WhatsApp’s New Marketing Message Limits Policy Change: Detailed Guide

whatsapp continues to enhance its platform to ensure it remains a valuable space for users to engage with businesses as marketing conversations grow in importance, meta is implementing changes to improve engagement and user experience these changes aim to help businesses deliver more relevant messages while reducing message fatigue and spam here’s what you need to know about these changes and how to improve them meta is rolling out new policies, initially targeting users in india, to improve engagement with marketing messages update 1 (february 2024) effective date february 6, 2024 (fully rolled out by february 13, 2024) what’s changing businesses in india will now face restrictions on how frequently they can send marketing template messages to users this limit is not just for individual businesses but applies to the total number of marketing templates a user can receive from all businesses within a specific time frame what does this mean for your business? marketing template messages sent to users may be restricted if the user has already received a certain number of marketing templates from you or other businesses this could result in instances where a message from your business doesn’t reach the user, even if it’s the first marketing message they’re receiving from you on that day purpose of the change meta’s goal with these restrictions is to reduce message overload, avoid spam, and ensure that users engage more with the messages they do receive by limiting the number of marketing templates, meta aims to foster higher engagement, particularly in less active conversations impact on conversations these limitations only apply to marketing template messages that would start a new conversation ongoing conversations between your business and users are not affected by these limits, so you can continue engaging with users once a conversation is active these limitations major impact the users who are less likely to reply to you or engage with your business update 2 (september 2024) effective date starting in september 2024 (india only) following the initial changes implemented in february, meta has observed an increase in user engagement and read rates, as well as a decline in negative reactions such as archiving or muting messages users are finding business messages more valuable when they’re not bombarded with too many to further optimize user experience and limit negative interactions, meta is introducing additional controls on how businesses can send marketing messages what’s changing new limit businesses will now be limited to sending only two marketing template messages within a 24 hour window to a user unless the user responds once a user replies, free form messages can be sent without any limits this change is being rolled out gradually what does this mean for you? the limit applies only to marketing template messages that start new conversations if a conversation is already open, businesses can send one more marketing template message to continue sending marketing messages after that, the user must respond to the previous message free form messages can then be used to continue the conversation without restrictions businesses should plan marketing campaigns with a better cooldown period and avoid sending more than 2 messages a day to the same users why these changes? data has shown that when businesses continue to send multiple marketing messages without getting a response, users are more likely to mute, block, or archive the conversation by capping the number of marketing templates allowed, meta aims to keep users more engaged and reduce negative experiences error code (131049) in conjunction with these changes, meta has let us know the reasons why the messages were not delivered to the users via the failure code once you have subscribed to exotel’s cloud apis, we will send you the new error code on the configured webhook you can use these error codes and details to identify the reason for failure here are the exotel error codes you need to look for error code error details description 30013 ex incapable recipient the message failed as the recipient is unable to receive the message note however, it's important to note that these error codes can cover a variety of issues beyond the new limits or it is not limited to this single error read more here 30043 ex restricted by meta this message was not delivered by meta due to reaching the message limit for the user please retry with increasing longer intervals until the message is delivered for assistance in troubleshooting, please refer to the troubleshooting document https //developers facebook com/docs/whatsapp/cloud api/support#troubleshooting for cloud api and the "why is my delivery rate not 100%?" faq for on premises api these resources offer insights into potential reasons for non delivery and guide on determining their root causes improving your message strategy to minimize the chance of messages not being delivered and to boost engagement, businesses should consider the following strategies tailor messages customize your marketing messages for different user segments to make them more relevant monitor timing avoid sending marketing messages during peak periods when users may receive multiple messages from other businesses manage frequency track how many marketing messages you’re sending to the same users on the same day to avoid breaching the limit and overwhelming the users cooldown periods if a user hasn’t engaged in a while, give them a break from marketing messages offer opt in/opt out options always provide users the option to opt out of marketing messages to maintain trust by following these best practices, businesses can maintain healthy engagement levels and ensure their marketing messages are well received by users new text truncation for marketing messages in addition, meta is rolling out an update called text truncation , which affects how marketing messages are displayed on the user’s chat screen if a marketing message exceeds 5 lines of text, the message will be temporarily truncated and a clickable ‘read more’ option will appear this will allow customers to view the full message if they choose a sample image reference with the user experience is shown below how does this impact your campaigns? optimizing the first 5 lines of your message is crucial, as these are most likely to be displayed, especially on a locked screen don’t hesitate to use more than 5 lines when necessary, but ensure you break up the content into clear sections, with no more than 3 4 sections for readability initially, this update applies to the ‘single image + text + click to action button(s)’ format of marketing messages and will gradually extend to all formats by mid october this change is aimed at improving the overall user experience while potentially boosting the click through rate (ctr) for your campaigns there are a few more updates to the template policies from meta feel free to check them and read more about them pause templates based on read rates /messaging apis/pause templates based on read rates to enhance template engagementtemplate re categorization /messaging apis/whatsapp template re categorization updates what you need to know with exotel’s solutions, you can effectively manage these updates and continue to build meaningful connections with your audience