Business-initiated WhatsApp templates must be approved by Meta before they can be used in a campaign. This is a Meta requirement designed to protect users from receiving undesirable messages or spam from businesses. Once approved, business-initiated templates must also maintain a high quality rating.
This article explains the process of submitting business-initiated WhatsApp templates to Meta for approval, as well as the various template approval statuses and quality ratings.
# In this article
# Before submission
While you’re creating or editing a template, the Details screen of the template editor highlights common issues that can cause a template to be rejected, and you won’t be able to submit a template for approval until any highlighted errors are fixed. For a full list of reasons a template may be rejected, see Meta’s article Message Template Guidelines.
# Steps for submission
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When you’re ready to submit a business-initiated template to Meta for approval, click the Review button in the upper right corner of the template editor.
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If your template contains merge tags, use the Sample Data section to add a sample user’s data to the template. This is required for Meta’s review process and helps you avoid template rejections.
Double check your template’s settings and design, then click Submit for Approval.
If Iterable detects issues that would cause Meta to reject the template, the submission fails and an error message displays the detected issue(s). The template remains in the
Draftstate. Resolve the highlighted issues, save the draft, then attempt the submission again.Once a template has been successfully submitted to Meta for review, its status changes to
In Review. Meta’s evaluation process can take up to 24 hours, and during this time, the template cannot be used in any campaigns or journeys.When Meta has finished evaluating the template, you’ll receive a notification email from Meta with the results. For a full list of possible statuses, see WhatsApp Template Approval Statuses and Quality Ratings.
Once a template’s status changes to Approved, you can start using it in WhatsApp campaigns.
If your template is rejected, you can edit the template to address the rejection reason(s), then re-submit the template to Meta for review.
NOTES
- While it’s possible to edit templates in Meta, doing so can cause errors.
- URL shorteners (for example,
bit.lylinks) are not recommended and will lead to template rejections.
# WhatsApp template approval statuses and quality ratings
In addition to requiring approval for business-initiated templates, Meta also evaluates the quality of all WhatsApp templates as they're sent in campaigns and users interact with them. Templates that have low read rates and/or have received negative feedback from users receive lower quality ratings and are at risk of being paused or disabled. When this happens, any campaigns that use these templates will fail — so it's important to monitor your templates' quality ratings. To learn more, see Sending WhatsApp Campaigns.
Iterable displays the following approval statuses and quality ratings for templates:
# Draft
The template has not yet been submitted to Meta for review.
# In Review
The template is still under review by Meta. Review can take up to 24 hours.
# Approved (no quality rating)
The template has been approved for use by Meta and has not yet received read rate information or user feedback. Its rating will be updated when this information becomes available.
# Approved (high quality)
The template has been approved for use by Meta and currently has good read rates and has received little or no negative user feedback.
# Approved (medium quality)
The template has been approved for use by Meta but currently has low read rates and/or has received negative user feedback. The template may soon be paused or disabled.
# Approved (low quality)
The template has been approved for use by Meta but currently has low read rates and/or has received negative feedback from multiple customers. This rating puts the template at high risk of being paused or disabled.
# Rejected
The template has been rejected during Meta's review process and/or violates one of its policies. You must edit the template to address Meta's rejection reasons, then re-submit to Meta for approval before the template can be used in a WhatsApp campaign.
# Paused
The template cannot be sent for a period of 3 or 6 hours, due to poor read rates and/or recurring negative user feedback. See Meta's Template Pausing documentation to learn more.
# Disabled
The template has been previously paused twice and now cannot be sent to users.
# In appeal
An appeal was submitted for the template in Meta Business Manager and a decision is pending.
# Pending deletion
The template was deleted in Meta Business Manager and is scheduled for removal in Iterable. If campaigns using this template were sent prior to its deletion, Iterable will attempt delivery for up to 30 days before the template becomes unavailable.
# Reinstated
The template was previously disabled by Meta but has been restored and can now be sent to users again.
# Want to learn more?
For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out these Iterable resources. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!
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