Use Phone Numbers as Identifiers for WhatsApp

Insider helps configure Identity Resolution Management settings tailored to your existing data sources and specific use cases for WhatsApp campaigns during onboarding. After onboarding, Insider provides continuous support to ensure any necessary adjustments are made seamlessly to accommodate your evolving needs. The structure of your existing database and how you manage data identification will affect how the WhatsApp product works.

Insider supports various identifiers by default, including Email, Phone Number, or UUID, and can also accommodate any custom identifiers you want to use.

This guide aims to provide answers to these questions:

Effects of not using phone numbers for WhatsApp

If you choose not to use phone numbers as identifiers, it might result in complications when multiple users share the same phone number but have different user IDs in the Unified Customer Database (UCD). This can prevent the consolidation of phone numbers under a single unique userID, potentially leading to the issues below:

Duplicate messages: Since the UCD assigns separate userIDs for each instance of the same phone number, users who share the number might receive duplicate messages.
Event attribution problems: Events such as message delivery, clicks, subscriptions, replies, and drops might not be accurately linked to the correct phone numbers due to inconsistencies in user identification. (You can see further details in Example Case 2.)

When phone numbers are not used as identifiers, it becomes challenging to identify which specific campaign a user has unsubscribed from. As a result, Unsubscribe events cannot be tracked due to:

Unassociated user profiles: When a user unsubscribes, the event might be attributed to an incomplete or newly created user profile instead of the correct one. As a result, unsubscribe events might not be linked to the relevant campaign, leading to inaccurate data reporting.

When a user unsubscribes, the event might be linked to an incomplete or newly created user profile rather than the correct one. Therefore, unsubscribe events may not be associated with the relevant campaign, leading to inaccurate data reporting.

The user's reachability status can still be updated, as attributes like wbo (WhatsApp Opt-Out) and whatsapp_opt_out_user, which determine reachability, are not treated as events. This allows the system to display the updated reachability status, even when phone numbers are not used for identification.

Examples of effects on your WhatsApp campaigns

You can read the example cases below to understand how not using phone numbers as identifiers can affect your WhatsApp campaigns:

Example case 1

Suppose you launched a WhatsApp campaign on Monday and planned a follow-up campaign on Tuesday aimed at users who did not receive the previous message.

If phone numbers are not used as identifiers, users with duplicate phone numbers in the UCD who received the Monday message might receive it again on Tuesday. On the other hand, users sharing the same phone number but not receiving the Monday message may receive it on Tuesday, as the system misinterprets delivery events due to inconsistencies in user IDs.

Example case 2

Imagine a scenario where four users in the UCD share the same phone number. User1 and User3 clicked a link in your campaign, while User2 and User4 did not. When segmenting users for a follow-up campaign, the system randomly selects User1 or User3, failing to attribute the click to both users, resulting in inaccurate segmentation.

Effects of not using the phone numbers for WhatsApp Analytics

Without phone numbers as identifiers, campaign-specific analytics, such as unsubscribes, cannot be accurately attributed to their respective campaigns. While Insider will still process unsubscribe requests, these actions will not appear in the detailed analytics for a specific campaign, making it challenging to assess campaign performance based on user behavior.