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Guidelines for creating your WhatsApp templates. Why is WhatsApp rejecting my templates?
Guidelines for creating your WhatsApp templates. Why is WhatsApp rejecting my templates?

Find out what types of templates WhatsApp allows and the most common mistakes

Diego Pereda avatar
Written by Diego Pereda
Updated over a week ago

Reasons for Rejection

WhatsApp mainly rejects templates with promotional and/or threatening messages.

Promotional Messages

WhatsApp does not allow you to send promotional materials that were not requested by the client. Below, we've listed some key words that may make the WhatsApp team think that your template contains spam and reject it. Check them out.

sample

low

bargain

commercial

coupon

discount

release

limited edition

launch

liquidation

free

sale

opportunity

promotion

promotional

promo

promote

proposal

advertisement

lottery

surprise


✔️ Remember that the end client will decide whether you are helping, providing information, or being an annoyance. So when you create your template, keep in mind what value you add for your client.

For example:

  • Offering discount codes and/or free products

  • Upselling messages.  For example: "Here are your tickets. If you'd like, we can reserve your transportation from the airport into the city." 

  • Cold calls. For example: "Is this a good time to talk?" "I tried to contact you but you weren't available. When are you free?" etc.

  • Surveys. For example: "Hi, we'd like to learn about your favorite destinations for this year. Would you like to take our short survey?"

  • Inclusion of words or phrases that make your message promotional. WhatsApp advises reading your message aloud to check the tone.

  • Message templates with variable parameters. WhatsApp doesn't approve messages that are primarily composed of variables, like the example below:

They advise surrounding the variables with text for the template to be approved.

Your template has no format

It is possible that your template continues failing because it does not have the correct format. Verify that there are no spelling mistakes and that the variable formatting is correct (and is not missing a bracket, for example).

Templates with abusive or threatening content

Some examples of what WhatsApp recommends staying away from:

  • Messages that threaten customers with legal action.

  • Message templates that threaten to publicly expose the customer if they don't pay a debt or loan.

Your template doesn't follow the policy

These are a few points in the WhatsApp Business policies that you should know.

It's possible that your template was rejected for not complying with the policies.

  • WhatsApp prohibits organizations and people involved in terrorism or organized crime from using WhatsApp Business products.

  • WhatsApp prohibits the use of WhatsApp Business products to facilitate or organize criminal activities, such as exploiting or causing physical, financial, or other types of damage to people, businesses, or animals.

  • If you are negotiating, offering, or selling products or services, including sending messages related to said sales, must also comply with the WhatsApp commercial policy.

  • If the purpose of the main business of your organization (as determined by WhatsApp, at their sole discretion) is to distribute, sell, or offer for sale, trade, commercialize, promote, endorse, or operate commercially any products or services prohibited by the Commercial Policy, WhatsApp may ban the organization from using WhatsApp Business products.

  • Messages may not include offensive content, such as sexually explicit material or nudity, as determined by WhatsApp at their sole discretion.

Tips

In addition to the above, keep these recommendations in mind to speed up the approval process:

  • Make the name of your message template clear. Rather than using a name like "template_014"  try "Airline ticket details."

  • Remember that a WhatsApp representative who has no relation to Zenvia Conversion will be reviewing your message. Being more clear will give the reviewers more context for how the template will be used.

  • If you need to write a re-contact template (for use more than 24 since the last message from the client) we suggest starting with a connection to the earlier conversation.

For example: "I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer your questions yesterday, but I'm happy to help you now. If you'd like to continue this conversation, answer "yes."

  • It is a good practice for these messages to end with a confirmation phrase, such as "Do you confirm that you received this message?" This helps to open up the conversation.

Or "I followed up on our earlier conversation and I found an answer to your question about our refund policy. If you'd like to continue our conversation, say, "yes."

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Message-sending mistakes:

  • The contact has two or more phone numbers uploaded: This is a common mistake. Sometime you upload more than one WhatsApp number, which creates a conflict and Zenvia Conversion does not know which contact to send the message to, causing the templates to fail.

  • Vairable fields are not completed. Fo example, the template says, "Hello *Contact first name* *Contact last name*" and the contact does not have a last name uploaded. This will prevent the template from sending..

  • The account has hit the limit for daily templates sent.

  • The template is not approved for conversational channels. The option to send the template can sometimes appear when the template is not yet approved.

  • The client doesn't have an active WhatsApp account. You can confirm whether this is the case by navigating to the following URL, completing it with the contact number: wa.me/(contactnumber).

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