In this article
Key takeaways
- Sellers on WhatsApp with no store are the biggest group of advertisers in the Gulf: 13,633 of 24,891 pages, and 27% of the newest ads.
- In Meta's library you spot them by the "Send WhatsApp message" button and the API.WHATSAPP.COM link, and gather one seller's ads by searching its Page name.
- Their ad is their store page: longer copy (a median of 56 words against 24 for Salla), WhatsApp named in the text in 31%, and prices and offers written in it.
- Do not send fake inquiries to learn prices or stock: they waste a real seller's time and deceive them. Everything you need is published in the ad.
Who sells on WhatsApp with no store?
Of the newest 160,000 Arabic ads, 43,953 led to a WhatsApp chat rather than a store, or 27%. The number of advertisers matters more: 13,633 of 24,891 advertiser pages, more than half. Many pages with few ads each: a small seller, a beginning, or a local service.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are close in WhatsApp ads (30% and 30%), then Kuwait and Oman. The "WhatsApp message" button is on 94% of them. Why people choose this model and its limits: Selling on WhatsApp, no store.
Method 1: Meta's Ad Library
- Search a keyword in the country you sell in: the product name as sellers write it, in Arabic and its spelling variants.
- Recognise a WhatsApp ad by its card: the "Send WhatsApp message" button and an API.WHATSAPP.COM link instead of a store link.
- Open the seller's Page and pick it from the drop-down to see all of its active ads with each one's start date (All ads of a Facebook page).
The library's limits: active ads only, and no filter by where the ad leads (a store or WhatsApp), so WhatsApp ads mix with store ads in every search.
Method 2: the WhatsApp filter in GccFY
In GccFY "WhatsApp" is a store type like Salla or Shopify: pick it with a country and a category, sort by longest running, and you see the WhatsApp sellers whose ads survived for weeks. On the Advertisers screen, filter by the "WhatsApp" platform, search a Page name, then open the advertiser window to see all of its ads, active and stopped.
Stopped ads matter here in particular: a WhatsApp seller tests fast and stops fast, and what it stopped is usually what did not sell.
What their ads reveal: prices, offers, products
With no store page, the ad carries everything: longer copy (a median of 56 words against 24 for Salla and 39 for Shopify), a discount or offer in 27%, and instalments mentioned in 6% against 3% of all ads. Cash on delivery is written in only 2%: it is agreed in the chat.
| Country | Currency | Lower quartile | WhatsApp median price | Upper quartile | Whole country median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | SAR | 100 | 299 | 799 | 199 |
| UAE | AED | 130 | 399 | 850 | 280 |
| Kuwait | KWD | 15 | 39 | 100 | 21 |
| Qatar | QAR | 110 | 340 | 725 | 211 |
In Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, WhatsApp sellers' median price is above the whole country's: a chat sells the product that needs a question or persuasion, from furniture (home is their largest category, 9% of their ads) to services. From each ad, note the product, the written price, the offer, and whether it mentions delivery or instalments. To read the button itself and what it means: Best CTA button.
What not to do, and what you cannot know
- No fake inquiries: messaging a seller as a pretend buyer to learn the price or stock is deception, and it wastes the time of someone who lives off these chats. If you want to test their service, actually buy.
- No copying: their images, videos and copy are theirs. Take the idea and the angle and make your own material.
- Public information only: the published ad and the public Page, nothing more.
No tool sees a seller's chats, orders, sales or profit. The honest signals: an ad running for weeks, a wave of new ads for the same product, a seller adding a new country, a product showing up with many sellers at once.
A 20-minute weekly routine
- 5 minutes: the "WhatsApp" filter with your country and category, sorted by longest running: who survived?
- 5 minutes: sort by newest: which products are new this week?
- 5 minutes: open three sellers and note the price and offer from the ad copy.
- 5 minutes: save the best into a collection with a note, and compare with last week.
If you sell over WhatsApp too, setting up these ads is covered in WhatsApp ads. To study a competitor that has a store: Spy on any online store.
