How to Use Recipient List and Segmentation in WhatsApp Campaigns

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Learning Center Mekari
  • Updated

Important 
The Customer Segmentation feature will be available on your Mekari Qontak account starting September 7, 2026. This feature is only available on the new Qontak dashboard that has been centralized between Omnichannel and CRM

In Mekari Qontak, you can manage sending campaigns to your target audience, starting from template creation, preparing the recipient list (WhatsApp recipients), to sending the campaign

You can prepare Recipient lists or WhatsApp Campaign message recipients using the following 2 (two) methods:

  1. Manual CSV / XLS file import
    This method can be used if you do not store and manage campaign recipient data, along with information to be used as campaign variables (if any), in the Customers menu in Qontak.

  2. Direct customer selection
    This method can be used if you manage campaign recipient data, along with information to be used as campaign variables (if any), in the Customers menu in Qontak.

Besides these two methods, you can also use Customer Segment as the target audience for your campaign. Unlike Recipient List, you do not need to explicitly create or prepare a recipient list.

You only need to create a Customer Segment based on the criteria you want to group customer data, such as domicile, preferences, membership status, birthday, or other specific criteria. This segment can then be used directly when creating a WhatsApp Campaign. 

Learn about Segmentation

A. Differences Between Using Recipient List and Customer Segment as Audience

When sending a WhatsApp Campaign through Mekari Qontak, you will see 2 (two) options in the Audience column (message recipients), namely Recipient lists and Customer segments. Here are the main differences.

Criteria Recipient List Customer Segment
Audience type Static audience Dynamic audience
Usage Use when you have a fixed and predefined audience list that you want to reuse. Use when you want to target customers based on specific criteria and the audience is generated automatically when the campaign is created.
How recipients are determined Recipients are determined when the Recipient List is created. Recipients are determined based on the criteria of the Customer Segment when the campaign is created.
Recipient updates Do not change, according to the data uploaded in the system.

Customer data in the segment is updated daily at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM WIB.

Important 
If you create a campaign with the Send Later option, the audience data targeted as campaign recipients are customers included in the selected Customer Segment list at the time the campaign is created (created time), not at the time the campaign is sent (sent time).

B. Estimated Segment Size

When a Customer Segment is selected as the Audience for sending a WhatsApp Campaign, the system will display the Estimated Segment Size to show an estimate of the number of customers in the segment eligible to receive messages via WhatsApp. See the conditions in the following table. 

Condition Information displayed
No eligible customer data

If the customer data in the selected Customer Segment does not have a phone number and/or Username, the system will display the message “No customers in this segment have provided a phone number.”

You cannot proceed with sending the campaign if you see this message.

Learn about Username and BSUID.

Eligible customer data in the Segment is below 20,000.

If the customer data in the Customer Segment has a phone number and/or Username, the system will display the number of eligible customers out of the total customers registered in the segment.  

For example, 850 of 1,050 matched customers have filled phone numbers indicates that out of 1,050 customers matching the Customer Segment criteria, only 850 have phone numbers and/or Username.

Eligible customer data in the segment exceeds 20,000

If there are more than 20,000 customers in the Customer Segment with phone numbers and/or Username, the system will display the following message to inform that only a maximum of 20,000 customer data will be processed for campaign sending. The selected customer data is based on customer names in alphabetical order.

C. WhatsApp Campaign Scheduling Rules

The sending time rules differ based on the type of Audience selected. See the scheduling rules in the following table. 

Sending options Recipient List Customer Segment
Send now

Campaigns that have been created will be processed immediately to Meta. 

For new templates with Quality Status “Neutral”, the Template pacing rule applies. 

No changes.


 

Send later

Campaigns can be scheduled at least 30 minutes from the current time.

Campaigns can be scheduled at least 1 hour from the current time. 

Send as 
recurring campaign
Campaigns can be scheduled at least 30 minutes from the current time, with a maximum of 30 schedules.

Cannot be used if Customer Segment is selected as the Audience.

D. Differentiating Audience Types in Campaign Detail

You can distinguish whether a Campaign was created using Recipient lists or Customer Segment by the following method. 

Criteria Recipient List Customer Segment
Audience name Name of the recipient list used when the campaign was created. Name of the customer segment when the campaign was created.

Customer attribute as variable mapping data in template

Learn about variables

You can select customer attribute data for variables in the template according to the columns in the recipient list data.



 

You can select customer attribute data for variables in the template according to the customer fields you specify through the Layout menu.

According to the customer data fields you choose when creating the campaign, the system will only save the values from the data fields you selected as customer attributes, in the order of the layout set.

Important
The system will exclude customer layout data with types: File Upload, Signature, and GPS when selecting variable mapping.

Learn about customer data platform layout

Customer list and other information

You can view the list of customer data along with customer attributes registered in the recipient lists through the Campaign > Recipient lists menu, then click the name of the recipient list you want to see details of.

 

You can view the customer segment used as the audience on the Campaign Details page.
  • Customer data view with audience type “Recipient lists”:
  • Customer data view with audience type “Customer segment”:
    1. On the Campaign Details page, click the customer segment name in the Audience section.
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    2. The system will display Customer segment details containing information about the customer segment and the list of customers within it.