· 5 min
Approved messages: what they are, why Meta reviews them, and how to get one approved
If you have used WhatsApp marketing tools, you have heard the word template. On this site we say approved message — it is the same thing from Meta's template system, but phrased the way a shop owner thinks: a message you prepare, Meta approves, then you send to people who opted in.
Why approval exists at all
WhatsApp is a personal inbox. Meta reviews every bulk message so that inbox stays usable — for your customers and for every other business on the platform. Without review, bulk access would be burned by spam in weeks. With review, shops keep the privilege of landing in a place people actually read.
The categories
Meta sorts submitted messages into a few categories. For shops, the relevant one is marketing — the permission to tell opted-in customers about something new, back in stock or on offer. Marketing messages are the ones with the price you see on Meta's pricing page. Authentication and utility are for OTPs and order updates; Qelo Connect focuses on marketing.
What Meta checks
A reviewer (human or automated) asks a short checklist:
- Is the intent clear? The customer should be able to tell, from the text, what you are offering and who it is from.
- Is the variable use bounded? Placeholders like {{1}} must have a clear purpose (a name, a date, an item) and cannot be open-ended essay slots.
- Does it respect policy? No misleading claims, no disallowed content, no bait-and-switch.
- Is the opt-out surface visible? Qelo's library messages include a footer like "Reply STOP to opt out" — Meta requires a way to stop, and Qelo honours STOP automatically.
What gets rejected (and how to fix it)
Common rejections and the fix that usually passes:
| Rejection reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Variable content unclear" | Make the variable example explicit — {{1}} = "Thandi", not an empty blank. |
| "Promotional language too broad" | Name the offer concretely: "The autumn range is in — see it Saturday" beats "Amazing deals await!!!". |
| "Missing opt-out instruction" | Keep the STOP footer. Qelo adds it to every library message. |
| "Formatting abuse" | Drop excessive CAPS, emojis and punctuation bursts. |
Qelo Connect shows the rejection reason in plain words beside the message, so fixing it is an edit-and-resubmit, not a reopen-the-docs exercise. Most approvals land in minutes; a few take longer, and the status updates live on the message row.
The library vs writing your own
Qelo ships a curated library of approved messages — sale, restock, new arrival, reminder — each with slots you fill (item name, date, button text). Starting from the library is faster and more likely to pass on the first try, because the structure is already known-good. Writing your own is welcome: you see a preview as you type and the same status flow.
Photo messages
Marketing approvals can include a photo header — the shop photo appears above the text in WhatsApp. The same review rules apply plus Meta's image policy (no misleading before/after, no excessive text in image). Qelo supports photo headers as a variable you attach per campaign.
Once approved, send to the right people
Approval is not permission to send to anyone. Qelo Connect only sends to contacts marked opted in with a record of how and when they opted in. A campaign audience is always an opted-in subset — everybody, a tag, an import that carried consent. Contacts marked opted out are excluded before queuing, so you don't pay to send to someone who said STOP.
Coexistence note
Whether you connect a new WhatsApp Business number or your existing WhatsApp Business app number via coexistence, approvals live on the WhatsApp Business Account, not on the handset. Moving between the two does not re-trigger review for already-approved messages.
Questions about wording? Send us the draft at support@qelo.co.za and we'll tell you what we'd expect Meta to say before you submit it.