# Marketing template

A marketing template is a WhatsApp message template used for promotion: offers, product launches, back-in-stock alerts or cart reminders. It can be sent at any time to customers who opted in, and Meta charges each delivered message at the marketing rate of the recipient's country.

Source: https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-marketing-glossary/marketing-template  
Last updated: 2026-10-08

Meta describes marketing templates as the most flexible category: anything meant to generate awareness, drive sales or retarget customers. A template with mixed content, for example an order update with a promotion, is also treated as marketing.

Three delivery rules are specific to this category (as of October 8, 2026). WhatsApp limits how many marketing templates a person receives across all businesses, so some messages are not delivered. It does not currently deliver marketing templates to United States phone numbers. And only marketing templates can use the carousel format.

To protect deliverability, marketing templates should only go to engaged, opted-in contacts. Recipients who block or report a campaign lower the quality rating of the template, and a template with a low rating can be paused.

Kanal sends marketing templates as [WhatsApp campaigns](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-campaigns) to segments of opted-in Shopify customers, and in automations such as abandoned cart recovery.

## Kanal features

- [WhatsApp campaigns](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-campaigns): Send marketing campaigns that actually get read

## Go deeper: articles

- [WhatsApp Business Templates: 25 Examples + Meta Rules (2026)](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-business-templates): 25 WhatsApp Business template examples for online stores (order update, abandoned cart, back in stock), Meta's 3 categories, review time and costs.
- [WhatsApp Broadcast: Lists, Limits and 6 Message Samples](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-broadcast-guide): WhatsApp broadcast lists hold 256 contacts, and some countries now cap the app at 35 free broadcasts a month. 6 message samples and how stores go past it.
- [30 WhatsApp Marketing Examples and Campaign Ideas (2026)](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-marketing-examples-brands): 30 WhatsApp marketing examples for beauty, fashion, food, wellness and home brands: the mechanic, why it works and how to adapt it to your Shopify store.
- [Black Friday WhatsApp Marketing: 6-Step Shopify Playbook](https://getkanal.com/blog/black-friday-whatsapp-playbook): The Black Friday WhatsApp marketing playbook for Shopify: pre-BF list building, broadcast timing, cart recovery, templates and KPIs for 2026.

## Related terms

- [Utility template](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-marketing-glossary/utility-template)