Rejection reasons are often generic, which leaves people guessing. These are the nine causes behind almost every rejection we help fix, ordered by frequency.
1. Promotional content in a Utility category
By a wide margin the most common. Any discount, offer, upsell, cross-sell or "check out our new range" makes the template Marketing, regardless of what else it contains. Fix: resubmit as Marketing, or strip the promotional sentence entirely.
2. Opening or closing with a variable
"{{1}}, your order is ready" and "Your code is {{1}}" both fail structurally. Fix: add fixed text at both ends — "Hi {{1}}, your order is ready" and "Your code is {{1}}. It expires in ten minutes."
3. Adjacent variables
"{{1}} {{2}}" gives no context and can be filled with anything. Fix: separate them with real words: "{{1}}, your booking for {{2}} is confirmed."
4. Too much variable, too little template
If more than roughly a third of the message is placeholders, it reads as a blank cheque. Fix: write the sentence properly and let variables fill only the genuinely changing parts.
5. Placeholder sample values
Sample fields filled with "test", "abc" or "123" are a rejection. Fix: use values that look real — "Priya Sharma", "NL-48213", "14 August".
6. No sender identity
"Your appointment is tomorrow at 3pm" — from whom? Fix: name the business in the body. Recipients have hundreds of chats; do not make them guess.
7. Requesting sensitive information
Asking for full card numbers, passwords, OTPs from another service, government identifiers or health details will be refused and should be. Fix: link to a secure page instead of collecting it in chat.
This one is worth internalising beyond approval. Even where a request would technically pass, collecting sensitive data inside a chat thread leaves it sitting in message history on devices you do not control.
8. Restricted or prohibited categories
Alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons, adult content, unapproved supplements, most financial products with promised returns, and anything implying a medical outcome. Fix: in restricted-but-permitted categories, check your market's rules; in prohibited ones, WhatsApp is not the channel.
9. Formatting and length problems
Broken markdown, emoji-dense copy, ALL CAPS, several exclamation marks, or a body that runs far past 1,024 characters. Fix: write plainly, one or two emoji at most, and edit for length.
The debugging order
- Is there any promotional intent? Change the category.
- Does it start or end with a variable, or have two together? Add context.
- Are samples realistic?
- Is the business named?
- Any sensitive data requested?
- Is the category restricted in this market?
Working through in that order resolves most cases before the third attempt, which is where accumulated rejections start to matter.