What are WhatsApp Business Templates?

WhatsApp Business API is a user service solution using which businesses can directly interact with users. For businesses to reach out to users, it is important to understand the concept of WhatsApp Business Templates.

Proactive Messaging allows businesses to build interactive WhatsApp Business templates to reach out to users. Message templates are predefined message formats that can be used by businesses. A message template can be a simple plain text message or with media + text format.

In order to use a template, it has to be first approved by WhatsApp. There are a lot of conditions that have to be satisfied for the template to be approved by WhatsApp. This article will cover the best practices to create WhatsApp templates and the different reasons for rejections with examples.

Different sections in WhatsApp Template

The different template sections supported by Proactive Messaging are:

Header (Optional):

• Image
• Document
• Video
• Text

Body (Mandatory):

• ‍Plain text
• Text with placeholders

Footer (Optional):

• Plain text

Buttons (Optional):

• Call to action
• Quick Replies

Best Practices for creating WhatsApp Templates

It is recommended to follow these best practices to increase the chances of getting the templates approved by WhatsApp. Failure to adhere to these can result in rejection of the template.

1. Build simple and concise message templates that will convey the information clearly to the users.
2. Templates should not have any grammatical or spelling mistakes. One best practice is to proofread the content for spelling and grammar before submitting it for review on WhatsApp.
3. Make sure the formatting of the message is correct. For example, when using various parameters such as {{1}}, {{2}} etc., make sure you put in the correct number of curly brackets. There should be two curly brackets on the left side of the variable and two brackets on the right side. Any incorrect number of brackets will lead to the rejection of the template.
4. If you are using any links in your WhatsApp template, make sure you include the full URL. Do not use short links (i.e.) links generated using a URL shortener like bit.ly, TinyURL, etc. These links are known to obscure the link destination. Additionally, the domain in the URL should belong to your business only.
5. When entering a name for the message template, make sure you only use lowercase alphanumeric characters and underscores. Whitespaces and no other characters are allowed. For example, a valid template name can be ‘payment_update_details’ instead of ‘pymt_updt_01’.
6. Messages should be written in the same language as the template language. For instance, if you choose ‘English’ as the template language and send the message in the Spanish language, the template will be rejected. Also, make sure that the chosen language is supported by WhatsApp.
7. Message templates must be tagged with the correct ‘Category’ and ‘Language’.
8. The message template should not contain any content that violates the WhatsApp Commerce Policy. For example, sending a survey link and asking users to participate in the survey. However, if you are planning to send a survey to assess the service experience, that is completely fine and will be accepted by WhatsApp. Similarly, if you try to send any non-transactional messages or games, contests, and so on, such templates have full chances of being rejected.
9. Message templates should not contain any abusive content or threatening content.

Examples of templates approved and rejected by WhatsApp

1. Templates that can get accepted

• Template Category - Account Update (New User Welcome)
• Template Category - Appointment Update

• Template Category - Shipping Update

• Template Category - Reservation Update

• Template Category - Auto Reply

2. Reasons for templates to get rejected

WhatsApp has a set of defined rules when it comes to sending messages to users. There are some unpermitted types of notifications that you cannot trigger using WhatsApp. If your template has any of these words or sounds in one of these ways, the template will get rejected.

Below are some of the unpermitted notification types when using WhatsApp templates:

• Usage of sale or promotional content.
• Recurring content like reminders, and weekly/monthly newsletters.
• Promotional materials with users.
• Requesting users to share about the business with other users.
• Asking for ratings or review comments.
• Marketing in the form of surveys.
• Re-engaging with users for a sale after an initial conversation.