on every plan.

InvestCRM plans: price, limits and features of each one
FeatureGrátisStartBusinessEnterprise
Broadcast messages per monthNot included1,000UnlimitedUnlimited
Batch sending (Envio Avançado)Not includedNot includedIncludedIncluded
Schedule a broadcast by date and timeNot includedIncludedIncludedIncluded
Broadcast sending paceNot includedUp to 600 a minuteUp to 600 a minuteUp to 600 a minute
Contacts included1001,0005,000Unlimited
Active automationsNot included21050

See all plans and pricing →

Questions

Questions from people planning a launch

How many announcements can I send per day?

It depends on your portfolio limit at Meta, which counts different people reached in 24 hours, not on a fixed InvestCRM number. The system lets the pace run from 1 to 600 messages a minute and warns you when a broadcast goes over 100 on the same day; it recommends staying under that, but the call is yours.

The person joined through the link. Do I need a template to reply?

No, while the chat is open: for 24 hours after their last message, the reply can be free-form text billed as service; on each number, the 1,000 earliest each month go out uncharged. Announcements on later days, with the chat closed, need an approved template. See the 24-hour window.

Can I resend an announcement only to people who did not read it?

There is no "did not read" filter in the broadcast audience: the conditions are tag, segment, subscription sequence, opt-in source, name, phone and subscribed. Resending to the whole list repeats the message for people who already read it, which is what triggers blocks. Prefer a new announcement, with different content, to the tag of people who have not bought yet.

Is a launch driven by click-to-WhatsApp ads cheaper?

It can be: Meta does not charge messages for up to 7 days to people who came from the ad, if the business replies within the window and the person uses the phone app. The rule and the setup are in click-to-WhatsApp ads, and ad measurement lives in Meta and Google conversions.

What happens after sales close?

Buyers become students, and access, support and refunds come with different math and different categories: see WhatsApp for online courses.

Keep reading

To prepare the launch in InvestCRM

Start free on InvestCRM

The Free plan has no time limit and needs no card. Connect your number through the Meta window and try the system.

Sign up freeTalk to sales