The short version
- Write it once. Settings → Social Channels → Manage Templates → New Template. Give it a name, a category and a message with blanks like
{{first_name}}. - Submit it to Meta. It shows as Pending while Meta reviews it, usually for a few minutes.
- Send it whenever you like. Once it’s Approved, you can send it to anyone, even someone who hasn’t messaged you in months. Exabloom fills in the blanks for each person.
Most people only need the create, check and send sections. Headers, buttons and quality ratings are in Advanced, and you can skip them until you need them.
Why WhatsApp needs templates
It comes down to one rule of WhatsApp’s, not Exabloom’s: the 24-hour window. It stops businesses from sending messages nobody asked for, and it applies to every business on WhatsApp.
Every message the customer sends starts a fresh 24 hours.
24 hours with no message from them, and free text is locked. Your own messages don’t keep it open.
An approved template can go out any time. If they reply, the window opens again.
You’ll see this in the Inbox. When a chat’s window has closed, the reply box is replaced by a single line and a button. That button is the only way to write to them, and it only offers templates.
Draft, Pending, Approved
Every template moves through the same statuses. Knowing them answers most “why can’t I send this?” questions.
Saved in Exabloom only. Meta has not seen it. You can edit it freely.
Submitted. Meta is reviewing the wording. Usually minutes, sometimes a day.
Ready to send from the Inbox, broadcasts, workflows and lists. Locked for editing.
Meta said no. The reason is on the template’s page. Edit the wording or the category and submit again. Only Draft and Rejected templates can be edited.
Two things surprise people. First, an approved template is locked: to change the wording, create a new template with a new name. Second, templates live on your WhatsApp Business account at Meta, not only in Exabloom. Templates you made in Meta Business Manager show up in your list too, and deleting one here deletes it at Meta.
Create and submit a template
Seven short steps. The example builds a trial-class reminder, the kind of message almost every business needs.
Open Settings, then Social Channels
Connect your communication platforms to start messaging leads directly from the dashboard.
Click Manage Templates
It’s at the bottom of the WhatsApp Business card, under Message Templates. The Meta Business Manager link beside it opens Meta’s own site instead, which you don’t need.
Connect your communication platforms to start messaging leads directly from the dashboard.
Click New Template
The templates page opens full screen, with no sidebar. That’s deliberate, not a glitch. The arrow at the top left takes you back to Social Channels.
Name it and pick a category
The Template Name is a label for your team. Customers never see it. It can only hold lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, so the box converts as you type: “Trial Class Reminder” becomes trial_class_reminder. Two templates can’t share a name in the same language.
Pick the category that honestly matches the message:
- Utility (the default): about something the customer already did or booked. Reminders, confirmations, updates. Easiest to get approved.
- Marketing: anything that sells. Offers, promotions, new classes, “we miss you”. Reviewed more strictly, and WhatsApp limits how many a person receives.
- Authentication: one-time passcodes only. You’re unlikely to need it.
Write the message and add the blanks
Type the message in 3. Message Body. Wherever something should change per person, type /. A menu opens with the fields your contacts actually have: first name, last name, email, phone, and your own custom fields. Pick one and it drops in as a variable like {{first_name}}. To make up your own, keep typing a name after the /.
Every variable then needs an example. Meta reviews the template with your examples filled in, and the phone on the right shows them too, so you see exactly what a customer will read. Fields picked from the menu fill their own example where they can; type the rest.
① A variable can’t be the very first or very last thing in the message. ② Two variables can’t sit side by side with nothing between them. ③ Each variable can appear only once. ④ Variable names are lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, 32 characters at most.
Submit it for review
Click Submit for review. You’re taken back to the list, where the template now shows as Pending. Close the page if you like: Meta’s answer arrives on its own and the status updates without you doing anything.
Submitting a draft later
A draft sits in the list with a violet Draft pill. So do the drafts Win-back writes for you. To send one to Meta, open the ⋯ menu at the end of its row.
Check whether it’s approved
Everything you need is on the templates page itself. Here is where to look, then what each colour means.
Blank means Meta hasn’t rated it yet, which is normal for a new template.
Click any row to open the template on its own page, with its full content, category and language. If your account has template analytics switched on, the list also shows Sent, Delivered, Read and Clicked columns with a date range, and each template gets an Analytics tab.
Fix a rejected template
A rejection costs nothing. Read why, change the template and submit it again under the same name.
The usual reasons, and the fix:
- It sells, but it’s filed as Utility. Take the offer out, or change the category to Marketing.
- Too many blanks, not enough words. A message that is mostly variables reads like spam. Add real sentences around them.
- Examples that don’t look real. “test” or “xxx” as an example gets rejected. Use a believable name, date or amount.
Send one from the Inbox
Anyone on your team can send an approved template from a chat. The same templates also power broadcasts, sending to a list and workflows, which each have their own guide.
Click Send a template message...
While the window is still open you can reply normally, and you won’t see this button.
Pick the template, then Next
Search finds templates by name or by words in the message. Templates you’ve sent recently are grouped at the top under Recently sent by you.
Fill the blanks, then Send now
A variable filled from a contact field shows a Sends as line with the value this person will actually get. It also gets an If empty, use box.
Headers, buttons and finer control
Everything above is enough for plain text templates. Read on when you want pictures, buttons or finer control.
Named or numbered variables
Variable Type on the form decides how blanks are written. Leave it on Named Variables: {{first_name}} says what goes there, which helps your team and Meta’s reviewer. Number Variables writes them as {{1}}, {{2}}, the older style. Switching type clears any examples that no longer match.
A variable is only a labelled blank. It isn’t tied to any field in Exabloom: whoever sends the template chooses what fills it, each time.
Headers, footers and buttons
- Header. A text header is up to 60 characters and can hold one variable. A file header takes a JPG or PNG image, an MP4 or 3GP video, or a PDF, up to 5 MB.
- Footer. Up to 60 characters, no variables. Good for your business name or “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”.
- Buttons. Up to three. Quick Reply sends back the button’s text as the customer’s reply. Call to Action opens a website or starts a phone call. Request Contact Info asks the customer to share their number, and must be the only button. Button text is up to 25 characters.
- Message body. Up to 1,024 characters. The counter under the box turns amber near the limit.
Quality, analytics and appeals
After a template has been sent for a while, Meta rates it High, Medium or Low based on how people react, for example by blocking you. A Low template shows a red banner on its page, “This template is at risk of being paused”, with tips. If it stays low for 7 days Meta may pause it, and sends using it then fail.
Meta may also move a template to another category after approving it, usually from Utility to Marketing. Its page then shows Category Change Detected, and an Appeal Category Change button that opens Meta’s appeal form.
Delete a template
Every row’s ⋯ menu ends with Delete Template. You type the template’s name to confirm. This deletes it from your WhatsApp Business account at Meta, not only from Exabloom, and cannot be undone. Anything still using it, like a workflow step, stops being able to send it.
Templates to copy
Three templates that tend to pass review first time. Change the wording to sound like you.
Utility, because it’s about something they already booked. No offers, no selling.
Marketing, because it promotes something new. Leave prices out: they change, and a new price means a new template.
A win-back message is Marketing even though it feels like a follow-up. Filing it as Utility is the most common rejection.
Good to know & pitfalls
- Templates are WhatsApp’s rule. They are only needed outside the 24-hour window, and only on a WhatsApp Business number.
- Approved means locked. Only Draft and Rejected templates can be edited. To change an approved one, create a new template with a new name.
- Save as Draft is not a permanent hold. When WhatsApp Business is connected (or reconnected), Exabloom submits the drafts made in this form to Meta for you. Drafts that Win-back wrote are the exception: they wait for someone to press Submit for review.
- Every variable needs an example, and every mapped variable needs an If empty, use fallback when you send. Without one, a contact with a blank field gets nothing.
- Pending and rejected templates can’t be sent. They appear in the Inbox picker greyed out, so you can see they exist.
- The phone preview is a sketch. It’s labelled “Exabloom” whatever your business is called. Customers see your own WhatsApp Business name.
- Deleting is for good. It removes the template from Meta, and anything that sends it stops working.
Want help getting templates approved?
Our Singapore-based team can help you word templates that pass Meta’s review first time. Just reach out.