Four rich template formats, and picking the wrong one is why a campaign underperforms a plain text message.
Carousel: up to ten cards, no catalogue needed
A carousel is one message the customer swipes through, with up to ten cards, each carrying its own image, body copy and buttons. All cards must share the same button layout.
It is the most flexible of the four because it does not require a Meta catalogue. If you are showing properties, packages, courses or looks rather than SKUs, this is usually the right one.
Multi-product: a curated subset of your catalogue
A multi-product message shows specific catalogue items, up to 30 across sections, inside the chat with add-to-cart behaviour. It needs a linked Meta catalogue.
For most campaigns this beats a full catalogue template, because a curated ten performs better than an undifferentiated everything.
Catalogue: the whole range
A catalogue template opens your full linked catalogue in the chat. It suits businesses where browsing is the point, such as a restaurant menu or a general store, and suits campaigns where you genuinely do not know what the customer wants.
It underperforms when the range is large and undifferentiated, because choice paralysis is real in a chat window.
Limited-time offer: a coupon with a visible countdown
The limited-time-offer format renders a coupon code with an expiry that WhatsApp displays as a live countdown, plus a copy-code button. The urgency is built into the message rather than written into the copy.
One caveat: the code sits in the template, so one campaign carries one code. For per-customer codes, send the code as a variable in a standard template instead.
Choosing quickly
- No catalogue, several things to show, go carousel
- Catalogue exists, want a curated set, go multi-product
- Catalogue exists, want browsing, go catalogue
- The message is a deadline and a code, go limited-time offer
- One product, one message, a plain image template is still fine