A start-to-finish walkthrough of building a template, submitting it for approval, and handling what happens next — including a rejection.
Before You Start, Make Sure You Have
- Decided roughly what the message is for — a promotion, an order update, or a verification code. This decides your category (Marketing, Utility, or Authentication) and affects how much it costs per conversation.
- Permission to create templates on this account (owners always can; sub-users need the relevant permission).
Follow Simple Steps:
1. Open Create Template And Pick a Type
Go to Templates in the sidebar, then Create Template. For your first template, choose Custom Message — the standard type with a header, body, footer, and buttons. (Other types like Carousel, OTP, or Limited Time Offer follow the same core flow with a few extra fields — see the full Message Templates reference article for those.)
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2. Fill in The Template Details
Enter a Template name * — lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores only, up to 25 characters (e.g., order_confirmation_v1). Availability is checked live as you type.
Choose a Category:
- Marketing — promotions, offers, announcements (higher cost, needs opt-in)
- Utility — order updates, alerts, reminders (lower cost)
- Authentication — OTPs and verification codes (lower cost, body is
auto-generated by Meta)
Then pick a Language from the searchable list
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COMMON MISTAKE – If the name’s already taken, you’ll see “This template name is already in use. Try a different name, e.g., add a number at the end.” Once submitted, a template name can’t be reused even if you delete it later — build the habit of adding a version suffix (_v1, _v2) so you’re not stuck guessing later.
3. Write Your Header, Body, and Footer
- Header (optional) — choose None, Text (up to 60 characters), or a media type (Image/Video/Document).
- Body (required, up to 1024 characters) — write your message. Insert variables using {{1}}, {{2}}, and so on, and give each one a sample value so reviewers understand what a real message looks like.
The #1 Rejection Reason – WhatsApp requires your static text to be more than twice as long as your variable examples combined. “Hi {{1}}” will get rejected — write something like “Hi {{1}}, your order has been confirmed and will arrive soon!” instead. GetGabs checks this before you submit and will tell you if your ratio is off.
Footer (optional, up to 60 characters) — pre-filled with “reply STOP to unsubscribe” by default. Worth keeping, especially on Marketing templates.
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4. Add Buttons (Optional)
Up to 10 buttons total, from four types: Website URL (max 2), Phone Number (max 1, include the country code), Copy Code (max 1, for coupon codes), and Quick Reply (up to 10). You can’t add a phone number button once you already have 2 URL buttons, or vice versa.
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5. Preview and Submit
Check the live preview panel — it shows exactly what customers will see. Then choose:
- Save as Draft — keep working on it later without submitting
- Submit for Approval — sends it to Meta for review
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On success, the template appears in All Templates with a Pending status — approval usually takes a few minutes, up to 24 hours.
Fixing a Rejected Template
What to do when Meta doesn’t approve a template on the first try.
1. Read The Rejection Reason
Open All Templates and find the template — its status badge will show Rejected, with Meta’s exact rejection reason shown directly underneath in red text.
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2. Edit And Resubmit
Click Edit on the rejected template, fix whatever the reason pointed to (most often the variable-to-text ratio, or promotional content submitted under the wrong category), and submit again. It goes back into Pending under the same name.
If It Gets Rejected Again – Some rejections genuinely require a new template name to resubmit successfully — this isn’t always obvious from GetGabs alone. If the same content keeps getting rejected under the same name, try duplicating it under a new name as a workaround.
Duplicating a Template
The fastest way to create a variation of something you’ve already built.
1. Duplicate And Rename
From All Templates, open the row’s More actions menu and choose Duplicate. Give the copy a New template name (same rules — lowercase, numbers, underscores, 25 characters) and confirm.
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The copy opens as a new, independent draft — editing or resubmitting it never affects the original.
Starting From a Library Instead of a Blank Template
Skip the blank page if you’re not sure how to phrase something.
1. Browse and Pick One
Go to Meta Library (Meta’s own official templates) or Community Library (templates shared by other GetGabs users) and browse or filter until you find something close to what you need.
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2. Bring It Into Your Account
Click Use Template, give it your own Template name, and confirm. It’s copied into your account as an editable draft — review it, adjust anything you need, and submit it the same way as a template you built from scratch.
What Happens Next
- Track approval status any time from All Templates — hover any status badge for what it means.
- Once Approved, the template becomes selectable in Broadcast campaigns and Flow Builder’s Template node.
- If its quality rating later drops, GetGabs automatically pauses any running campaign that’s using it — you don’t need to catch this manually.
