How Automax® achieved 42.5x ROI from WhatsApp broadcasts

Automax® is a luxury car dealership located in the United Arab Emirates serving customers around the region, including Saudi Arabia. Its multilingual sales team caters to locals and expats alike, and the business has a large social media following, especially on Instagram and TikTok.

The problem: Managing WhatsApp conversations at scale

Automax®’s social presence generates significant interest and receives high volumes of new leads per month from click-to-chat campaigns. However, operating on the WhatsApp Business App limited the team’s ability to scale retargeting campaigns, track ad performance and manage high volumes of responses.

Since the WhatsApp Business App limits broadcasts to 256 contacts at a time, the business couldn’t reengage at the volume it needed to. As a result, leads who came in from ads but weren’t ready to buy would go cold and not return.

Lead status had to be manually updated and tracked in their CRM, which led to oversights and inconsistent follow-ups. Sales agents also reported time wasted on unqualified inquiries; when thousands of leads arrived in a day, spam or unqualified leads diverted focus from serious buyers.

Because contact data collection was inconsistent, agents often had to ask for basic details like language preference and country—both essential for routing and setting expectations. Leads from Saudi Arabia generally required Arabic support, while those in the UAE might prefer English, Arabic or Russian given the large Russian expat community. Not having the option to select an agent who spoke their language slowed conversations and added friction. Finally, there was no after-hours coverage, so valuable prospects who messaged outside business hours waited until the next day or simply dropped off and purchased from a competitor.

The respond.io solution

Automax® adopted WhatsApp API with respond.io to improve lead quality, scale broadcast volume and automate processes throughout the customer lifecycle. The business connected respond.io to WhatsApp API, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and TikTok so all conversations, ad replies and broadcasts are managed in a single platform.

Automatically capture contact data and route leads

Respond.io enabled the business to automate language preference and country selection at the start of each chat to route customers to an agent who speaks their language. Recognizing the country also helps distribute agent workload as customers in the UAE are more likely to be bilingual; for example, if an Arabic-speaking agent is not available, the customer may be able to speak to an English-speaking agent.

Handle after-hours conversations and lead qualification with AI

An AI Agent greets prospects outside office hours, answers FAQs and gathers key qualification information before handoff to a salesperson. Additionally, by using AI to manage routine questions and filter out poor-fit leads, Automax® keeps human agents focused on serious buyers even during high-volume spikes.

Send retargeting broadcasts at scale

Respond.io enables reliable, high-volume broadcasts, so the business now regularly sends over 80,000 WhatsApp broadcasts per month. Broadcasts are segmented using respond.io’s Lifecycle tracking feature so leads receive timely follow-ups tailored to where they are in the customer journey.

Improve ad conversion rates with Meta Conversions API and TikTok Lower Funnel Events

To optimize ad performance and attract leads with high conversion potential, Automax® connected Meta’s Conversion API (CAPI) to respond.io to notify Meta of purchase events so that future ads would be shown to audiences with similar traits as those who made a purchase. Respond.io’s TikTok Lower Funnel Events Workflow serves a similar purpose, sending conversion data to TikTok to improve targeting and ad performance.

With cleaner event signals , the team increased conversion rates on both Meta and TikTok while maintaining a steady influx of 6,000 to 8,000 new leads per month.

“With respond.io, WhatsApp became a true performance channel. Multilingual routing and an AI Agent let us handle volume without sacrificing quality, and targeted broadcasts delivered a 42.5x ROI.” - Naeem Philipe Tabrizi, Marketing Director, Automax®

The results

Since implementing respond.io, Automax® reliably broadcasts 80,000+ targeted WhatsApp messages every month, fueling consistent reengagement. Multilingual routing keeps conversations relevant from the first reply, and respond.io’s AI Agent takes care of lead qualification so reps can prioritize qualified buyers.

Most notably, targeted WhatsApp broadcasts achieved a 42.5x ROI in platform costs, and integrating Lifecycle with Meta CAPI and TikTok Lower Funnel Events delivered 10% more conversions. By unifying customer data into a single inbox and automating the early stages of every chat, Automax® now handles peak-season conversation surges with confidence while converting more prospects into paying customers.

Want to achieve similar results for your business? Contact us for a free consultation today!