How to Use Recipient Lists 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, from creating templates, preparing the recipient lists (WhatsApp recipients), to sending the campaign

You can prepare Recipient lists or target recipients for WhatsApp Campaign messages 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 select customer
    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 recipients for your campaign. Unlike Recipient List, you do not need to explicitly create or prepare a recipient list.

You just 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 via 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 predetermined audience list that you want to reuse. Use when you want to target customers based on certain criteria and the audience is created automatically when the campaign is made.
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 Does not change, according to the data uploaded to the system.

Customer data in the segment is updated daily at 8:00 AM WIB.

Important 
If you create a campaign with the Send Later option, the audience data targeted as campaign recipients are customers who are 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 who qualify to receive messages via WhatsApp. Please note the conditions in the following table. 

Condition Information displayed
No eligible customer data

If the customer data in the Customer Segment you selected does not have phone numbers and/or Usernames, the system will show 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 Segment below 20,000

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

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

Eligible customer data in Segment exceeds 20,000

If there are more than 20,000 customers in the Customer Segment that have phone numbers and/or Usernames, the system will display the following message to inform that only the first 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. Please note the scheduling rules in the following table. 

Sending options Recipient List Customer Segment
Send now

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

For new templates with Quality Status “Neutral”, the Template pacing rules will apply. 

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 methods. 

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 the 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 set 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 select as customer attributes, following 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 via the Campaign > Recipient lists menu, then click the name of the recipient list you want to view details of.

You can view the customer segment used as the audience on the Campaign Details page by clicking the name of the customer segment in the Audience section. 

Then you can see the list of customer data along with customer attributes registered by clicking the customer segment name.