WhatsApp vs Instagram: Did Meta’s quiet status update just challenged its own glam queen?

New Delhi: While the world was busy basking in the bombardment of events happening in the year 2025, Meta, one of the behemoths in the digital space, quietly flipped the switch on one of its most intimate platforms - WhatsApp. 

According to Statista, the number of WhatsApp users in India is projected to reach 796 million in 2025. With such a staggering number, in India alone, one thing is quite clear - WhatsApp is no longer just your digital family WhatsApp group HQ. 

It is the next frontier for marketers. What once used to be a place for vacation snaps, birthday wishes, and that one uncle’s spiritual quote is now poised to become Meta’s newest advertising real estate. 

But here is the real question: While Instagram/Facebook Stories have long been the glitzy billboards - full of filters, influencers, and impulse - of the digital world, can WhatsApp, the neighbourhood’s humble notice board of the internet, really pull off a convincing ad makeover? 

Can this new ad surface be a storytelling juggernaut like Instagram/Facebook Stories or just another Status update you swipe past?

Clone or complement?

For many in the advertising world, WhatsApp Ads is not trying to be the next Instagram Story. Instead, it is carving its own strategic niche. 

“From a strategic lens, this is Meta unlocking one of its most underutilised yet highly engaged surfaces. Compared to Stories on Instagram and Facebook, WhatsApp Status is still very personal and peer-driven,” said Raj Swaminathan, Sr Director - Revenues and New Initiatives, Globale Media. 

Gopa Menon, Chief Growth Officer – APAC, Successive Digital, sees this as less of a substitution and more of a smart extension. 

“Rather than a direct replacement, WhatsApp Status ads should be viewed as a powerful complement to existing Meta Stories strategies. In India, especially, where WhatsApp is ubiquitous across age and income groups, the opportunity is massive,” he explained. This, Menon especially attributed, to verticals like D2C, BFSI, and EdTech.

Vijay Shenoy, Deputy Vice President - Growth, LS Digital, echoed the sentiment, saying, “WhatsApp isn’t here to replace Stories. It’s a great complementary option for brands to test and learn.”

Neelesh Pednekar, Co-founder & Head of Digital Media, Social Pill, sees value in its passivity.  “Unlike Stories, where users swipe up intentionally, WhatsApp Status is a more passive, near-captive environment,” he said. 

The strategic consensus - WhatsApp Ads are not here to dethrone Stories, but they are certainly elbowing their way into Meta’s media mix.

A matter of mindspace

Instagram and Facebook Stories are all about discovery. You’re either being sold a dress by an influencer or stumbling upon a flash sale.

WhatsApp Status? Entirely different.

Industry experts noted that WhatsApp is more personal and intimate than commerce-driven. As Pednekar explained, “On Instagram and Facebook, users enter a discovery mindset, seeking new content, engaging with influencers. 

WhatsApp, by contrast, is a private space: people check Status updates out of habit, often first thing in the morning or late at night. That means intent is diluted; they’re not looking for ads, they’re simply catching up with friends.” 

In such a space, brands must be prudent about the kind of messaging they want to propagate. 

This was highlighted by Siddharth Devnani, Co-founder and COO, SoCheers, who pointed out that WhatsApp status has a higher level of involvement, which “makes it easier for advertising, but it is also more intrusive for the user.” 

“On WhatsApp, the intent is more intimate, not commerce-driven. Brand messaging here needs to be contextual, subtle, and non-intrusive,” explained Swaminathan.

Ratnakar Bharti, Vice President - Media, Mudramax, reinforced that Stories are for content consumption, while WhatsApp is still a messaging-first space. “If a brand wants to show up here, the messaging needs to feel more natural and less intrusive. Otherwise, it risks feeling out of place,” he said. 

Menon elaborated, saying, “Users on WhatsApp are often there for communication and utility. If an ad can quickly solve a problem, offer a discount, or provide useful information that leads to a direct conversation, it's more likely to resonate. The ‘Click to WhatsApp’ ads, which are already popular, demonstrate this underlying intent for direct engagement.”

Shradha Agarwal, Co-founder and Global CEO, Grapes, offers perhaps the most candid view. “I haven’t seen many kids using WhatsApp Status. But my aunts and uncles? They use it all the time,” she quipped. She believes it caters to a different demographic - and brands would be smart to acknowledge that.

So, while Stories thrive on spectacle, WhatsApp demands simplicity - and a good dose of relatability.

Cost economics - A playground, for now

Isn’t this the oldest rule in the playbook? Start Cheap, Scale Fast? Industry experts believe that maybe Meta just knows how to get brands to bite, using this rule in the playbook. 

According to Social Pill’s Pednekar, initially, the CPMs/CPCs on Status will sit 20-40% below Stories. “Meta will lean into lower rates to drive adoption. But as brands flock to the channel and competition heats up, we’ll likely see floors rise,” he said. 

Shenoy sees WhatsApp ads as a “budget-friendly playground” for marketers. But not for long. Devnani, too, sees WhatsApp ads as a value play right now. “Eventually, it will catch up and be driven by supply-demand. But the early value is strong,” Devnani noted. 

Menon added a dash of nuance to the conversation. Decoding the cost structure for WhatsApp ads, he said, “This is a common strategy for new ad placements. Meta will or should price WhatsApp ads competitively lower initially to encourage adoption and allow marketers to experiment and understand the platform's nuances.” 

According to Menon, factors like Demand & Supply, Targeting Depth & Quality, Ad Quality & Engagement, and Market Dynamics will drive the rates higher going forward. “Given the unparalleled reach and the potential for direct conversational commerce, the long-term potential for CPM/CPC rates to match or even surpass Stories is significant, especially for conversion-focused campaigns,” Menon told BestMediaInfo.com.  

WhatsApp ads, according to Sharddha, might mirror Facebook. “We all think Instagram has taken over, but Facebook still delivers performance in many cases. Similarly, WhatsApp may quietly outperform the flashier platforms,” she noted. 

The (encrypted) elephant in the room 

WhatsApp’s biggest strength - its end-to-end encryption - is also its biggest challenge when it comes to advertising. Swaminathan called attribution a “key challenge.” Shenoy added, “We won’t get the same granular insights as Stories.”

Menon called it “the most challenging aspect.” He noted, “It requires a degree of cautious optimism. Meta has explicitly stated that personal messages, calls, and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and will not be used for ad targeting. If users link their WhatsApp to Accounts Centre, their broader Meta ad preferences and activity across Facebook/Instagram can be used.”

Pednekar chimed in, saying, “I’m cautiously optimistic that Meta will roll out aggregated click and view-through metrics, but I wouldn’t bank on the same granular ROAS data you get from Stories. Brands will need to lean more on lift tests and mix-modeling for true performance insights.” 

Archana Agarwal, Media Consultant at Archimedius - the Media Navigator, believes WhatsApp’s native feel will lead to broader engagement, even if measurement is fuzzy. 

“Status updates just show the brand name unless clicked. That puts the choice in the consumer’s hands. I see more promise in the advertising within WhatsApp Channels - especially through individual influencers or brands. 

If users have already subscribed to those channels, then receiving ad content from them in a one-way broadcast format feels more natural.” 

According to Devnani, it will be aligned with other Meta products. “They eventually iron out the quirks and bugs when it comes to Facebook and Instagram. For WhatsApp, it's going to be the entire Meta suite from day one, with no additional restrictions compared to the rest of the Meta products,” Devnani told BestMediaInfo.com.  

All in all, for now, expect aggregated dashboards, not surgical ROAS insights.

Top, bottom, or full stack: What’s the funnel like?

This is where things get interesting. While Stories already serve the full funnel - from awareness to conversion - WhatsApp may be playing a different game.

Well, different and divided, to be exact. Because the industry is yet to find a consensus on this. 

According to Swaminathan, WhatsApp Status ads will likely stay top-funnel or mid-funnel, driving reach, awareness, and recall. “The absence of strong commerce intent and discovery behaviour makes lower-funnel conversions more challenging today,” said Swaminathan. 

Shenoy, while agreeing with the top-funnel play that WhatsApp might play out, sees potential for it to emerge as a full-funnel tool. “With click-to-chat features and the upcoming paid Channel subscriptions, there’s definitely potential for it to evolve into a full-funnel tool,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Devnani from SoCheers is confident in WhatsApp being a full-funnel mechanism. “Due to higher involvement and more launches per day, it will be more effective than Stories. Your neighbourhood home chef will soon be selling you cookies via a click-to-chat ad, in-chat conversion, and payment. It's inevitable,” Devnani noted. 

Pednekar, currently, describes WhatsApp status ads as “ the friendly neighbour in your media mix, perfect for reach and gentle nudges rather than hard performance plays.” Pednekar bets on the next 12-18 months to see WhatsApp evolve into a full funnel tool.  

Bharti from Mudramax also offered a similar view: “Right now, WhatsApp ads are better suited for awareness i.e., helping people notice your brand. But over time, if features like click-to-chat, product catalogues, or in-app shopping grow, it could become a strong tool for driving sales and conversions as well, especially for local or direct-to-consumer businesses.” 

This was echoed by Menon, who sees potential in WhatsApp ads as a full-funnel tool. Menon lays it out in tiers:

• Top funnel: Massive reach and awareness

• Mid funnel: Click-to-WhatsApp, catalogues, direct engagement

• Bottom funnel: Sales through chat, CRM integration, and post-purchase retention

But it’s Shradha who threw a curveball. “For me, WhatsApp is already a bottom-funnel tool. I’d rather click on a WhatsApp ad to check an offer than go hunting on Instagram or a brand’s website.” 

She envisions WhatsApp as a mid-to-bottom funnel hero, especially for D2C brands. “I’m not expecting it to drive engagement or deep interaction around the brand. What I want from the platform is straightforward - just tell me what the offer or scheme is today. That’s where I see its value.” 

The final status update? 

WhatsApp Ads may not arrive with as much razzle-dazzle as Stories, but they bring something equally potent - Habit. With people checking the app hundreds of times a day, the Status tab could quietly become Meta’s most intimate billboard.

But can it match the storytelling, swipe-up culture of Instagram and Facebook? Maybe not yet. And maybe that’s okay.

As Menon summarised, “WhatsApp Status ads represent Meta’s strategic move to leverage a deeply ingrained communication habit for commercial purposes. The scale, direct engagement, and focus on conversational commerce position WhatsApp to become a significant player in the digital advertising space.” 

In the end, while Instagram and Facebook remain Meta’s glossy shopfronts, WhatsApp might just be the cosy neighbourhood kirana store: quiet, effective, and surprisingly profitable.