Guide · Marketing · For the owner about to send a WhatsApp promotion
Writing WhatsApp promotions customers want: Meta's best practices for timing, layout, approval and quality
Meta has published a long best-practice guide for promotions sent on WhatsApp: who to send them to, when, how the message should be laid out, how to get the template approved and how to tell when quality is slipping. Here is what Meta's guide says, without the survey figures it opens with.
Published 7 October 2026
Expected, timely and relevant
Meta's guide says a promotion that works passes three tests. Its own advice under each:
- Expected
- The person agreed to hear from the business. Meta's Business Policy requires saying clearly that they are opting in, naming the business, and following local law. Ask for promotions separately rather than bundling them with order updates, and honour every request to stop, whether it arrives on WhatsApp or anywhere else.
- Timely
- Send soon after the customer engaged, or at the pace they asked for, and think about when not to send, such as when they are likely offline or on days crowded with other businesses' offers. Watch how many promotions each customer gets in a day and a week, and give people who have stopped reading a break.
- Relevant
- Group customers by what they are likely to want and tailor the message to each group, such as an item they looked at or an add-on to something they bought. Say plainly what the offer is, how it works and when it ends.
The guide warns that promotions sent too often, or from too many phone numbers, make people more likely to block or report the business. It recommends as few numbers as possible, so customers keep one continuing chat with the business.
How a promotion that works is laid out
Meta lists the marks of a poorly made promotion: no picture where one would help, too many emojis, a long dense block of text, several links in the text, a promotional code buried in the middle, several competing buttons and several offers at once. Its advice for a good one:
- The first five lines
- Longer messages are cut off behind a Read more link, so put the important part first, in bold. If it runs longer, use clearly separated sections, no more than three or four. Meta's developer page for its optimised route shows even less: three lines under a picture, four with no header.
- Buttons, not links
- Link to the website with a button rather than typing the address into the text, and keep to one clear action.
- Picture and words
- The picture should make sense without the text, and the text should make sense if the picture never loads.
- Tone
- Warm and personal, starting with the customer's first name, well written, and informative rather than pushy.
Meta suggests testing which format each group of customers responds to, from text alone to a single picture, a video or a carousel, using WhatsApp's own formats such as a copy-code button for a coupon or a limited-time offer, and refreshing templates every few weeks so they do not go stale.
How many lines Meta's optimised route shows, and the other changes Meta may make to a promotion's look, are in the creative changes guide. Those formats are explained in the template formats guide.
Getting the template approved
Every promotion goes out as a template that Meta reviews first. Meta's review tips are to plan for the review time, follow its Commerce and Business policies and formatting rules, and include a sample of the finished message, especially for a template with a picture or video. An appeal against a rejection always needs a sample. For the same message in several languages, Meta says to create one template and add the other languages to it.
The usual reasons for a rejection are in the rejected templates guide.
Watching quality once it is sent
Meta points to WhatsApp Manager, inside Meta Business Suite, to see how promotions land:
- Phone numbers
- Each number's status, quality rating, messaging limit and the last 30 days of its quality rating.
- Message templates
- Each template's status and quality rating, messages delivered, how many were read, and the most common reason people gave for blocking.
- Template insights
- Sent, delivered and read, button taps and block reasons. Meta notes these engagement figures are not available in the EU, the UK or Japan.
When quality drops, Meta's guide says to check the 30-day history and the reasons given, whether sending volume rose or a new template was added, and whether any automated replies are actually solving customers' questions. It recommends trying one new kind of message at a time, raising the volume gradually and watching for warnings for 7 to 10 days, and rethinking the audience, the opt-in and the wording if a warning arrives.
Our reading: the block reason is the most useful number
What a quality rating does to a template is in the template quality guide, the limit on promotions per person in the per-person limit guide, and Meta's optimised route for promotions in the second route guide.
Questions
How long should a WhatsApp promotion be?
Meta's guide says messages longer than five lines are cut off behind Read more, so put the important part in the first five lines and, if it runs longer, use no more than three or four clearly separated sections.
Should we put our website link in the text of a WhatsApp promotion?
Meta's guide recommends a button that links to the website rather than an address typed into the text, and warns against several links in one message.
How often should we send WhatsApp promotions?
Meta gives no fixed number. Its guide says to watch how many each customer gets in a day and a week, avoid sending too often or from too many numbers, and give people who stopped reading a break.
How do we get a WhatsApp promotion template approved faster?
Meta's guide says to plan for review time, follow its Commerce and Business policies, and include a sample of the finished message, especially for templates with a picture or video.
Where can we see why customers blocked our WhatsApp promotions?
In WhatsApp Manager, inside Meta Business Suite. The message templates tab shows each template's quality rating, read rate and top block reason.
Sources
- WhatsApp Business (Meta): Best Practices for Marketing Messages on WhatsApp, read 7 October 2026.
- Meta: Best practices for marketing messages on WhatsApp (PDF), read 7 October 2026.
More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.
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