A template is a message you start, outside the 24-hour window. A reminder, a results-are-ready note, a follow-up. Meta reviews the wording before you may send it, and charges you when you do.
Inside the window — a customer messaged you recently — you need none of this. Templates exist for reaching someone who has gone quiet.
Getting one approved
Open Templates and write it. Meta usually answers within minutes, sometimes a day.
What gets refused, in order of how often:
- Promotional wording in a utility message. “Book now, 20% off” turns a reminder into marketing.
- Placeholders with nothing around them. A message that is only
{{1}}tells the reviewer nothing. - Spelling and grammar poor enough to look like a scam.
- Claiming to be someone else, including a bank or a government office.
A refusal says why, and the page shows it in plain words. Fix it and submit again.
Categories, and why one costs more
Meta sorts templates into utility and marketing, and marketing costs several times more. Meta decides the category, not you — and it sometimes disagrees with what you asked for. The same reminder has been accepted as utility in English and reclassified as marketing in Hindi.
Keep reminders factual and they usually stay utility.
Testing
You can send a template to your own phone before using it on a customer. That test is not sent through Meta and costs nothing.