About 1.47 lakh WhatsApp chats in eight months for a Kerala electronics chain, 73% with new customers

A consumer electronics chain with stores across Kerala wanted three things from its advertising at the same time: plenty of sales enquiries, more people walking into its stores, and more sales once they were inside. It also had two kinds of store to serve, some run by the company and some by franchise partners.

Over eight months, from 1 January to 31 August 2026, our Meta campaigns started 146,924 messaging conversations with shoppers, about 1.47 lakh in all. About 73% of them, 107,759 conversations, were with brand-new customers. On the core retail sets, each lead cost between ₹17.80 and ₹18.51.

At a glance

The client

The client is a consumer tech and electronics retail chain with stores across Kerala. All of its stores are company-owned, but they are run in two ways: some by the company itself, and some by franchise partners.

That mix matters for marketing. A franchise-run store relies on the brand's advertising just as much as a company-run one does. Whatever the chain does online has to bring customers to both kinds of store, in every town where it trades.

Buying electronics usually starts on the phone and ends in a shop. A shopper sees a product advertised, has a question about price, stock or an offer, and then visits a nearby store to see it and buy. For a chain, that first question often decides which store gets the visit, or whether the shopper goes to a rival instead. A WhatsApp chat is a natural way to ask it: quick, private and on the device the shopper already has in hand.

The challenge

The brief ran for eight months and asked for three things across both store formats: a high volume of sales enquiries, visits to the stores, and sales once people were inside.

Those goals pull in different directions. Volume needs reach: very large numbers of people seeing the brand often enough that they think of it the next time they shop for electronics. Store visits need nearly the opposite: a message about a store close by, shown to someone who could walk in this week.

A plan built for only one of these usually fails the other. Reach on its own is cheap to buy and hard to turn into sales. Local targeting on its own soon runs out of fresh people and keeps talking to the same customers.

There was a second, quieter issue. Activity is not the same as growth. A chat with an existing customer is useful, but a chat with someone who has never bought from the chain is how the customer base gets bigger. Any honest measure of success had to tell the two apart.

What we did

Reach and conversation, side by side

We ran full-funnel Meta campaigns with two layers working together. Large top-of-funnel reach and video view campaigns kept the brand in front of a very wide audience. Alongside them, hyper-local messaging sets invited people to start a WhatsApp conversation with the chain.

Neither layer was asked to do the other's job. The reach and video campaigns made the name familiar. The messaging sets turned that familiarity into a conversation with a shopper who could get to a store.

Local by design

Each messaging set was aimed at a small area, not at the whole of Kerala. For a business that needs people inside its stores, that is the right unit to plan around. Few people cross the state to buy electronics when there is a store in their own town.

Local sets also keep the message relevant. An ad tied to a shopper's own area reads like an invitation from a nearby shop, not a general brand announcement. We follow the same principle for smaller networks too, such as a gadget repair chain in Oman whose outlets each had their own local campaigns.

Built to the size of the chain

Over the eight months the work ran to 382 campaigns, on a total ad spend of ₹42,38,036.02. A count that high is what local advertising looks like for a chain: many small, focused sets rather than a handful of large, general ones. It takes more care to run, but it means each area can be looked at on its own results.

The results

In plain terms: across eight months the chain held about 1.47 lakh conversations with shoppers, and about 1.08 lakh of them were with people who had never bought from it before. The advertising was not just keeping existing buyers busy. It was bringing new people to the chain.

The cost held steady as well. On the core retail sets, the cost per lead stayed within a narrow band of ₹17.80 to ₹18.51. When a budget runs to ₹42,38,036.02 over eight months, that kind of consistency matters as much as the low figure itself, because it makes the next month far easier to plan.

Why it worked

The two layers supported each other. People reply more readily to a name they already recognise. The reach and video campaigns built that recognition across over 35.7 million accounts, so the local messaging ads came from a brand many people had already seen.

Most conversations were with new people. Local messaging on its own tends to keep reaching the same shoppers. Here, about 73% of conversations were with brand-new customers, which is the clearest sign the campaigns were growing the chain and not just recycling its audience.

Size never made it generic. At 382 campaigns the account was large, yet each messaging set still covered a small area. A chain wins customers store by store, and the campaign structure was built the same way.

Reach makes a brand known. Local chats make it feel nearby.

How to apply this to your business

• Run brand reach and local response together, rather than choosing between them, and give each a separate job.
• Draw your messaging campaigns around each store's own area, not the whole state.
• Make the ad's goal a WhatsApp conversation, so a shopper can ask about price or stock before making the trip.
• Split your reporting into new and existing customers, and judge growth by the new ones.
• Give franchise or partner-run stores the same local campaigns as company-run ones, since they rely on the brand's advertising just as much.
• Watch the cost per lead for stability from month to month, not only for the lowest figure.

Questions business owners ask

Do WhatsApp ads work for electronics shops?

They suit electronics well, because shoppers usually have a question before they visit. In this case, Meta campaigns built to open a WhatsApp chat produced 146,924 conversations in eight months, with the core retail sets at ₹17.80 to ₹18.51 per lead.

Should a retail chain spend on brand awareness or local ads?

Both, working together. Awareness campaigns make the name familiar, and local messaging campaigns turn that familiarity into a conversation near a store. Plans built on only one tend to struggle: reach alone is hard to turn into sales, and local ads alone run out of new people. A water purifier brand in Kerala is another example of campaigns split by area.

How should a franchise network handle Meta advertising?

Treat every store as needing customers, whoever runs it. This chain's stores are run either by the company or by franchise partners, and the campaigns had to bring shoppers to both. Local messaging sets mean each area gets its own flow of nearby enquiries.

How do I know if my ads are finding new customers?

Measure it directly. Meta's reports can show how many messaging conversations come from people who have not contacted you before. Here, 107,759 of the 146,924 conversations were with brand-new customers. Track that share month by month: if it falls, your ads are reaching the same people again.

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