In enterprises’ WhatsApp customer lists, "zombie accounts" often act as "invisible waste"—empty numbers, disconnected numbers, and long-silent invalid accounts are mixed in. They not only make marketing messages fall on deaf ears but also waste significant time costs and resources. Bulk WhatsApp number screening is precisely the core solution to this problem. Through bulk screening, enterprises can quickly eliminate "zombie accounts" from their customer lists, ensuring marketing resources reach real users accurately. Leveraging the bulk WhatsApp number screening function of ITG Global Screening, enterprises can further achieve full-process efficiency improvement covering "efficient screening + precise stratification + risk avoidance," making it the crucial first step to shift WhatsApp marketing from "blind delivery" to "precision customer acquisition." This article will explain the harms of "zombie accounts," the value of bulk WhatsApp number screening, and how to implement bulk screening with ITG Global Screening to help enterprises improve marketing efficiency.
Many enterprises mistakenly believe that "the larger the customer list, the better the marketing effect," but they overlook the large number of hidden "zombie accounts." These unreachable accounts with no real needs waste enterprise resources in three dimensions, becoming a "roadblock" to marketing efficiency:
When enterprises conduct WhatsApp marketing, costs such as SMS sending fees, API calling fees, and labor operation costs are all wasted due to "zombie accounts":
- Direct cost waste: If "zombie accounts" account for 30% of the customer list, sending messages to 100,000 accounts means 30,000 messages are sent to invalid accounts. The corresponding SMS fees and platform service fees are wasted directly. Calculated at 0.1 yuan per message, a single campaign incurs a loss of 3,000 yuan.
- Labor cost waste: Operation teams need to spend time organizing customer lists and following up on invalid leads. A cross-border e-commerce team once spent 1 week with 3 employees following up on 20,000 "zombie account" leads without conducting bulk WhatsApp number screening. Eventually, there was no conversion, and the wasted labor cost exceeded 20,000 yuan.
Through bulk WhatsApp number screening by ITG Global Screening, it was found that "zombie accounts" account for an average of 25%-40% in enterprise customer lists. For lists purchased from third parties, the proportion of "zombie accounts" can even exceed 60%. These invalid accounts cause enterprises to waste an average of over 100,000 yuan in marketing costs annually.
"Zombie accounts" not only fail to generate conversions but also distort marketing data, leading enterprises to misjudge effectiveness and deviate from correct strategies:
- Falsely low reach rate: If the real reach rate could reach 80%, but 30% "zombie accounts" are unreachable, the final calculated reach rate is only 56%. Enterprises may mistakenly attribute this to "insufficient content appeal" and blindly adjust promotional content, ignoring the core issue of "zombie accounts."
- Misjudged conversion rate: When launching a campaign to 100,000 accounts (including 40,000 "zombie accounts"), 1,200 actual valid conversions translate to a real conversion rate of 2%. However, calculated based on the total number of accounts, the rate is only 1.2%. Enterprises may mistakenly label the campaign as "ineffective" and abandon strategies that could have been optimized.
Before conducting bulk WhatsApp number screening, a beauty brand attributed its "1.5% conversion rate" to "insufficient discounts." After increasing discounts, the conversion rate still did not improve. After eliminating 40% of "zombie accounts" through ITG bulk screening, the real conversion rate was found to be 2.5%. Subsequent adjustments to content strategies further increased the rate to 4%.
WhatsApp has strict risk control policies for "frequent messaging to invalid accounts." If enterprises continuously send content to "zombie accounts," they may be deemed to engage in "abnormal marketing behavior":
- Function restrictions: The daily message limit may drop from 10,000 to less than 100, disrupting normal marketing rhythms.
- Account ban: After repeated risk control triggers, marketing accounts may be permanently banned, and previously accumulated customer resources are lost.
A foreign trade enterprise continuously sent messages to a list containing 50% "zombie accounts" without conducting bulk WhatsApp number screening. Within 3 months, 2 of its WhatsApp marketing accounts were temporarily banned, leading to a 70% drop in inquiry volume that month and direct losses of over 500,000 yuan in orders.
The bulk WhatsApp number screening function of ITG Global Screening is not simply "eliminating empty numbers." Instead, through "multi-dimensional identification + automated processing + precise stratification," it helps enterprises screen out real valid users from customer lists. Its core capabilities are as follows:
By connecting to the official WhatsApp Business API, ITG Global Screening can accurately identify "zombie accounts" from three dimensions, avoiding misjudgment of valid accounts:
- Basic status identification: Quickly mark accounts that are "empty, disconnected, or unregistered on WhatsApp." These accounts have a 100% chance of no conversion and are directly eliminated.
- Activity detection: Identify long-silent accounts that "have not logged in in the past 30 days" or "have no interaction in the past 90 days." These accounts have a conversion probability of less than 1% and can be temporarily stored for reactivation.
- Virtual number filtering: Accurately distinguish virtual numbers (such as Google Voice and TextNow) and temporary registration numbers in India and Southeast Asia. These accounts are mostly registered in batches, with a user retention rate of less than 3%.
A cross-border 3C enterprise used ITG bulk screening to process 200,000 customer list entries. It eliminated 68,000 empty/disconnected numbers, 24,000 virtual numbers, and 32,000 long-silent numbers, ultimately retaining 76,000 valid accounts. The screening accuracy reached 99.2%, and the subsequent marketing reach rate increased from 45% to 92%.
Faced with customer lists of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of entries, manual screening is extremely inefficient. The bulk WhatsApp number screening function of ITG Global Screening significantly improves processing efficiency:
- Multi-format import support: Compatible with Excel, CSV, and TXT formats. No manual data organization is required—simply upload the file to start screening.
- High-concurrency processing: Supports processing 500,000 accounts per batch. 100,000 entries can be screened in just 1 hour, with efficiency over 100 times higher than manual operations.
- Automated result classification: After screening, accounts are automatically categorized into "valid active accounts, low-active accounts pending reactivation, and invalid zombie accounts." An Excel report is generated, marking the proportion of each account type and reasons (e.g., "Invalid reason: Unregistered on WhatsApp").
A fast-moving consumer goods enterprise previously required a 5-person team to work for 3 days to screen 100,000 customer list entries manually. After switching to ITG bulk screening, the process was completed in 1 hour, reducing labor costs by 99% and avoiding the loss of valid accounts due to manual misjudgment.
The bulk WhatsApp number screening function of ITG Global Screening not only "separates the wheat from the chaff" but also precisely stratifies valid accounts, providing a basis for subsequent differentiated marketing:
- Stratification by activity level: Categorizes accounts into "highly active (logged in ≥3 times in the past 7 days), moderately active (logged in 1-2 times in the past 7 days), and low-active (not logged in in the past 7 days but logged in in the past 30 days)." Highly active users are prioritized for conversion-oriented content.
- Stratification by interests: Generates interest tags (such as "3C demand, maternal and child focus, outdoor sports") based on users’ past interaction records (e.g., clicked product links, consulted content).
- Stratification by region: Marks users’ countries/cities and time zones to align with regional marketing rhythms (e.g., sending messages to U.S. users in the evening and Indian users at noon).
A cross-border e-commerce enterprise used ITG bulk screening to stratify 76,000 valid accounts into "highly active with 3C demand (12,000), moderately active with home demand (25,000), and low-active with general demand (39,000)." Subsequent targeted content pushes increased the overall conversion rate from 1.8% to 5.2%.
Enterprises can conduct bulk WhatsApp number screening with ITG Global Screening without professional technical skills. Ordinary operators can get started in 10 minutes. The specific process is as follows:
Organize the WhatsApp customer list to be screened into a standardized format:
- Number format: Must include the country code (e.g., +86 for China, +1 for the U.S.). Remove special characters such as spaces and hyphens (e.g., change "+1 (123) 456-7890" to "+11234567890").
- File format: Save as Excel or CSV, with only one number per row to avoid screening errors caused by multiple numbers in the same column.
- Data check: Manually spot-check 10% of the numbers to ensure correct formatting and no duplicates (preprocess with Excel’s "Remove Duplicates" function if needed).
Log in to the ITG Global Screening enterprise backend and enter the "Bulk WhatsApp Number Screening" module;
Click "Upload File," select the organized customer list. The system automatically identifies the number column—no manual selection is required;
Confirm the upload quantity (e.g., "Total 10,000 numbers, confirm upload") and click "Next."
Select screening dimensions based on needs. Beginners are advised to select all to ensure no omissions:
- Mandatory dimensions: Basic status identification (empty/disconnected/unregistered), virtual number filtering.
- Optional dimensions: Activity detection (past 7/30/90 days), region identification (country/city).
After selection, click "Start Screening." The system displays the progress in real time (e.g., "30% completed, remaining time 20 minutes"). Background operation is supported—you can close the page and wait for a notification.
After screening is completed, the system sends a report via email, which can also be viewed directly in the backend:
- Core data: Quantity and proportion of valid accounts, quantity and proportion of various "zombie accounts" (e.g., 25% empty numbers, 10% virtual numbers).
- Detailed classification: Click "View Details" to see specific numbers of each account type and reason labels.
- Data charts: Automatically generates pie charts and bar charts to visually display customer list quality (e.g., "55% valid active accounts, 45% invalid zombie accounts").
Click "Export Results" and select "Export Only Valid Accounts" or "Export by Category." Supported file formats include Excel/CSV;
Synchronize valid accounts to WhatsApp bulk messaging tools or CRM systems, and develop strategies based on stratification results (e.g., sending limited-time offers to highly active accounts and reactivation content to low-active accounts).
A home furnishing enterprise used this process to screen 150,000 customer list entries with ITG bulk screening, exporting 82,000 valid accounts. Subsequent pushes of "new product pre-order" information to 20,000 highly active accounts achieved an 8.5% conversion rate—far exceeding the previous 2.3%.
Enterprises often achieve poor results due to improper operations during bulk WhatsApp number screening. The following 4 misunderstandings require special attention:
Truth: The status of accounts in the customer list changes dynamically (e.g., users cancel accounts or change phone numbers). It is recommended to reprocess the list with ITG bulk screening every quarter to ensure customer list quality. An enterprise that did not update its list for half a year found that the proportion of "zombie accounts" rose from 30% to 45%, leading to wasted marketing resources.
Truth: Some "active accounts" may be "drainage accounts" (frequently sending external links) or "high-risk accounts" (with many reports). Although active, these accounts generate no conversions and may be associated with risk control issues. ITG bulk screening also marks high-risk accounts—they should be eliminated together to avoid subsequent troubles.
Truth: Free tools can only identify basic empty numbers with an accuracy of less than 80%, and cannot filter virtual numbers or detect activity. ITG Global Screening has an accuracy of 99.2% and supports stratified screening, helping enterprises save costs in the long run. An enterprise used a free tool for screening and misjudged 15,000 valid accounts as "zombie accounts," resulting in subsequent losses of over 200,000 yuan in orders.
Truth: After bulk screening, differentiated campaigns should be launched based on stratification results. Pushing high-conversion content to "low-active accounts" will yield poor results. It is recommended to use ITG’s stratification tags—send discounts to highly active accounts and lightweight content (e.g., product reviews) to low-active accounts—to improve overall conversion rates.
For enterprises, the core of WhatsApp marketing is not "how large the customer list is" but "how many valid customers there are." "Zombie accounts" hidden in the list only waste resources, mislead decisions, and increase risks. Bulk WhatsApp number screening is precisely the key method to help enterprises "separate the wheat from the chaff."
The bulk WhatsApp number screening function of ITG Global Screening enables enterprises to quickly screen out real valid customers through "high-accuracy identification + efficient bulk processing + precise stratification," laying the foundation for subsequent marketing efficiency improvements. Remember: In the era of refined WhatsApp operations, "screening valid customers" is more important than "blindly expanding the list." Doing a good job in bulk WhatsApp number screening is the "first step" and most critical step for enterprises to boost marketing efficiency.
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ITG Global ScreeningIt is a world-leading number screening platform that combinesGlobal mobile phone number segment selection, number generation, deduplication, comparison and other functions. It supports global customersBulk numbers from 236 countriesFiltering and testing services, currently supportedMore than 40 social and apps, such as:
whatsapp/line, twitter, facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Viber, zalo, Binance, signal, skype, DISCORD, Amazon, Microsoft, Truemoney, Snapchat, kakao, Wish, GoogleVoice, Botim, MoMo, TikTok, GCash, Fantuan, Airbnb, Cash, VKontakte, Band, Mint, Paytm, VNPay, Moj, DHL, Okx, MasterCard, ICICBank, Bybwait.
The platform has several features, includingOpen filtering, active filtering, interactive filtering, gender filtering, avatar filtering, age filtering, online filtering, accurate filtering, duration filtering, power-on filtering, empty number filtering, mobile device filteringwait.
Platform providesSelf-sieve mode, sieve mode, fine-sieve mode and custom mode, to meet the needs of different users.
Its advantage lies in the integration of major social and applications around the world, providing one-stop, real-time and efficient number screening services to help you achieve global digital development.
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