Get your message templates approved

To message a customer who has not written to you in the last 24 hours, it has to be a template Meta approved in advance. Order updates, payment reminders, campaigns, appointment confirmations — all templates.

Review is the slowest part of going live, so start on day one rather than the day before launch.

The 24-hour service window

When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens in which you can reply with anything — free text, images, buttons — and Meta charges nothing for it. Once it closes, your next message must be a template, and it is charged.

That is why the inbox shows how long is left on a conversation. Answering inside the window is both better service and cheaper.

The categories

Meta puts every template in one of three, and the category sets both the price and how strictly it is reviewed:

  • Utility — about a transaction that already happened. Order confirmed, payment received, appointment tomorrow, delivery on its way. Cheaper, approved more readily.
  • Marketing — anything promotional. Offers, new arrivals, re-engagement. More expensive, more strictly reviewed, and what a customer can opt out of.
  • Authentication — one-time passcodes. A narrow format, and not what most businesses here need.

Do not dress a marketing message as a utility one. Meta reclassifies it, and a pattern of doing it damages your quality rating — which eventually limits how many people you may message a day.

What gets rejected

Nearly every rejection is one of these:

  1. Variables with no example. Every placeholder needs a sample value at submission. Bare placeholders are rejected automatically.
  2. A variable at the very start or end, or two adjacent. Meta refuses these, because the message can be made to read as anything.
  3. Promotional content in a utility template. "Your order shipped — and get 20% off your next one" is a marketing template.
  4. A URL shortener. bit.ly and friends are refused. Use your own domain.
  5. Shouting. ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation, or the cadence of a scam message.
  6. A display name that is not the business. Caught at profile review rather than template review, but it blocks you just as effectively.

Writing one that passes

  • Write it as you would actually say it. The closer to a real sentence, the better it does.
  • Put each variable in the middle of a sentence with words around it: Hi NAME, your order NUMBER is on its way.
  • Give realistic examples — Priya, #1043 — not xxx or test.
  • Keep the category honest.
  • Add the buttons you want at submission. Adding them later means another review.

How long it takes

Usually minutes to a few hours; occasionally a day or two. If a template sits in review beyond 48 hours, edit and resubmit rather than wait — a stuck review rarely unsticks itself.

A starter set

About five make you useful on day one:

  1. Order or booking confirmation (utility)
  2. Payment request or reminder (utility)
  3. Order ready / shipped / appointment tomorrow (utility)
  4. Follow-up on an enquiry (utility, if it refers to their enquiry)
  5. One promotional template for campaigns (marketing)

If you would rather not write them, the managed service on the pricing page includes writing and submitting them for you.