A WhatsApp broadcast message for restaurant customers can go out in one of two ways. The free WhatsApp Business app lets you send to lists of up to 256 saved contacts from your phone. The WhatsApp Business API lets you send approved template messages to thousands of opted-in customers from a dashboard, with a per-message charge from Meta. If you want 10,000 people to see a weekend offer, only the second route gets you there without days of manual work.
This guide covers both routes with the real constraints: who actually receives the message, what each send costs, what gets your number restricted, and how to write an offer that brings an order instead of a block.
Two ways to broadcast on WhatsApp, and why the gap matters
Most owners start with the WhatsApp Business app because it is free and already on their phone. It works for a tiffin service with 150 regulars. It stops working the moment your customer list crosses a few hundred, because the app was built for one-to-one chat with a broadcast feature bolted on.
| Question | WhatsApp Business app | WhatsApp Business API |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts per broadcast | 256 per list; you can make several lists | No per-list cap; limited by Meta's daily messaging tier |
| Who receives it | Only people who have saved your number | Anyone who has opted in, saved or not |
| Message format | Free text, typed on the phone | Pre-approved template with variables |
| Cost per message | Free | Meta's per-message rate, under a rupee for marketing in India at the time of writing |
| Reporting | Ticks in each chat | Sent, delivered, read counts per campaign |
| Sent from | One phone | Dashboard, any device, staff logins |
The "saved your number" rule is the one that quietly kills app broadcasts. A customer who ordered once and never saved you will not get the message, and the app does not tell you who was skipped. The detail on this is in our post on the WhatsApp broadcast list limit and how to get past 256.
Step 1: Build a list of people who agreed to hear from you
A broadcast is only as good as the list behind it. For a restaurant, the best list is not a bought database or numbers scraped from a Zomato invoice. It is the set of customers who messaged your business number to order, or who ticked a box on your store page, or who scanned a QR on the table and said yes to offers.
Three reasons this matters more than list size. First, Meta requires opt-in before you send a marketing template through the API. Second, customers who never asked to hear from you are the ones who tap "Report" and drag down your quality rating. Third, people who already ordered convert at a far higher rate than strangers, so a 2,000-person list of past customers usually beats a 10,000-person list of unknowns.
Practical sources, in order of quality:
- Customers who placed an order on your WhatsApp number. Every order is a message from them to you, which is the clearest opt-in there is.
- Customers who ordered on your store page and gave their number at checkout.
- Walk-in customers who scanned a QR code at the counter or on the table.
- Instagram followers who tapped a WhatsApp link in your bio.
We have a full walkthrough on building a WhatsApp customer list legally and on getting opt-in without annoying people.
Step 2: Know your messaging tier before you plan a 10,000 send
On the API, Meta limits how many unique customers you can message in a rolling 24-hour window. New numbers start at a low tier, and the published tiers step up to 1,000, then 10,000, then 100,000 unique customers a day, and finally unlimited. Meta raises your tier automatically when your quality rating stays healthy and you use a good share of your current limit.
So if your number is on the 1,000 tier, a 10,000-customer offer is a ten-day job, not a one-click job. Plan the campaign around your tier, or start sending smaller campaigns a month earlier so the tier climbs before the big one.
Your quality rating is driven by blocks and reports over recent days. Send to people who did not opt in, send too often, or send at 11 pm, and the rating drops. A low rating can push your tier down and, if it continues, pause your ability to send templates at all.
Step 3: Get the message template approved
Marketing messages sent through the API outside the 24-hour reply window must use a template Meta has approved. You submit the message with placeholders such as {{1}} for the customer's name, pick the Marketing category, add sample values, and wait. Approval often takes minutes, sometimes up to a day.
A workable template for a restaurant offer looks like this:
Hi {{1}}, this weekend at Sharma Dhaba: flat 20% off on orders above Rs 499 when you order on WhatsApp. Reply with ORDER or tap the button to see the menu. Offer valid Saturday and Sunday till 10 pm.
Common rejection reasons are variables at the very start or end of the body, URL shorteners like bit.ly, missing sample content, and a mismatch between the category you picked and what the message actually does. Our guide to getting WhatsApp templates approved the first time goes through each one.
Step 4: Write an offer that earns the interruption
A WhatsApp message lands next to messages from family. That is why it gets read, and also why a lazy message gets you blocked. Four things every offer message needs:
- Who it is from, in the first line. Your restaurant name, not "Dear customer".
- One offer, with a number. "20% off above ₹499" beats "exciting offers inside".
- One way to act. A reply keyword or a single button that opens your menu.
- When it ends. A deadline gives a reason to order today rather than "some time".
Send timing matters almost as much as the text. For lunch offers, 10:30 to 11:30 am catches people deciding what to eat. For dinner, 5 to 6:30 pm. For a weekend push, Friday afternoon works better than Saturday morning, because people plan the weekend on Friday. Avoid anything after 9 pm; late messages are the fastest route to a block.
Keep the frequency low. One offer a week for an active list is plenty.
Step 5: Send in batches and read the numbers
Do not send 10,000 messages in one go even if your tier allows it. Send the first 500 to your most recent customers, wait two hours, and look at three numbers: delivered, read, and orders placed. If the read rate is healthy and no one is reporting the message, send the next batch. If reports show up early, stop and rewrite before the rating takes a hit.
The economics are simple enough to do on paper. Suppose 10,000 marketing messages at Meta's India rate cost you under ₹10,000 in total. If 2 in every 100 recipients order and the average order is ₹400, that is 200 orders and ₹80,000 in revenue from one send. Those conversion and order-value numbers are assumptions you should replace with your own after the first campaign, but the shape of the maths holds: the message cost is small next to the commission you would pay an aggregator on the same 200 orders.
Track orders, not reads. A campaign that gets read by 7,000 people and produces 40 orders needs a better offer. A campaign read by 3,000 that produces 150 orders needs a bigger list. The broader approach to measuring this is in our complete guide to WhatsApp marketing for restaurants.
What this looks like on Tezzu
On Tezzu, your restaurant's own WhatsApp number is connected to the WhatsApp Business API through Meta's embedded signup, so you keep the number customers already know. Every customer who orders through the bot or on your store page is already in your dashboard, which means your broadcast list builds itself from real orders rather than from a spreadsheet.
Campaigns are sent from the dashboard and paid for from a prepaid wallet: you top it up, pick the message, send, and watch delivery and orders in the same place. On the Growth plan you can also run WhatsApp Status posts and Click-to-WhatsApp ads to bring new customers into the same number. Orders from the campaign land in the live dashboard and on the staff app like any other order, at a flat ₹10 per order and no commission.
If you are setting this up for the first time, sending your first WhatsApp campaign from Tezzu walks through the wallet, the message and the send.
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Start your free 7-day trialFrequently asked questions
How many contacts can I broadcast to on WhatsApp Business?
The WhatsApp Business app allows 256 contacts per broadcast list, and only contacts who have saved your number receive the message. You can create several lists, but each one is sent manually from the phone. The WhatsApp Business API has no per-list cap; instead, Meta sets a daily limit on unique customers that starts low and rises to 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 and then unlimited as your quality rating stays healthy.
Why was my WhatsApp broadcast not delivered to some customers?
On the app, the usual reason is that the customer has not saved your number, so WhatsApp treats the broadcast as unsolicited and drops it. Other causes are the customer blocking you, an inactive number, or the phone being offline for a long period. On the API, the common causes are a missing opt-in, a paused template, or hitting your daily messaging tier.
Is sending bulk WhatsApp messages to customers legal in India?
Sending marketing messages to customers who opted in is allowed, and Meta's own policy requires that opt-in before you send marketing templates through the API. India's DPDP Act also expects consent and a clear purpose for using personal data such as phone numbers. Buying lists or messaging people who never contacted your restaurant is the fastest way to get reported, restricted or banned.
How much does a WhatsApp broadcast cost per message?
Through the WhatsApp Business app, broadcasts are free but capped at 256 saved contacts per list. Through the API, Meta charges per message by category; marketing messages in India are priced under a rupee each on Meta's rate card at the time of writing, with utility messages a fraction of that. Platforms may add a markup or a subscription on top, so compare the all-in cost per message.