To start a conversation with a customer via the WhatsApp Business API, you can use a WhatsApp template. This is a pre-approved message you submit and has to be approved by Meta before you are able to send it to a customer.
When creating a template in Trengo, Meta will ask you to categorise the template into one of three existing categories. This help center article will explain everything you need to know about these categories.
WhatsApp template categories
From April 1st, 2023, Meta will request you to categorise newly made templates in one of the following three categories.
🔘 Utility conversations: Business-initiated conversations for which customers have opted into, facilitating a specific, agreed-upon request or transaction, or update to a customer about an ongoing transaction, including post-purchase notifications and recurring billing statements.
🔘 Authentication conversations: Business-initiated conversations for which customers have opted into, enabling businesses to authenticate users with one-time passwords, potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery).
🔘 Marketing conversations: Business-initiated conversations for which customers have opted in to, that may include promotions or offers, informational updates like a back-in-stock alert, or invitations for customers to respond or take action. A marketing conversation is any conversation that does not qualify as utility or authentication.
ℹ️ You do not have to take any action in regard to the categorising your already existing templates. These will be re-categorised automatically.
Pricing per category
From June 1st, 2023, Meta will adopt a new pricing model, where the price of sending a business-initiated template differs per category. The exact rates can be found in Meta’s rate cards.
ℹ️ The costs for sending WhatsApp templates will be deducted from your Trengo balance.
For more information on WhatsApp template categories and pricing by Meta, feel free to visit Meta’s ‘Updates to conversation-based pricing’ page.
