Meta sometimes reclassifies a utility template as marketing after it has been approved. When this happens, your automation flow stops delivering correctly and the affected templates may not go through since marketing messages are subject to per-user marketing limitations and may not get delivered 100% of the time. You also get charged the marketing rates instead of utility.
Here is what to do.
Step 1: Appeal the Category Change from Inside Spur
You do not need to go to Meta directly. You can kick off the appeal right from the affected template in Spur.
Go to Marketing Tools in the left sidebar
Click Message Templates
Find the affected template. It will now show Marketing next to its name instead of Utility
Open the template and click Appeal Category at the top
You will see a pop-up that warns you that appeals only work if the reclassification was genuinely a mistake. Read it, then click I Understand, Proceed to Appeal.
Step 2: Submit the Review Request
After you click through, you will be taken to the Business Support Home inside Meta Business Manager, specifically to the Template Category Updates section.
Here you will see a list of templates that are available for review. Find your affected template, check the box next to it, and click Request Review.
You will see a green toast at the bottom right of the screen that says Successfully submitted appeal.
Step 3: Wait for Meta's Decision
Once submitted, the template moves to the In Review tab. You can check back here to see the status.
Meta will either reverse the decision or uphold it.
If they reverse it, the template moves to the Reversed tab and its status goes back to Approved. At that point it is good to go. You do not need to change anything in your flow; the template is unrestricted again and will deliver at the utility rate.
If they uphold it, move to Step 4.
Step 4: Create a New Template with Drier Language
If the appeal does not work, you need to write a new template and swap it into your flow.
The reason Meta reclassifies templates is pretty simple: people talk a certain way when they are trying to sell you something. Words like "Hey!", "Enjoy your order", "We are so excited", or even just a vaguely warm tone trip Meta's system into flagging the message as promotional. It does not matter that you were not trying to sell anything. The language pattern alone is enough.
So the new template needs to be deliberately robotic.
What to do:
No greetings. No warmth. No exclamations.
State only the facts: order ID, status, amount, tracking link.
Write the shortest version that still gives the customer what they need.
"Your order #12345 has been shipped. Track here: [link]" is good. "Hey! Great news, your order is on its way!" is not.
If you want to include any promotional content, attach it as an image after the template is approved. Meta scans the text body at submission time, not attachments.
Once the new template is approved under Utility, go into your flow, find the step that was using the old template, swap it out, fill in the same trigger attributes in the same variable spaces as before and save the workflow.
Things to Note
The reclassified template does not get deleted. It keeps sending, but at the marketing rate.
It gets delivered to fewer people because of per-user marketing limits of your individual recipients
This does not affect your WhatsApp number or account in any other way.
If your appeal gets reversed, you do not need to do anything else. Just leave your flow as is.