Guide · Templates · For the owner planning a promotion

WhatsApp marketing templates beyond text: media carousels, product carousels, catalog messages and limited-time offers

Most marketing templates are a picture, a paragraph and a button. Meta's pages describe four formats that do more inside the chat: a swipeable row of up to ten cards, a row of products a customer can buy without leaving WhatsApp, a single message that opens your whole catalogue, and an offer with a live countdown. Each is a marketing template, so the same opt-in, pricing and quality rules apply. Here is what each one shows, what it needs, and the limits that decide whether it fits your business.

Published 1 October 2026

Media card carousel: up to ten cards, each with its own buttons

What the customer sees: Your message text, then a horizontal row of cards they swipe through. Each card has an image or video at the top, an optional short text, and up to two buttons.
The limits: Between 2 and 10 cards, with the exact number fixed when the template is created; an approved five-card template can only ever be sent as five cards. Every card must have the same parts: if one has body text, all must, so the cards line up. Card text is up to 160 characters. The buttons on a card may be any mix of quick reply, call and website buttons, two at most.
Where the sale happens: Off WhatsApp. A website button opens your page in the browser, and Meta's page notes that because the order is placed outside WhatsApp, your system receives no notice of it. Tracking the sale is your website's job.

The same cards, without a template, while the customer is talking to you

Meta also documents an interactive media carousel that is not a template at all. It can be sent only inside the window that opens when a customer writes, so it suits an agent answering "what do you have in blue?" with three cards rather than a promotion sent cold. The shape is almost the same: 2 to 10 cards, each with a photo or video and an optional 160-character text, but the cards carry either one website button or one or more quick-reply buttons, all cards alike, and the message above them is a required text of up to 1,024 characters with no header or footer. Because there is no template, there is no approval wait and no fixed card count: the agent decides how many cards each time. The window itself is explained in the 24-hour window guide.

Product card carousel: buy without leaving the chat

What the customer sees: Your text, then up to ten product cards, each with the product's image, title and price pulled from your catalog, and one button. A View button opens the product inside WhatsApp, where the customer can add it to a cart and place an order; a website button sends them to your site instead.
What it needs: A product catalog with inventory connected to your account. Without one this format does not exist for you.
The difference that matters: With View buttons the order is placed inside WhatsApp and your system receives an order notice and the customer sees a confirmation in the thread. With website buttons it is placed on your site and, as with the media carousel, no order notice comes.
A quirk of creation: Meta's page says the template is created with exactly two product cards, and the approved template can then be sent with anywhere up to ten.

Setting up the catalog that both this format and the next depend on is covered in the catalog guide.

Catalog template: one message, your whole shop

What the customer sees: A fixed header and sub-header that Meta supplies, a product thumbnail you choose, your body text of up to 1,024 characters, an optional footer of up to 60, and a View catalog button that opens your full catalog inside WhatsApp.
What it needs: Inventory uploaded to a catalog connected to your WhatsApp account. Meta's page is as short as that.
When to use it over a carousel: When the point is browsing rather than a handful of featured items: a new season's range, a restocked shop, a first message to a customer who has never seen the catalog.

Limited-time offer: a code with a countdown

What the customer sees: An optional image or video, your text of up to 600 characters, an offer line of up to 16 characters, the expiry date and a running countdown, a copy-code button for a code of up to 15 characters, and a website button labelled with up to 25 characters.
The expiry is set when you send: The template is approved once; the actual deadline is supplied with each send, as a precise moment. The same template can run a Thursday offer this week and a Sunday offer next week.
Marketing only, no footer: Meta allows this format only under the marketing category and does not allow a footer on it.

Not everyone sees the countdown

Meta's page says a customer reading the message on WhatsApp Web or the desktop app does not see the offer at all; they see a notice that the message contains an offer their app cannot show. For customers who work from a computer all day, a plain template with the code in the text is the safer choice.

The plain coupon, without a clock

Meta's coupon templates page describes the simpler cousin: a marketing template whose one copy code button puts a code of up to 20 characters on the customer's clipboard when tapped. The button's label is fixed by Meta and there can be only one of them, though a reply button such as an unsubscribe may sit beside it. The code and the discount are filled in when the message is sent, so one approved template serves every campaign. It shares the limited-time offer's weakness: Meta says the web client does not support it either.

Choosing between them

A few featured items, sold on your site: media card carousel.
A few items, sold inside WhatsApp with an order you can track: product card carousel with View buttons, which needs a catalog.
The whole range: catalog template.
A deadline and a code: limited-time offer, remembering the Web and desktop gap.

All four are marketing templates. They are sent only to people who have agreed to marketing, per the opt-in guide, they are charged at the marketing rate described in the guide to how Meta charges, and they are judged by the same quality rating as any other template. The template mechanics guide covers the review, editing and archival rules they share.

Questions

Can we send a carousel with three products today and seven next week from the same template?

With a media card carousel, no: the card count is fixed when the template is created. With a product card carousel, yes: Meta's page says it is created with two cards and may be sent with up to ten.

Can an agent send a carousel in a live chat without a template?

Yes, while the customer's 24-hour window is open. Meta's interactive media carousel page describes 2 to 10 cards with a photo or video, optional short text and website or quick-reply buttons, sent as an ordinary reply with no template approval and no fixed card count. Outside the window it has to be a marketing carousel template.

Will we know when someone buys from a carousel?

Only if the cards use View buttons, which keep the purchase inside WhatsApp and send your system an order notice. Sales made through website buttons happen on your site, and Meta sends nothing about them.

Can a utility message carry a carousel?

No. Meta's pages say carousel cards and limited-time offers are available only for marketing templates.

Why did a customer say they saw no offer, just a notice?

They read it on WhatsApp Web or the desktop app, where Meta's page says the limited-time offer is not supported. The same customer sees it normally on their phone.

Sources

Meta's developer documentation: Media card carousel templates, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Product card carousel templates, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Catalog templates, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Limited-time offer templates, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Interactive media carousel messages, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Coupon templates, read 3 October 2026.

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

Want your next promotion to be a swipeable row rather than a block of text?

We set up a business's WhatsApp number on a proper system, connect the catalog where one exists, and build the carousel, catalog or countdown template with realistic samples so it passes review and the orders it produces land in one place the business owns. A short call is the easiest way to see whether it fits your business.

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