This guide serves as an essential toolkit for any marketing professional looking to diagnose bulk marketing campaign issues, resolve them effectively, and implement best practices to turn failures into a roadmap for future success and improved performance.
1 Triaging and Locating Failure Data: The First Step in Diagnosis
To resolve a campaign issue, you must first identify the scope of the problem. While all failure data is found at the campaign level, the specific location depends on the outcome:
Total Failure: If the campaign failed to send entirely, meaning no message was sent, the error reason is displayed directly on the campaign status page.
Partial Failure: If the campaign was sent but had a high failure rate, you must download the detailed report to view the specific failure reasons.
1.1. Understanding Total Failure of a bulk marketing campaign
Bulk marketing campaigns run a pre-send health check before being sent (immediate or scheduled). If this check fails, the campaign is marked as Failed and no messages are sent.
To identify the total failure reason for a bulk marketing campaign, just do the following:
Click the specific bulk campaign name from the bulk campaigns page
Locate and read the total failure reason listed in a red alert box.
Fully failed campaigns will show a clear failure reason in the campaign details (see screenshot below), which might be one of the following reasons:
Outstanding usage balance.
Channel not found / not active.
Facebook payment issue.
Template does not exist.
Template quality is low.
Unknown issue (unhandled exception).
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Export Report option has been removed from fully failed campaigns since no messages will be sent. You can understand the failure reason immediately when clicking the specific bulk campaign page. Fix the issue and then create a new bulk campaign, as the fully failed campaign will not be sent automatically after you've fixed the issue.
1.2. Understanding Partially failed bulk campaign report and reasons
For bulk marketing campaigns that failed partially, the platform provides a detailed performance report. Follow these steps to access it:
Navigate to the Bulk Marketing Campaigns section from the main dashboard.
Click on the specific campaign you wish to analyze.
Click on Export Campaign Data and select the Contacts Report.
You will receive an email with a summary of failure reasons and a link to download the report. See the Failure reasons summary from the email to understand why your campaign failed for some contacts.
Click Download report to get the full report.
Open it in an excel sheet and check which numbers received the campaign and which didn't
Note: if you couldn’t download the report file after opening the email, copy the link and paste it in an incognito tab, and a save request should pop up to save the file.
With the failure data and error codes in hand, the next step is to understand what they mean and how to act on them.
1.3. Understanding the Bulk Campaign Test message failure reason
When you send a test message before launching your bulk campaign to check how the message looks like, the message might fail to deliver due to different reasons.
To understand why you didn't receive the test message, follow these steps:
Go to the Contacts section in the BusinessChat paltform
Select the filter to look for a contact by phone number, and write the phone number you sent the test message to int he search box and click enter
Click on the serach result and you will be directed to the conversation.
Locate the test message you sent, you should see an error message next to an exclamation mark under the message
Get the error code to understand the reason, against the documented Meta error codes.
2.0 Decoding Failure Reasons: A Categorized Analysis
Bulk marketing campaign failures are rarely random; they typically fall into distinct categories. By understanding these categories, and understand how to handle each caseو from the downloaded campaign summary or report you will be able to see the failure reasons, which are referred to using error codes.
2.1 Technical Delivery Failures: Meta and WhatsApp Error Codes
When a bulk campaign messages fail to send to some contatcs, WhatsApp often provides a specific error code. This code is the key to understanding the technical reason for the failure and its corresponding solution.
From the failure reasons summary you recieved in the email with the campaign report, you will be able to see a reasons why your campaign failed. Those include the following:
Note: There's no need to look for each contact individually.
Error Code and explanation | Reason for Failure (Why?) | Recommended Solution |
131026 Message Undeliverable: Recipient is not a WhatsApp number, hasn't accepted TOS, or uses an old app version. | The recipient cannot receive the message. This may be because their number is not a valid WhatsApp number, they have not accepted the latest Terms of Service, or they are using an outdated version of the app. | You cannot control this issue and those contacts will not receive marketing messages even if you try again. |
131000 Something went wrong: Message failed to send due to an unknown error. | An unknown error occurred during the sending process. | The issue is likely temporary. Attempt to send the message again. |
131042 Business eligibility payment issue: Error related to payment method, credit line, or suspended account. | There is an issue with the payment method on the WhatsApp Business account. | Check your billing and payment settings in your Facebook Business Manager and settle any outstanding invoices. |
132015 Template is Paused: Template paused due to low quality. | The template has been paused by WhatsApp due to low-quality signals, such as being reported or blocked by users. | Create a new template and try sending the campaign again to failed contacts. |
132016 Template is Disabled: Template permanently disabled due to repeated low quality. | The template has been permanently disabled after being repeatedly paused for low quality. | The template cannot be used again. You must create a new template with improved content. |
130472 User's number is part of an experiment: Message was not sent as part of an experiment. | The user's number is part of an experiment and cannot receive the message. | Contact the customer through another channel. This user can only receive Utility message. |
131048 Spam rate limit hit: Your WhatsApp number has messaging restrictions due to a history of being marked as spam or you have exceeded your daily sending limit (tier limit). | The spam rate limit has been reached. This is because you've exceeded the daily sending limit. | Check your WhatsApp number's daily sending limit in your WhatsApp Manager or BusinessChat dashboard. |
131049 Meta chose not to deliver: Message blocked to maintain ecosystem health (too many marketing messages). | Meta has chosen not to deliver the message. This can happen if a user has already received multiple marketing messages from any business on the same day. | Try sending the campaign message to those contacts after 24 hours. |
2.2 Account and Configuration Issues
Payment Problems:
If there are outstanding invoices on your WhatsApp Business account or your BusinessChat subscription, you will be blocked from launching new campaigns. Ensure all accounts are in good financial standing before sending.
Exceeding Daily Sending Limits:
WhatsApp imposes tiered daily limits on the number of unique customers a business can message within a 24-hour period (e.g., 1,000, 10,000, 100,000). If a campaign targets a list of customers larger than your current daily limit, all messages sent after the limit is reached will fail.
Poor WhatsApp Number Quality:
WhatsApp rates your number's quality as Green (High), Yellow (Medium), or Red (Low) based on customer feedback like blocks and reports. A 'Low' quality rating can lead to a 'Suspended' or 'Restricted' status, which prevents you from sending messages and causes campaign failures.
2.3 What to do after fixing a payment or limit issue
Once you have resolved the underlying issue—such as successfully paying an outstanding Meta invoice or waiting for a tier limit reset—it is important to understand that failed messages will not automatically resend. In the BusinessChat system, a "Failed" status is terminal for that specific campaign attempt.
To reach the customers who did not receive your message:
Do not check Automation Logs: Bulk campaign delivery data is not recorded in automation logs; you must use the campaign-specific Contacts Report.
Manual Relaunch Required: You must identify the failed contacts from your report, prepare a new CSV file, and launch a fresh campaign.
Smart Sending Shortcut: Alternatively, you can relaunch the campaign to the same original list while ensuring Smart Sending is enabled. This feature will automatically skip anyone who successfully received a message recently, effectively targeting only those who previously failed.
2.4 Content and Template Violations
The content of your messages and the structure of your templates are critical. Violating WhatsApp's policies in this area is a common source of failure.
Low-Quality Template:
If a template consistently receives negative feedback from customers (reports or blocks), WhatsApp may first pause it (Error 132015). If the negative feedback continues, the template can be permanently disabled (Error 132016), causing any campaign that relies on it to fail. In this case, some of the contacts will receive the campaign message, but once the template gets paused, the rest of the contacts won’t receive the message.
3. Solutions for failed bulk campaigns based on the data you get from the reports
All failed messages due to an issue with the recipient’s phone number are not solvable, as you have no control over the contacts’ phone numbers or devices. So there’s no need to resend the campaign to them.
All failed messages due to the contact’s phone number being part of an experiment have no solution, as Meta has blocked these numbers from receiving marketing messages for an undetermined time. So there’s no need to resend the campaign to them.
All messages that failed due to a WhatsApp payment or Tier limit threshold have a solution. You need to filter those contacts, upload them again to the BusinessChat account, and send the campaign to them after you’ve confirmed you've paid the WhatsApp payment and that you have enough funds on the card for the new campaign. However, if the issue is the tier limit, you need to wait 24 hours for it to reopen, then you can resend the campaign.
All failed messages due to the Meta error "maintain a healthy ecosystem" are solvable. Filter those contacts and send them the campaign after at least 24 hours. However, note that there will always be a failure rate, as this specific error counts all marketing messages from other stores, not just yours.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Whether a campaign fails completely or partially, it will not restart automatically once the issue is fixed. You must identify the failed contacts and launch a new manual campaign to reach them.