Defining the campaign audience (labels, contacts, segments, CRM and companies)

Overview

The audience defines who receives a campaign. In Conversa Labs you can target by labels (applied to contacts or to conversations), specific contacts, a saved segment (of contacts, conversations or companies), a CRM pipeline, companies, or everyone.

In the campaign composer the audience picker shows, in real time, how many contacts with a phone number would be reached — before you save — and, when a template and category are set, the cost estimate.

The distinction that trips people up: a label applied to a conversation does not land on the contact. They are two different places. That is why the Labels mode asks where the label was applied — picking the wrong source is the most common cause of an audience that comes back zero.

Prerequisites

• Access to Campaigns and a connected inbox (WhatsApp, SMS or API).
• Contacts with a phone number — on phone-dispatch channels only those enter the count and the send.
• Depending on the audience type:
  • Labels: labels applied to contacts and/or to conversations.
  • Saved segment: a segment/folder already saved (see Where segments are created, below).
  • CRM pipeline: a pipeline with open deals.
  • Companies: companies registered under Companies.

Step by step

1. Open Campaigns, create or edit a campaign and go to the Audience field.
2. Pick the audience type: Labels, Specific contacts, Saved segment, CRM pipeline, Companies or All contacts.
3. Fill it in according to the type:
   • Labels: choose where the label was applied (On contacts · On conversations · On both). When conversations are included, a conversation status picker appears (All · Open · Pending · Snoozed · Resolved). Then select one or more labels.
   • Specific contacts: type at least 2 characters to search and click to add; the chosen ones become removable chips.
   • Saved segment: choose the source (Contact segments · Conversation folders · Company segments) and tick one or more.
   • CRM pipeline: choose the pipeline and, optionally, a stage.
   • Companies: choose between a company saved segment or specific companies (search by name, 2 characters minimum).
   • All contacts: no further selection.
4. Check the live count (and the cost estimate, where applicable).
5. Finish the campaign and save.

Settings & options

The audience types:

• Label source: On contacts is the historical behaviour (older campaigns keep resolving exactly as before). On conversations reaches the contacts behind the labeled conversations. On both unions the two readings.
• Conversation status: only shown when the source includes conversations. All is the default.
• CRM — open deals only: a pipeline targets the deals still in play. Won, lost and archived deals do not enter.
• Companies — everyone, not just the primary: includes the contact marked as primary as well as everyone else linked through a company membership.
• Union of criteria: a contact matching more than one criterion is included once. Picking several labels widens the reach (any of them), it does not narrow it.
• Live count: green when at least 1 contact is reachable, amber when it is 0. On phone-dispatch channels it only counts contacts with a phone number.
• Cost estimate: with the template category and provider set, the preview also shows the estimated cost in BRL. It applies to WhatsApp Cloud only (billed by Meta); WhatsApp Web is not billed. Above 5,000 contacts on Cloud the estimate is skipped so the screen never stalls.
• Consent (LGPD): when the account requires consent, anyone who refused data processing is removed from the audience — and the preview says how many were excluded.

Where segments are created

Each kind of segment is born on a different screen, and each has its own name in the interface. That is why a segment created under Conversations does not show up in the Contacts list:

Once saved, it shows up under the matching source in the audience picker.

Use cases

• Reach whoever was helped and labeled during the conversation (e.g. quote-sent), without labeling contact by contact.
• Re-engage only the resolved conversations of a label, to ask for a review.
• Send to a saved segment of active customers.
• Notify every open deal in a specific stage of the pipeline.
• Communicate a contract change to everyone at a group of companies.
• Send to a one-off list of hand-picked contacts.

Tips, limits & best practices

• Check the live count before saving — it prevents empty sends.
• Got zero with a label? Switch the source to On conversations and watch the number change.
• For precise filters (combined conditions), create a segment and use the Saved segment type. Several labels add up (any of them), they never intersect.
• Keep contact phone numbers filled in and valid.
• Use All contacts carefully on large bases, and pair it with the campaign's anti-ban send rate.
• The cost estimate is a reference (Cloud); the real cost is measured over the recipients actually billed.

Troubleshooting

• Count is 0 with a label: almost always the wrong source. If you label conversations, pick On conversations (or On both).
• Count is 0 with a conversation status: the chosen status may hold no labeled conversation. Go back to All and check.
• Segment missing from the list: check the selected source — conversation folders never appear among contact segments, and vice versa. If it does not exist yet, create it on the screen listed in Where segments are created.
• Segment resolves to nothing: check the saved filter's conditions. A broken filter never blocks the campaign, it simply contributes zero contacts.
• Empty pipeline: the pipeline may hold no open deals — won and lost ones do not count.
• Empty company: check whether any contact is linked to that company.
• No cost shown: the estimate only appears with a category and provider set; WhatsApp Web is not billed.

See also

• WhatsApp campaign for contact lists
• Campaigns overview
• Flow Builder mass runs