How to add a template for WhatsApp campaigns
Users who have connected their phone number to the WhatsApp Business API can send campaigns to their audience. Sending campaigns to all of your subscribers is possible with an approved template.
According to the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, users need to recognize your brand and opt-in to receive messages — only then can you use templates and initiate conversations.
You can send utility templates to inform users of any changes to their orders or accounts and marketing templates to share news about upcoming events, sales, and more. Learn more in the Meta documentation.
In this article, you'll learn how you can create a request to add a message template and send it for WhatsApp moderation.
Go to the Chatbots section and select your WhatsApp chatbot. Go to the Templates tab and click the Add Template button to create a new template.
Alternatively, you can select a sample template and edit it. Select a template with the Example status and click on its name.
Enter a name for the template
Enter a name for the template by which you can easily find the template in your template list. You can use Latin lowercase characters, numbers, and underscores in the name.
Add template content
Enter text for the template. You can insert emoji and variables in the message as {{1}}, {{2}}. When sending a campaign using a template, you can replace the variable numbers with the required variable names.
You can also add an attachment and signature to your template.
Attachment — displayed at the top of the message. You can specify whether to add an image, file, or video to the template. Select the required action from the drop-down list and upload an example of the file.
You can add a picture directly during creating a campaign. Using an image, for example, you can add a company logo or an event banner.
Signature — displayed at the bottom of the message. You can specify additional text for the signature of the message.
Add a button
If you need to add a button, click Add button. You can specify a trigger word in the button text - when the user clicks on the button, a trigger flow will be launched for the specified word.
Also for the button, you can add a link to your website or event.
Select the language and category of the template
Select the template language and category from the drop-down list that matches your template.
The following template categories are available:
| Marketing |
Used to achieve various marketing goals, such as increasing customer reach and sales or retargeting. You can use up to two marketing templates within a single 24-hour marketing session. Sending more will result in an error with the Read more: Cloud API Error Codes. |
| Utility | Used to process customer requests, such as checking order statuses or changing subscription plans. |
| Authentication | Used to authenticate customers using one-time codes (for example, during two-factor authentication). This type of template is not available in the chatbot template builder and can only be created using the WhatsApp Business manager app. |
For more information on WhatsApp chatbot templates, see the official Meta guide.
Submit your template for moderation
After filling out the information, click Save and the template will be sent to Facebook for moderation.
When the template is verified, the status will change from Sent to Confirmed or Declined and you can start sending campaigns with the approved template by the Facebook and WhatsApp team.
If Facebook blocks a template after you use it, the template status will change to Suspended.
Using templates
You can use approved templates when creating campaigns and choose them in the Message element in your flows or when sending messages via API.
To get a structure to send template messages via the following API methods: Send a template message to a specified contact, Send a template message to a contact by a phone number, Send a campaign list by template, go to the Templates tab and next to the required template, click Copy the code. Copy the value from the window that opens and paste it into the template parameter.
Last Updated: 11.11.2024
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