Botmaker has a native integration with Google Ads and is a Google partner, which lets you run click to WhatsApp campaigns (also called click to message): ads that, instead of leading to a website, open a WhatsApp conversation where your bot can assist, sell, and capture data. When that customer completes the goal you defined (for example, leaving their details), Botmaker sends the conversion event back to Google so the campaign can optimize.

You can:

• Create an offline conversion event in Google Ads, ready to connect with Botmaker.
• Create a Search campaign suitable for click to WhatsApp.
• Add the messages asset with your WhatsApp number so the contact button appears.
• Connect the campaign with Botmaker and send conversions automatically.

Prerequisites

Allowlist request to Google (first step): first contact your Botmaker account executive, let them know you want to use click to WhatsApp campaigns, and give them your legal business name and your Google account ID. Botmaker processes the permission with Google, which can take up to 5 business days.

Access to your Google Ads account with administrator permissions (depending on your role, you may see some screens different from the ones shown here).

A Botmaker account with the Google Ads integration enabled.

A WhatsApp number enabled in Botmaker to use in the ad.

The Google Ads API enabled in your Google Cloud Console project.

Key concepts

Click to WhatsApp (click to message): an ad that opens a WhatsApp conversation instead of directing to a website. It only works with Search or Performance Max campaigns (which includes Search).

Conversion event: the action you want to measure and optimize (for example, the customer leaving their details in the chat). It's different from the conversation started event, which Google creates automatically; the one you'll create is the one that measures your business's real goal.

Offline conversion: a type of conversion that's recorded off the website. It's the one that corresponds to click to WhatsApp, because the event happens inside the conversation and Botmaker detects and sends it.

Conversion category: groups similar events together (Contact, Submit lead form, Purchase, etc.). A category can contain several events, and if you optimize for a category, you optimize for all the events it contains.

Messages asset: the resource that adds the WhatsApp button to the ad. Without this asset, the campaign can't direct to WhatsApp.

Conversion goal: the set of conversions the campaign optimizes for. Your campaign must include the category where you created your event.

How does this solution work?

1. The ad: The user searches for a term on Google (e.g., “car insurance”) and sees your ad with a “Send message on WhatsApp” button.
2. The conversion: When the user performs an important action in the bot (e.g., completes a quote), Botmaker automatically notifies Google Ads that the ad generated a valuable result.

How to build your click to WhatsApp campaign end to end

Step 1: Create your conversion event

Go to your Google Ads account and navigate to Goals → Conversions → Summary. Click Create conversion actions to get started.

On the Choose data sources screen, Google shows three options checked by default: Conversions on a website, Conversions from phone calls, and Conversions offline. For click to WhatsApp, uncheck the first two and leave only “Conversions offline” checked. This is the only type that applies, because the conversion happens inside WhatsApp and is sent by Botmaker.

Note: By default Google leaves all three options checked. Make sure to leave only Conversions offline.

Choose the category that best describes your conversion. The one you need depends on each client's goal: Contact if you want to measure that the customer gets in touch, Submit lead form if it's a lead-generation campaign, etc. In this example we use Contact.

Click Create conversion and, when it asks for the data source, choose Connect data source later. You don't need a CRM or any other tool: Botmaker handles that connection later on.

In the conversion settings, the most important thing is the name: it's what you'll later see in Botmaker to identify this event, so give it a clear name. The rest of the fields (value, attribution window) can keep their default values; filling them in isn't required for the conversion to work.

Note: the name you enter in Conversion name is the one you'll look for later in Botmaker. Choose it carefully.

Save the conversion with Save and continue. You'll see the data source listed as “Connect data source later” and the action set as Primary (the main action used for bid optimization).

When you finish, you'll see the confirmation screen. There's nothing else to choose here: click Finish. Your conversion event is now created.

Note: once the conversion is created, Google may take 24 hours to approve it. Once approved, it will be visible and available to select from Botmaker (step 5).

Important: it's normal for the conversion action to show a red "Connect data source" / "isn't receiving data" alert right after you create it. Since you chose Connect data source later, the alert stays until the first conversion comes in from Botmaker. You don't need to connect any data source manually or click that button; the alert clears on its own once Google processes the first event.

Step 2: Create your campaign

With the conversion event already created, create the campaign that will use that event.

Go to the Campaigns section and click Create campaign.

Choose your campaign's objective. The objective doesn't matter for click to WhatsApp (you can use Leads, Sales, etc., depending on your business); what really determines that it works is the campaign type in the next step. In this example we choose Leads.

Choose the campaign type. This is the key point: click to WhatsApp only works with Search or Performance Max campaigns (which includes Search). Select Search.

Note: although Performance Max includes Search and also works, for click to WhatsApp the recommendation is to use Search campaigns, since Performance Max is in beta.

Review the campaign's conversion goals. Make sure the category where you created your event (in this example, Contact) is included among the goals the campaign will optimize for. If you want to optimize only for your event, leave only that category.

Note: when you optimize for a category (for example Contact), the campaign optimizes for all the events you have within that category. If you want to optimize for a single specific event, you have to create a custom goal that includes only that event. If you see an “inactive or unverified action” warning, that's expected while the newly created conversion is being approved (24 hrs).

Further down, under Select the ways you'd like to reach your goal, check Messages from your ads. This option will let you add the WhatsApp asset in the next step. Then click Continue.

Step 3: Add the messages asset (WhatsApp)

The messages asset is what adds the WhatsApp button to the ad. Without this step, the campaign won't direct to WhatsApp. There are two ways to add it:

• When creating the campaign: if you checked Messages from your ads in the previous step, Google takes you straight to configuring the message when you continue.
• In an existing campaign: in the left panel go to Keywords and ads → Ads, scroll down to More asset types, and expand the Messages section. Click + Message.

In the messages panel, set up or select the message with your WhatsApp number and the starter message. Check that the WhatsApp number stays linked: that's what makes the button that directs to WhatsApp appear. Click Apply.

Note: you can add the asset at the campaign level (applies only to that campaign) or at the account level (appears in all your Search campaigns). Choose based on how you want to reuse it.

Step 4: Connect with Botmaker

With the conversion event created in Google Ads, the next step is to connect your Google Ads account with Botmaker so the platform can send conversions.

• Go to Settings > Integrations > Ad platforms and select Google Ads.

Click Connect and log in with your Google account.

• Select the specific ad account you're going to use. This will let Botmaker report conversion events directly to your campaigns.

Step 5: Set up the conversion event in Botmaker

Finally, inside Botmaker, indicate at what point in your bot's flow the conversion fires and link the event you created in Google Ads.

• Go to the Bot Designer and open the flow that handles your ads.

• Find the block where the goal is met (e.g., “Payment confirmed” or “Qualified lead”).
• In the block settings, go to the Metrics and conversions tab and choose the Google Ads account you want to work with.

Select the conversion event (you'll recognize it by the name you gave it in Step 1). From then on, when a customer completes that action in the conversation, Botmaker will send the event to Google automatically.

Important: the status change isn't immediate. Even though Botmaker sends the event right away, Google needs to process it before it's reflected. Processing usually takes less than 12 hours, but it can take up to 24–48 hours to show in reports and for the action to move from the red alert to "recording conversions." For GBRAID/WBRAID-based conversions (iOS/app clicks) it can stretch to up to 72 hours. For this change to happen, the click (GCLID) must exist in that account, be less than 90 days old, and the conversion date must be later than the click date. If that's all in order, it's just a matter of waiting for the processing window.

Important considerations

• Mobile devices only: This feature (Message Ads) is shown only to users who search from smartphones or mobile devices. It won't appear on desktop versions.
• Processing time: Once the bot reports the conversion, it can take up to 24-48 hours to be reflected in the Google Ads dashboard.
• Algorithm optimization: The biggest benefit isn't just receiving the chat, but the Offline Conversion Import. By feeding Google with success data, your ads will be shown to people with higher purchase intent, lowering your cost per acquisition (CPA).

In which variables is the ad's origin recorded?

When a person starts a conversation from a Google Ads ad, Botmaker automatically saves that origin's data in variables you can use within your flows, for example to assign the conversation to a specific bot depending on the campaign.

Ad variables

sourceId: identifies which ad the person clicked. It's the ID of the Google Ads ad itself, and it works equivalently to Meta Ads' Referral source ID. Everyone who clicks the same ad arrives with the same sourceId, so it helps you know where the conversation came from and act accordingly (for example, routing it to a different bot depending on the campaign).

gclid (Google Click ID): identifies that person's specific click. It's a unique code Google generates on each click, so two people who click the same ad have a different gclid. Botmaker uses it to tell Google that the click ended in a conversion and to attribute the result to the correct campaign. It's a session-type variable and, by default, it's not visible to prevent it from being modified by mistake; if you define it manually it becomes visible and you can use it like any other variable of yours.

ChatId: identifier that arrives within the starter message generated by the ad.

Note: If you decide to use the gclid variable in your flows, be careful not to overwrite or clear it prematurely: when Google confirms the click, Botmaker will save the ID in that variable so it can record the conversion.

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