Getting Started

1. Create your account and workspace

Sign up at swiftmsg.io/signup. After email verification you will be prompted to name your workspace — this is the organisational unit that holds your contacts, templates, campaigns, and billing. If you are part of a team, one person creates the workspace and invites the others from Settings → Team.

2. Connect your WhatsApp Business account

Go to Settings → WhatsApp and enter the three values from your Meta for Developers dashboard:

• WhatsApp Business Account ID (WABA ID) — found in the Meta Business Suite under WhatsApp Accounts.
• Phone Number ID — the numeric ID assigned to the specific phone number you want to send from, visible in WhatsApp → Getting Started → Phone Number ID.
• Permanent Access Token — generate a system-user token in Business Settings → System Users with the whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management permissions. Do not use a temporary token — it expires in 60 days.

Save the settings. SwiftMsg encrypts your token before storing it and will verify the connection by calling the Meta Cloud API.

3. Buy credits

SwiftMsg runs on a prepaid credit system. Go to Billing → Buy Credits and choose a credit pack. Payment is handled by Paystack in NGN. Once the transaction is confirmed via webhook, credits appear on your dashboard instantly.

Each message sent consumes credits based on the Meta conversation category assigned to the template you use:

• Utility / Authentication — 3 credits per message
• Marketing — 6–9 credits per message (varies by destination country)

4. Import your contacts

Go to Contacts → Import and upload a CSV file. At minimum your file needs a phone column with numbers in international E.164 format (e.g. +2348012345678 for Nigeria, +27831234567 for South Africa). You can add extra columns such as name or custom fields that map to template variables.

After upload, SwiftMsg validates each row. Rows with missing or malformed phone numbers are skipped and reported so you can correct them before re-importing. Valid contacts are added to your workspace's contact list and can be organised into Audience Groups for targeting specific segments.

See the Formatting your CSV guide for a detailed column reference.

5. Create and get a template approved

WhatsApp requires all outbound messages outside a 24-hour customer-initiated window to use a pre-approved template. Go to Templates → New Template, write your message body with optional variable placeholders ({{1}}, {{2}}, etc.), choose a category, and submit for review. Meta typically reviews templates within a few minutes to 24 hours. You will see the status update to Approved or Rejected in the Templates list.

See the WhatsApp Templates guide for category explanations, writing tips, and common rejection reasons.

6. Create and send a campaign

Go to Campaigns → New Campaign and follow the three steps:

1. Pick a template — only approved templates appear in the list. If your template includes variables, you will be prompted to map each placeholder to a contact column or type a static value.
2. Choose an audience — select the contact group or filter contacts by tag. You will see an estimated recipient count and a credit cost preview before confirming.
3. Schedule or send now — choose Send immediately or pick a future date and time. Scheduled campaigns can be edited or cancelled up until their send time.

Confirm and launch. SwiftMsg submits the messages to the Meta Cloud API and begins streaming delivery receipts back via webhook.

7. Track delivery and results

Open the campaign from the Campaigns list to see a live breakdown: sent, delivered, read, and failed counts. The Reports page gives you aggregated metrics across all campaigns, including credit spend over time.

Failed messages include an error reason from Meta (e.g. invalid number, user opted out of marketing). Use this to clean your contact list before the next campaign.

Next steps

• Formatting your CSV — prepare clean contact data
• WhatsApp Templates — write templates that get approved first time
• ← All guides