Monitor WhatsApp Groups for Leads (10-30/Month)

WhatsApp groups are goldmines for finding interested buyers — people post "looking for X", "how much for Y", and "need Z urgently" all day. Manual monitoring means scrolling through hundreds of messages and missing half the opportunities. MoltFlow's WhatsApp group monitoring (Growth+ plan) automatically captures these leads in real-time so you can reach out before your competitors even see the message. Customers report 10-30 qualified leads per month from just 3-5 monitored groups.

What You'll Need

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A connected WhatsApp session — Must be a member of the groups you want to monitor. If you're not in the group yet, join it first on your phone. See our 2-minute connection guide.
• Growth or Business plan — WhatsApp group monitoring with lead capture is a paid feature (starts at $39/month). Customers report 10-30 qualified leads per month — that's $1.30-$4 per lead. Upgrade here to unlock group monitoring.
• Target groups — Real estate groups, buy/sell communities, industry forums, or any group where potential customers gather.

Why groups? Because intent is explicit. When someone posts "looking for a 3-bedroom apartment under $2000", they're not browsing — they're ready to buy.

Step 1: Connect a WhatsApp Session with Group Access

Your WhatsApp session must already be a member of the groups you want to monitor. MoltFlow can only read messages from groups the connected account belongs to.

Verify Group Access

1. Open WhatsApp on your phone
2. Check that you're a member of the target groups
3. If you're a group admin, you have full message access
4. If you're a regular member, MoltFlow can still read all group messages (WhatsApp grants this to all members)

If you need to join new groups, do that first. Then come back to MoltFlow.

Admin vs Regular Member

Group admin: You can monitor, add keywords, and export leads. No restrictions.

Regular member: Same monitoring capabilities. MoltFlow reads messages as they arrive, regardless of your role.

Important: Don't spam groups. Monitoring is passive (read-only). Reaching out to leads should happen via private DMs, not group replies.

Step 2: Browse Available Groups

MoltFlow automatically discovers all groups your connected WhatsApp account belongs to.

Navigate to the Groups Page

1. Open your MoltFlow dashboard
2. Click Groups in the left sidebar
3. You'll see a list of all groups the connected session is part of

Each group entry shows:

• Group name — The WhatsApp group title
• Participant count — How many members are in the group
• Last activity — When the most recent message was posted
• Monitoring status — Whether this group is being monitored (green badge) or not (gray)

Sorting and Filtering

Use the filters at the top to find specific groups:

• Search by name — Type part of the group name
• Sort by activity — Find the most active groups (more messages = more leads)
• Filter by monitoring status — Show only monitored groups or only unmonitored groups

Focus on high-activity groups in your target niche. A group with 5 messages per week won't generate many leads. A group with 50 messages per day is a lead factory.

Step 3: Add Groups to Monitoring

Once you've identified valuable groups, enable monitoring.

Via Dashboard

1. Find the group in the list
2. Click the "Monitor" button next to the group name
3. The status badge changes from gray to green
4. MoltFlow immediately starts reading incoming messages

That's it. The group is now being monitored.

Via API

If you're automating this, use the API:

curl -X POST https://apiv2.waiflow.app/api/v2/groups/monitor \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "wa_group_id": "[email protected]"
  }'

Replace wa_group_id with the WhatsApp group ID (visible in the dashboard group list).

What Monitoring Means

When a group is monitored:

• MoltFlow reads every incoming message in real-time
• Messages are scanned against your keyword rules (see next step)
• When a keyword matches, the sender's phone number and message are saved as a lead
• You get a notification (if enabled in Settings)

Monitoring is passive. MoltFlow never sends messages or interacts with the group — it just reads.

Privacy Note

MoltFlow only reads messages from monitored groups. Messages from non-monitored groups are never stored or processed. You control exactly which groups to monitor.

Security advantage: Unlike competitors who store group messages in plaintext, MoltFlow uses field-level encryption for all sender details (phone numbers, names, message previews). Even if our database were compromised, your leads' contact information stays protected.

Step 4: Configure Lead Detection Keywords

Keywords are how MoltFlow identifies leads. Without keywords, monitoring captures nothing. For advanced pattern matching (regex, AND/OR logic), see our keyword rules guide.

Default Keywords

MoltFlow provides starter keywords for common use cases:

• E-commerce: "interested", "price", "how much", "buy", "order", "looking for"
• Real estate: "apartment", "house", "budget", "bedroom", "rent", "looking for"
• Services: "need", "recommend", "looking for", "provider", "help"

You can customize these or add your own.

Add Keywords via Dashboard

1. Go to Groups → Monitored Groups
2. Click on a group name to open details
3. Navigate to the Lead Rules tab
4. Click "Add Keyword"
5. Enter the keyword (e.g., "interested")
6. Set match type:
   • Contains: Matches anywhere in the message (most common)
   • Exact: Matches only if the entire message is exactly this keyword (rarely used)
   • Starts with: Matches only if the message begins with this keyword
7. Enable Case insensitive (recommended — matches "Interested", "INTERESTED", "interested")
8. Click Save

The keyword is now active. Any new message containing this keyword will capture the sender as a lead.

Add Keywords via API

curl -X POST https://apiv2.waiflow.app/api/v2/groups/{group_id}/rules \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "keyword": "interested",
    "match_type": "contains",
    "case_insensitive": true
  }'

Best Keywords for Your Niche

Real estate:

• "looking for", "budget", "bedroom", "apartment", "house", "urgent"

E-commerce (electronics):

• "price", "how much", "available", "buy", "purchase", "specs"

Services (consulting):

• "need help", "looking for", "recommend", "budget", "project"

Lead generation:

• "interested", "more info", "contact", "quote"

Avoid generic words like "yes", "no", "ok", "thanks" — these create false positives (capturing people who aren't leads).

Step 5: Review Captured Leads

Once monitoring is active and keywords are set, leads will start appearing.

Navigate to the Leads Page

1. Click Leads in the left sidebar
2. You'll see all captured leads in a table

Each lead shows:

• Source group — Which group the message came from
• Sender phone — The lead's WhatsApp number (click to copy)
• Matched keyword — Which keyword triggered the capture
• Original message — The full message text
• Timestamp — When the message was sent
• Status — New, contacted, converted (you set this manually)

Lead Actions

Copy phone number: Click the phone number to copy it to clipboard. Use this to DM the lead directly via WhatsApp.

Mark as contacted: After you reach out, change status to "contacted" so you don't double-message.

Mark as converted: When the lead becomes a customer, mark as "converted" to track ROI.

Export leads: Click the Export button to download all leads as CSV. Great for importing into your CRM.

Responding to Leads

Speed matters. Leads that get responses within 1 hour convert 7x better than leads that wait 24 hours.

Best practice:

1. Check leads dashboard 2-3 times per day
2. Copy the phone number
3. Send a DM via WhatsApp (not a group reply — that's spam)
4. Reference their original message: "Hi! I saw your message about [keyword]. I can help with that..."

Never reply in the group. Always DM privately.

Best Practices

Monitor the Right Groups

Quality over quantity. Monitoring 50 noisy groups generates more noise than leads. Monitor 5-10 highly relevant groups.

Good groups:

• Active (10+ messages per day)
• Niche-specific (real estate, not "general chat")
• Buyer-focused (people asking questions, not just chatting)

Bad groups:

• Generic "friends" groups with no purchase intent
• Spam groups full of ads
• Low-activity groups (under 5 messages per week)

Use Specific Keywords

Generic keywords = false positives. Specific keywords = real leads.

Good: "looking for 2-bedroom apartment", "how much for iPhone 15", "need web developer"

Bad: "yes", "ok", "thanks", "hello"

Review Leads Daily

Leads go cold fast. Check your dashboard at least once per day. Respond within 1-2 hours for best results.

Respect Privacy

Only monitor groups you're legitimately a member of. Don't join groups just to scrape leads and leave. Stay active in the community.

Track Conversion

Mark leads as "contacted" and "converted" to measure ROI. After 30 days, check: How many leads did you capture? How many converted? This tells you which groups and keywords perform best.

Troubleshooting

No Leads Are Being Captured

Problem: Monitoring is active, but the Leads page stays empty.

Possible causes:

1. No keywords are configured — Check the Lead Rules tab. Add at least 3-5 keywords.
2. Keywords are too specific — "looking for 3-bedroom apartment with balcony in downtown" will never match. Use shorter keywords like "3-bedroom" or "apartment".
3. Group is inactive — If the group has no messages, there's nothing to capture. Monitor active groups.
4. Messages are old — MoltFlow only captures new messages after monitoring starts. It doesn't retroactively scan old messages.

Solution: Add more keywords (start with "interested", "price", "how much") and wait 24-48 hours for messages to arrive.

Too Many False Positives

Problem: Leads dashboard is full of irrelevant messages.

Possible causes:

• Keywords are too generic ("yes", "ok", "thanks")
• Case-insensitive matching on short words

Solution:

1. Delete generic keywords
2. Use longer, more specific keywords ("looking for", "how much", "interested in buying")
3. For advanced filtering, use regex patterns (see the keyword rules guide)

Can't See All Group Messages

Problem: You're in the group on your phone, but MoltFlow doesn't capture certain messages.

Possible cause: WhatsApp syncing delay. Messages can take 10-30 seconds to sync from your phone to MoltFlow.

Solution: This is normal. MoltFlow captures messages in real-time, but there's a slight delay. Just wait a minute and check again.

Lead Phone Numbers Are Wrong

Problem: Captured phone numbers don't match the actual senders.

Possible cause: This shouldn't happen. If it does, it's a bug.

Solution: Contact support immediately at [email protected] with the lead details.

What's Next?

Now that you're capturing WhatsApp group leads automatically, you're ready to:

• Set up advanced keyword rules — Use regex patterns and AND/OR logic for precise lead filtering (Growth plan)
• Qualify leads with OpenClaw agents — AI agents automatically score and qualify captured leads (Business plan)
• Send bulk messages to leads — Reach out to all captured leads at once with personalized templates (Business plan)
• Organize leads into custom groups — Segment leads by source, intent, or product interest

All of these features are available now in your MoltFlow dashboard. Check the sidebar to explore.

Ready to unlock WhatsApp group monitoring and lead capture? Join 500+ businesses automating lead generation with MoltFlow. Customers report 10-30 qualified leads/month at $1.30-$4/lead. Start your 14-day Growth trial — no credit card required.

Still stuck? Contact support via the dashboard chat or email us at [email protected]. We typically respond within 2-4 hours.