- July 26,2026
- 22 days ago
Yes. Message samples matter during 10DLC campaign registration because they show reviewers what your business actually intends to send.
They are not example text added simply to complete another registration field.
Reviewers can compare your samples with the campaign use case, campaign description, brand identity, opt-in process, website, and other information in the submission. Bandwidth's current guidance says sample messages should align with the overall campaign description and should make the sender and use case understandable without additional research.
This means a campaign can have legitimate business information and a valid consent process and still run into vetting problems when its message samples tell a different story.
For businesses using TextTorrent's guided A2P 10DLC setup, message preparation should therefore happen before the registration is submitted. Teams planning bulk SMS campaigns should use samples that realistically represent the messages they expect to send after approval.
The issue is especially important in compliance-sensitive workflows. An insurance company sending policy updates, for example, should not submit samples that make the campaign look like unrelated lead-generation traffic. Similarly, an MCA business should make sure its samples, consent process, and declared messaging purpose describe the same workflow.
If you are new to the registration process, understanding why businesses need 10DLC provides useful context for why these details are reviewed.
The practical rule is simple:
Your message samples should look like realistic examples of the traffic the registered campaign will actually send.
A campaign description tells the reviewer what you say the program does.
Message samples show what that description looks like in practice.
Suppose your campaign description says:
We send appointment confirmations and reminders to customers who schedule appointments through our website.
Now consider this sample:
Great news! You may qualify for our newest offer. Apply today: [link]
The sample does not support the description.
It introduces promotional or lead-generation content into a campaign presented as appointment messaging.
Compare that with:
Northstar Dental: Hi [First Name], your appointment is scheduled for [Date] at [Time]. Reply YES to confirm or call [Phone] to reschedule. Reply STOP to opt out.
Now the campaign description and sample support each other.
Twilio's current 10DLC registration documentation similarly requires sample messages to reflect the campaign's content and relate to its campaign description.
That is why message samples matter: they help make the proposed traffic understandable and verifiable.
A strong sample usually answers several questions without requiring the reviewer to investigate the company.
The recipient should be able to recognize the sender.
Weak:
Your appointment is tomorrow at 2 PM.
Better:
Northstar Dental: Your appointment is tomorrow at 2 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
Bandwidth recommends identifying the sender through the brand or sender name, while Twilio's current registration guidance requires the brand to be identifiable in sample messages.
Do not assume the sending phone number provides sufficient context.
The purpose should be obvious from the content.
If you register an account-notification campaign, your samples should resemble account notifications.
If you register appointment reminders, show appointment reminders.
If you register marketing traffic, show realistic promotional messages.
A sample such as:
Hi [First Name], we have an update for you.
provides almost no useful information.
An operational sample is much clearer:
Northstar Auto: Hi [First Name], your vehicle service appointment is confirmed for [Date] at [Time]. Questions? Call [Phone]. Reply STOP to opt out.
The reviewer can immediately understand what kind of communication is expected.
Most business SMS campaigns use variables.
Names, dates, appointment times, order numbers, account information, and similar fields change between recipients.
Show those variables.
Twilio specifically recommends brackets to indicate templated information in campaign samples.
For example:
Acme Service: Hi [First Name], your appointment for [Service] is confirmed for [Date] at [Time]. Reply STOP to opt out.
This is more useful than submitting a fully generic message that hides how the production template will work.
Your samples should demonstrate appropriate opt-out handling.
Bandwidth recommends including opt-out language in at least one sample, while provider-specific submission requirements can be stricter. Twilio's current QuickStart, for example, instructs applicants to indicate an opt-out mechanism in every sample message.
A practical approach is to prepare samples with clear opt-out language rather than relying on the minimum possible disclosure.
For example:
Reply STOP to opt out.
The sample should also agree with the opt-out behavior described elsewhere in your registration.
This is where many avoidable problems begin.
Think of the submission as a chain:
Use Case → Campaign Description → Opt-In → Message Samples → Production Traffic
Each part should support the next.
Suppose an insurance agency selects a customer-care use case and describes its campaign as responding to existing policyholders.
A reasonable sample might be:
Northstar Insurance: Hi [First Name], we received your request regarding policy #[Policy Number]. An agent will follow up shortly. Reply STOP to opt out.
Now suppose the sample says:
Northstar Insurance: Get a new policy today and save 25%. Apply here: [URL]. Reply STOP to opt out.
That sample looks promotional.
Even if both messages could legitimately be sent by an insurance company, they do not necessarily represent the same messaging purpose.
The question is not:
"Could our company ever send this message?"
The better question is:
"Does this message belong to the campaign we are registering?"
That distinction prevents a lot of unnecessary ambiguity.
If your campaign genuinely covers multiple types of traffic, your samples should demonstrate that variety rather than hiding it.
For example, a mixed campaign could potentially include:
Transactional:
Acme: Your order #[Order Number] has shipped and is expected on [Date]. Reply STOP to opt out.
Customer support:
Acme Support: Your support request #[Ticket Number] has been updated. Reply to this message if you still need assistance. Reply STOP to opt out.
Promotional:
Acme: Our weekend sale starts Friday. Save 20% on selected products at [URL]. Reply STOP to opt out.
Telnyx's current guidance for mixed campaigns similarly recommends samples showing the different message types represented by the campaign and requires the opt-in and description to account for those categories.
Do not register narrow transactional traffic and then insert a promotional sample simply because you may want to market to the same customers later.
If marketing is part of the messaging program, the registration and consent process need to reflect that.
Examples such as:
Hello, this is a message from our company.
or:
We have an update for you.
tell the reviewer very little about the actual campaign.
Telnyx specifically warns against vague placeholder samples in its current campaign registration guidance.
Write the sample as though it were going to a real recipient tomorrow.
A message can make sense internally while being unclear to the person receiving it.
Your application has been updated.
Which application?
Which company?
A clearer version would be:
Northstar Funding: Hi [First Name], your business funding application #[Application ID] has been updated. Please log in at [URL] to review the status. Reply STOP to opt out.
Samples that contradict the campaign description
This is more serious than weak wording.
If the campaign says delivery notifications but the samples advertise discounts, the submission contains conflicting evidence.
Do not try to make the sample "sound compliant."
Make it accurately represent the declared campaign.
Using unrealistic placeholder content
Avoid:
Test message 1.
Sample promotional message.
This is where our appointment message goes.
The field is asking for representative messages, not labels describing future messages.
Ignoring links and phone numbers
If production messages will contain URLs or phone numbers, represent them appropriately in the samples.
TextTorrent’s 10DLC setup guidance similarly requires campaigns that will include links or phone numbers to include them in the message samples.
Links deserve additional care because they can receive greater scrutiny during review. Twilio notes that embedded links are examined because links are commonly abused in smishing.
Use domains connected to the actual business rather than inventing unrelated URLs.
Making every sample identical when the campaign is not
If your campaign sends appointment reminders, confirmations, rescheduling notices, and follow-ups, submitting several copies of one sentence does not accurately demonstrate the traffic.
Show meaningful variation.
For a genuinely single-template use case, duplication may be acceptable. Twilio explicitly notes that when only one message template is ever sent, such as certain OTP programs, the second required sample can duplicate the first.
Weak:
Reminder: appointment tomorrow.
Better:
Northstar Dental: Hi [First Name], your appointment is scheduled for [Date] at [Time]. Reply YES to confirm or call [Phone] to reschedule. Reply STOP to opt out.
The second example establishes the sender, purpose, variables, recipient action, and opt-out path.
Weak:
Your order is ready.
Better:
Acme Supply: Order #[Order Number] has shipped and is expected by [Date]. Track your delivery at [URL]. Reply STOP to opt out.
Weak:
Special deal! Click here now!
Better:
Acme Home: Save 15% on selected patio furniture through [Date]. Shop at [URL]. Reply STOP to opt out.
Weak:
You qualify! Get money now.
Better:
Northstar Funding: Hi [First Name], we're following up on the business funding request you submitted on [Date]. Reply here with questions or call [Phone]. Reply STOP to opt out.
The second version also makes an important distinction: it describes follow-up to a prior request rather than presenting an unexplained unsolicited offer.
That distinction should, of course, match the actual consent flow and campaign description.
Samples should be representative, but that does not mean every production message has to be a character-for-character copy.
Variables naturally change.
Teams may have several templates serving the same approved purpose.
For example:
Acme Dental: Your appointment is confirmed for [Date].
and:
Acme Dental: Reminder—your appointment is tomorrow at [Time].
can both represent the same appointment-reminder workflow.
The problem starts when the purpose changes.
If the approved campaign represents appointment reminders and the business later starts sending unrelated promotional offers, the issue is not that a few words changed. The nature of the traffic changed.
Registration should describe what the program actually sends.
Approval should not be treated as permission to repurpose a campaign for unrelated messaging.
Good samples can help a campaign pass vetting.
They do not guarantee that future messages will be delivered.
After approval, actual traffic is still subject to carrier filtering and messaging policies.
A campaign may have excellent registration samples and later experience filtering because production traffic introduces suspicious URLs, inconsistent content, poor consent practices, excessive complaints, or other risk signals.
TextTorrent's guidance on reducing carrier blocking explains why registration and live deliverability should be treated as related but separate operational problems.
The practical distinction is:
Registration samples answer: "What does this campaign intend to send?"
Production traffic answers: "What is this campaign actually sending?"
Both need to remain credible.
Before submitting the campaign, review every sample against these questions:
Does the sample identify the sender clearly?
Does it represent a message we actually expect to send?
Does it match the selected campaign use case?
Does it match the campaign description?
Would a recipient understand why they received it?
Does the sample appropriately demonstrate opt-out instructions?
Are variable fields clearly represented?
If we send links, are they represented appropriately?
If we send phone numbers, are they represented appropriately?
Do different samples show meaningful variations in our traffic?
Does the messaging agree with the consent process described in the application?
Would the samples still make sense if a reviewer knew nothing about our company?
If you cannot answer yes confidently, revise the samples before submission.
What If a Campaign Is Rejected Because of Message Samples?
Do not rewrite the samples in isolation.
First compare four things:
Selected use case
Campaign description
Opt-in flow
Message samples
Then identify where the story changes.
If the use case and description are correct but the samples are wrong, replace the samples with realistic examples.
If the samples accurately represent your intended traffic but conflict with the description, the description may be the problem.
If the samples reveal marketing content that the consent flow never mentions, changing a few words in the sample does not fix the underlying issue.
The goal is not to make the sample look safer than the campaign.
The goal is to make the entire registration accurately describe the same messaging program.
Message samples absolutely matter for 10DLC.
They help reviewers determine what recipients will actually receive and whether that traffic makes sense alongside the registered brand, selected use case, campaign description, and consent process.
Strong samples are specific.
They identify the sender.
They demonstrate the real messaging purpose.
They show variables where appropriate.
They include relevant opt-out instructions.
Most importantly, they agree with the rest of the submission.
Before registering a campaign, ask one final question:
If these sample messages were the only messages a reviewer saw, would they correctly understand what our campaign does?
If the answer is yes—and that interpretation also matches your use case, consent flow, website, and campaign description—the samples are doing their job.
