How to Obtain Customer Opt-In for WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns

Updated July 28, 2026 04:26

Starting November 2024, WhatsApp requires every business to obtain customer consent (customer consent or opt-in) from customers before sending marketing messages. If a customer has not given consent or has opted out of receiving promotional messages, the marketing message will not be forwarded by META, and you will receive the error code: 131050 (User has stopped receipt of marketing messages).

Learn more about customer opt-in
Learn about reasons why messages fail to send

To help businesses comply with this policy, Qontak provides a Marketing Consent feature that allows you to collect, store, and manage customer consent status. This way, you can send marketing messages to customers who have given consent (opt-in) to reduce the risk of message delivery failure and improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

The customer's opt-in status does not affect the delivery of messages categorized as Utility and Authentication. Marketing Opt-in helps ensure that customers have given consent to receive marketing messages. However, if a marketing campaign is not well planned, such as sending messages too frequently to the same customer, WhatsApp may still limit delivery (error 131049 - maintain healthy ecosystem) to maintain user experience on WhatsApp. Learn more

In this guide, you will learn how to obtain opt-in data or marketing consent, understand the priority rules for determining customer status, create and send Marketing Opt-In templates to request customer consent.

Important:
The Marketing Consent / Opt-in feature will be gradually available on Mekari Qontak starting late August 2026.

A. How to Obtain Customer Opt-in / Marketing Consent Data

Meta allows each business the freedom to determine the method of collecting customer consent / opt-in. As a business operator, you are responsible for ensuring that customer consent is obtained in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and that the required notices and permissions mandated by law have been provided and obtained.

As long as the opt-in method meets these requirements, it is considered compliant with Meta's policy. Some examples of opt-in methods supported by Meta include:

Via SMS
Via website
Via phone call using Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Directly or through physical documents, for example by asking customers to sign a consent form

Source:
https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/getting-opt-in#opt-in-methods

In Mekari Qontak, the system collects customer consent through 3 (three) sources:

Once consent is successfully collected, each customer will have one of the following three statuses.

Status	Description
opted_in	The customer has given consent to receive marketing messages.
opted_out	The customer has chosen to stop receiving marketing messages.
unknown	There is no information regarding the customer's consent status.

All marketing consent data is stored in the Customers menu and can be used as a filter when creating recipient lists for campaigns. This allows you to target customers who have given consent to receive marketing messages.

B. Priority Rules for Determining Marketing Consent Status

The most recent consent status (latest timestamp) will be the primary reference, except if the opt-out status comes from the Meta source, either through the user_preference webhook or error 131050. If the latest Meta status is opted-in, the system will follow the latest consent status, whether the last status comes from Meta or Qontak (template).

You cannot send a Marketing Opt-In template if the latest status from Meta, either from the user_preference webhook or error 131050, is opted_out. However, you can still perform re-opt in if the opt-out status comes from a template.

Below are some example scenarios illustrating the impact of different priority rules in determining customer consent status.

Scenario	Initial Status	Final Status	Notes
Customer opts out via WhatsApp, then provides opt-in via template.	opted_out	opted_out (unchanged)	Sending the opt-in template will fail because the customer's final status is opt-out (source: Meta).
Marketing message delivery receives error 131050, then the customer provides opt-in via template.	opted_out	opted_out (unchanged)	Sending the opt-in template will fail because the customer's final status is opt-out (source: Meta).
Customer opt-in on WhatsApp, then opts out via template.	opted_in	opted_out	The latest consent status is considered.
Customer provides opt-in via template, then opts out via WhatsApp.	opted_in	opted_out	The latest consent status is considered.
Customer chooses opt-in via template, then the system receives error 131050 on subsequent marketing message delivery.	opted_in	opted_out	The latest consent status is considered.
Customer chooses opt-in via WhatsApp, then the system receives error 131050 on subsequent marketing message delivery.	opted_in	opted_out	The latest consent status is considered because both statuses come from Meta.
The system receives error 131050 on marketing message delivery, then the customer chooses opt-in via WhatsApp.	opted_out	opted_in	The latest consent status is considered because both statuses come from Meta.
Customer chooses opt-out via template, then chooses opt-in on a subsequently sent template.	opted_out	opted_in	The latest consent status is considered, because the opt-out status does not come from Meta.

Important
Marketing consent is stored based on the WhatsApp number. If a business uses more than one WhatsApp number, customer consent must be obtained for each number.

C. How Customers Manage Acceptance of Marketing Messages on WhatsApp

Customers can manage their consent to receive marketing messages directly through the business account profile on the WhatsApp app. By default, this setting is enabled so that customers can receive marketing messages from businesses.

Customers can change this setting as follows.

Toggle Off: The customer chooses to stop receiving marketing messages, changing the marketing consent status to opted_out.
Toggle On: The customer gives consent again to receive marketing messages, changing the marketing consent status to opted_in.

Every preference change is automatically sent to Qontak via the Meta user_preference webhook. Based on this information, Qontak updates the customer's marketing consent status to always reflect the latest preference set on WhatsApp.

Below is the appearance of the marketing message acceptance setting on WhatsApp Web and WhatsApp Mobile.

Important:
Meta may change the location of the marketing message acceptance setting on WhatsApp at any time without prior notice. Previously, customers could choose “Stop offers and announcements” through conversations with the business account to stop receiving marketing messages. Currently, this setting has been moved to the Business Profile.

D. How to Create a Marketing Opt-in Template

Next, you will learn how to create a Marketing Opt-in template that can be sent to collect consent from customers whose status is still unknown. Follow these steps.

Log in to your Qontak account. Then select the Campaign menu.
Next, select the “Templates” tab.
You will be directed to the main Template page under the “WhatsApp” tab.
Next, click “Create template”.
Then select the template type Campaign message.
You will enter the Template setup page. On this page, specify the Account and Template name, then select Type Marketing Opt-in with Category Marketing. Next, choose the Language for the template, then click “Continue” to proceed to the next step.

- When selecting the Marketing Opt-in template type, the template category will automatically be set to Marketing. Therefore, the categories Utility and Authentication cannot be selected.
- Marketing Opt-in templates are only available in the following languages: Indonesian and English (US).
Next, you will enter the Content editing page to compose the content of the Marketing Opt-In template that will be sent to customers. On this page, complete the following information.

No.	Feature Name	Description
1	Message	The message content used to request customer consent to receive marketing messages. Qontak automatically provides recommended (pre-filled) messages according to the language you selected earlier.
2a	Opt-in button text	The button text customers will select if they agree to receive marketing messages. You can customize the button text, but every customer who selects this option will be mapped by the system as opt_in.
2b	Opt-out button text	The button text customers will select if they do not want to receive marketing messages. You can customize the button text, but every customer who selects this option will be mapped by the system as opt_out.
3	Opt-in template creation confirmation box	You must check the confirmation box as a statement that you understand and agree to only send marketing messages to customers who have given consent (opt-in) through the applicable methods. Important Currently, Mekari Qontak does not block sending marketing messages to customers who have opted out. Blocking of delivery currently follows the mechanism implemented by Meta. Support for blocking based on opt-out status managed by Mekari Qontak will be available in future feature updates.
4	Preview	Displays a preview of the Marketing Opt-In template that customers will receive on WhatsApp, so you can ensure the message content and buttons displayed are correct before submitting the template for Meta approval.

Make sure all fields are correctly filled. Then click “Submit”.
A pop-up notification will appear if the data you submit is correct.
Important
Qontak will only record customer responses received within 30 days after the Marketing Opt-In template is sent.

E. Creating Recipient Lists with Marketing Opt-in Filter

Customer marketing consent status can also be used when creating a Recipient List to filter customers who have given consent to receive marketing messages.

Follow these steps.

Log in to your Qontak account.
Go to the Campaign menu, then select Recipient lists.
Then click “Create recipient list”, and select “Select from customers”.
Check the box Only show customers who opt-in to marketing campaign to display only customers who have given consent to receive marketing messages.

If the Recipient List will be used to send Utility Messages, you do not need to check the option “Only show customers who opt-in to marketing campaign”, because sending Utility Messages does not consider the customer's marketing consent status.

Alternatively, you can click “Filter” and select “Marketing opt-in”, then specify which business number your customers have given their consent/opt-in for.
Then, check the customer data you want to include in the recipient list according to the customer's opt-in status.

Learn how to apply filters and create recipient lists from “Select from customers”

F. Sending the Marketing Opt-in Template

After the Marketing Opt-In template is successfully created and approved by Meta, you can send it to customers who have not yet given consent to receive marketing messages.

Log in to your Mekari Qontak account, then select the Campaign menu.
Then click the “WhatsApp” tab.
Then click “Create campaign”.
On the campaign creation page, complete the following information.

No.	Feature Name	Description
1	Campaign name	Enter the campaign name for identification purposes in the system. The campaign name will not be shown to customers.
2	Sender	Select the WhatsApp number you want to send the opt-in request from. Important: If you have more than one WhatsApp number, you must obtain opt-in for each number.
3	Recipient list	Used to select the list of customers who will receive the request for consent (opt-in) to receive marketing messages via WhatsApp.
4	Message template	Select the marketing opt-in template you have created and approved by Meta. Always check the template quality before sending messages.
5	Content	Displays the content of the marketing opt-in message that customers will receive.
6	Campaign assignment	Select the name of the division (or assignment) you want to route customer replies to within 30 days after the campaign is sent.
7	Sending options	There are 3 types of sending time options: Send now: send immediately Send later: send later, with a minimum of 30 minutes from now for the “Recipient lists” audience type, and 1 hour for the “Customer segment” audience type. The customer segment audience type will be available around September-October 2026. Send recurring: schedule multiple sending dates. Recurring option cannot be used for sending marketing opt-in templates.

Sending the Marketing Opt-In template will incur charges as marketing messages, in accordance with the pricing policy set by Meta. Learn more about Meta pricing

If all the above information has been completed, click “Send campaign”.
After the campaign is successfully created, you will be directed to the main WhatsApp page.

G. Viewing Responses to the Marketing Opt-In Template

After the Marketing Opt-In template is sent, you can view the delivery results and customer responses on the Campaign detail page. This page displays the following information:

Campaign information, such as campaign name, status, template name, audience name, campaign creator (created by), creation date (created at), and campaign sending date (sent at).
Campaign statistics, including the number of messages with read, sent, delivered, pending, and failed status.
Marketing preferences, to see the number of customers who:
1. responded with opt-in (chose to receive marketing messages)
2. responded with opt-out (chose to stop receiving marketing messages), and
3. did not respond within 30 days after the campaign was sent
Campaign logs, showing customer data to whom the campaign was sent along with detailed delivery status and marketing consent responses.

The “Marketing preference” section and the “Marketing preference in Campaign Logs” column are only available for campaigns sending templates of the Marketing Opt-in type.

As with other campaigns, you can also filter before exporting data into CSV file format.

H. Frequently Asked Questions about Marketing Opt-in

1. Where is the customer's marketing consent status stored?
The marketing consent status is stored based on the customer's WhatsApp number. Therefore, if the business uses more than one WhatsApp number, customer consent must be obtained for each number.

2. Can customers who have opted-out give consent again (opt-in)?
Yes. Customers can give consent again (opt-in) through one of the following methods.

Re-enable the marketing message acceptance setting on the business account profile in WhatsApp.
Respond with opt-in to the Marketing Opt-In template sent by the business. (Only possible if the last opt-out status does not come from Meta).

3. Can the marketing consent status be viewed on the Customer Detail page?
Not yet. In the current release version, the marketing consent status is not available on the Customer Detail page. However, this information can be seen when creating a Recipient List via the Select from customers option, and through the Campaign Logs page.

Source	Description
Meta user_preference webhook	Source: Meta Meta will send a webhook to Qontak whenever your customer configures the “Offers and announcements” setting located on the business profile page. If your customer disables this setting, the system will record the customer as opt-out, or refusing to receive marketing messages. Learn more here. - Opt-in and opt-out data will be mapped with a cut-off starting from June 1, 2026. - The default for this setting is “Active”. Therefore, Meta will only send an opt-in signal if there is a status change from “Inactive” to “Active”.
History of failed marketing message deliveries with error code: 131050	Source: Meta Qontak uses the history of failed marketing message deliveries with error 131050 to mark the customer's consent status as opt-out. - Opt-out data from failed message deliveries is mapped with a cut-off starting from January 1, 2026. - If Meta sends opt-in information from the “user_preference webhook” source dated after the failed marketing message history, the system will update the customer's final consent status as opt-in.
Response to Marketing Opt-In template	Source: Qontak The customer's consent status is updated based on the response given to the Marketing Opt-In template sent. This method is provided by Qontak to help you obtain consent (opt-in) from customers whose marketing consent status is unknown.

WhatsApp Web	WhatsApp Mobile

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