Why was my template rejected?

Rejections are routine, not a black mark. Most are one small fix away from approval.

The statuses

Status	What it means
Pending	With Meta. Usually minutes, sometimes hours, occasionally a day. Nothing to do.
Approved	Usable. It now appears in the broadcast picker for its number.
Rejected	Meta declined it, with a reason. Fix and resubmit.
Blocked by Wap2b	Our own check stopped it before Meta saw it. See below.

Blocked before Meta saw it

Wap2b checks templates before submitting them and blocks anything likely to read as misleading — claims a business cannot back, wording that impersonates WhatsApp or a bank, that kind of thing.

This is on your side, not against it. A rejection from Meta is recorded against your account and repeated rejections affect your standing. Catching it here costs you a rewrite; catching it there costs you reputation.

The block message says what triggered it. Rewrite that part and submit again.

The common rejection reasons

Content does not match the category

The biggest one by far. A promotional message submitted as Utility gets rejected, because Utility is for things the customer is already expecting.

Fix: resubmit as Marketing. If it sells, promotes, tempts or re-engages, it is Marketing.

Variable problems

Meta rejects templates where a variable sits at the very start or very end of the body, where two variables are adjacent, where numbering skips, or where the sample values are placeholders like xxx or test.

Fix: wrap variables in real words, number them in sequence, and give realistic samples — Priya, #10428, Tuesday 14 March.

Sample values that don't make sense

Meta reads the template with your samples substituted in. If the result reads as nonsense, it gets rejected.

Fix: fill the samples so the preview reads like a real message to a real customer.

Wrong language tag

The template is written in one language and tagged as another — commonly English text tagged as Hindi, or Hinglish tagged as one or the other.

Fix: tag the language you actually wrote in.

Formatting and length

Excessive capitals, long runs of emoji, $$$, !!!, or a body that is essentially a wall of text.

Fix: write it as a person would. Sentence case, sparing emphasis.

Policy content

Anything Meta's commerce policy prohibits — alcohol, tobacco, weapons, adult content, gambling, some financial and medical offers. This one is not about wording.

Fix: there usually isn't one for that content. Check Meta's commerce policy before building a business messaging plan around it.

Business verification not complete

Some categories and volumes require your business to be verified in Meta Business Manager.

Fix: complete business verification. It is also what unlocks higher messaging limits.

Editing and resubmitting

Open the template from Templates.
Read the rejection reason at the top.
Edit and submit again. It goes back to Pending.

There is no penalty for resubmitting, and no queue you lose your place in.

Change one thing at a time

If you rewrite the body, the category and the samples all at once and it is rejected again, you have learned nothing. Change the most likely cause first.

If it keeps being rejected with no clear reason

Strip it back to a plain body with no header, footer, buttons or variables. Submit.
If that passes, add the parts back one at a time until it fails — now you know which part was the problem.
If even the plain version fails, the issue is the category or your account standing, not the message. Open a ticket and include the template name and the exact rejection text.