Template variables and buttons

What a variable is

A variable is a gap in a template that is filled in for each person when the message is sent. It is written between double braces: {{name}}, or {{1}}. In “Hi {{name}}, your order is ready”, every customer reads their own name.

The body can have several variables, the header one, the footer none. You write them in step 2 of the window that creates a template: see Create a template.

Add a variable

1. Choose how variables are written, under Type of variable.

   Name writes a word that says what the gap is for, such as {{name}}. Number writes Meta’s numbered form, {{1}}, {{2}}. Both work the same when the message is sent; names are easier to read.

2. Click in the body where the variable goes, then click Add variable under it.

   With Name, a list opens under What should go here?. Pick a line and it is typed where your cursor is. With Number, the next number is typed at once.

   

3. Give a sample for it under Variable samples.

   See Samples below.

• Under those five, the list has one line for each custom field your contacts carry, such as a Budget column you imported, written as {{budget}}.
• You can also type a variable yourself: two opening braces, a name made of letters, digits and underscores, two closing braces. {{order_number}} is a variable.
• A name used twice in the body is one variable: it is filled with the same value in both places.
• The header takes one variable. Once it has one, the Add variable under the header does nothing more.
• A variable’s name only says what the gap is for. What goes into it is chosen when the template is sent: see How variables are filled.

Samples

Meta’s reviewer reads the finished sentence, not the gaps. So every variable needs a sample: an example of what will be in it.

• As soon as the header or the body has a variable, a box for it appears under Variable samples. A named variable is labelled in words with its variable beside it; a numbered one asks you to enter content for it. Remove the variable and its box goes.
• Type a realistic example, up to 120 characters: a first name, an order number, a date. Do not use a real customer’s details.
• The phone on the right shows your samples in the message, and so do the cards of the Templates screen.
• A template cannot go to Meta without a sample for every variable. A draft can be saved without them.

What the app checks

Meta rejects a template for a handful of faults in its variables. The app refuses them when you save, with a sentence at the top of the window. These sentences call a variable a placeholder, and are shown in English.

The app also holds each box to Meta’s length: 60 characters for the header and for the footer, 1,024 for the body, 120 for a sample. A counter in the header, the body and the footer shows how much is used.

How variables are filled when the template is sent

The values are given where the template is sent from: in a campaign and in a workflow’s step Send templates, under Fill in the blanks. Each variable of the body has a box there.

• Pick a contact field from the box’s list, and every person receives their own: their name, their first name, their number, their email, their language, or one of your custom fields.
• Or type words, and everybody receives the same: a date, an address, the name of an offer.
• A contact who has no value for a field you picked, for example no name, is not sent a message with a hole in it. They are skipped, and the campaign’s results say which value was missing.

See Create a campaign and Workflow steps for the screens themselves.

Buttons

A template can carry up to 10 buttons under its message. A phone shows up to three; with more, it shows the first two and See all options, which opens the list.

1. In step 2, under Buttons, click Add button.

   A menu opens with the four kinds of button. A kind is greyed out once the template has as many of it as Meta allows.

   

2. Choose a kind, then fill in its boxes.

   Quick replies are always listed first, then the calls to action: Meta refuses them mixed. The preview shows each button as you type.

   

3. To take a button away, click the bin at the end of its row.

• Two buttons cannot have the same text. The window says so under the second one as you type.
• A button left half filled stops Next: finish it or remove it.
• An Authentication template has one button only, the one that copies the code.

The opt-out footer

A marketing message has to tell people how to stop receiving it. So a new Marketing template opens with Reply STOP to opt out in its Footer.

• You can replace the line with your own words. If you leave the footer empty, the app puts the line back when the template is saved.
• The line is in English whatever the template’s language. In an Arabic or a French template, write it in that language, and keep a word the app recognises as a request to stop: see How a contact opts out.
• Changing the category from Marketing to another one takes the line away, unless you had changed it. Utility and Authentication templates have no footer by default.
• For a one-tap way out, add a Custom button whose text is Stop. A customer who taps it sends that word, and is opted out.

Questions