After WhatsApp became the first messaging application in the world with over 2 billion users and more than 100 billion messages sent daily, marketers turned to utilize this platform, specifically WhatsApp Business, which is used by 200 million monthly active users, to leverage its countless marketing features.

In conjunction with companies and brands having accounts on WhatsApp Business, it became easy for impersonators to pose as these companies and promote both legal and illegal activities under their name, and it has become easy to undermine customer confidence in companies. until the green WhatsApp Business account verification mark came to restore trust and credibility, distinguishing genuine accounts and protecting users from fraud and scams.

In this blog, you will discover the importance of WhatsApp verification, the key criteria and requirements for verification, and whether all business accounts on WhatsApp can obtain verification or not!

Table of content:

• What is the Green tick Badge for Verifying WhatsApp Business Accounts? To whom is it given?
• What are the benefits Benefits of Verifying Your WhatsApp Business Account?
• What are the conditions and requirements for WhatsApp Business Verification ?
• Recommendations to Increase Your Chances of obtaining WhatsApp Verification

What is the Green tick Badge for Verifying WhatsApp Business Accounts? To whom is it given?

The green tick badge is a symbol granted by the WhatsApp Business platform free of charge to companies and brands. It is placed next to the company name and its logo. This badge indicates that WhatsApp has verified that the phone number requesting verification belongs to the official account of the original brand. Therefore, the green badge is more than just a symbol; it's a key to recognition and authentication of your business activity by the Meta platform. It allows users to identify your brand's official account, ensuring direct communication without falling into the trap of interacting with fake accounts impersonating your brand. This enhances your brand's reputation, professionalism, reliability, and strengthens the trust relationship between your brand and your customers.

However, it's important to note that the green tick badge is not granted to any WhatsApp business account. It's essential to distinguish between two types of business accounts on WhatsApp, namely WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API, and here's the difference:

WhatsApp Business Account (Regular): Suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, offering limited communication features such as business profiles, message templates, quality quick replies, and chat categorization for organizing conversations. While these accounts can apply for verification and authentication, it's not guaranteed, because first it must complete the verification and authentication process for your Meta Business account, then you can apply to verify your WhatsApp Business account.

WhatsApp Official Business Account (WhatsApp API): This account is suitable for large companies, businesses, brands, and institutions with a massive customer base, dealing with significant numbers of messages daily, and continuously seeking to expand their communication scope with customers. The WhatsApp Business API account comes with advanced features such as full automation, integration with external systems like chatbots and customer service, and linking with e-commerce platforms and shipping companies. This type of WhatsApp Business account is prepared for easy verification by WhatsApp.

What are the benefits Benefits of Verifying Your WhatsApp Business Account?

As we've confirmed, the green tick badge isn't just a symbolic star placed next to your brand name or an attempt to keep up with social media account updates. Rather, the verification process comes with numerous benefits that greatly impact your business activity. The most important advantages include:

Official Recognition of Your Brand: Once WhatsApp verifies your account and grants you the verification badge, it signifies official recognition of your business activity on social media accounts, preventing any fraud or misrepresentation of your brand identity.

Increased Visibility Opportunities: A verified account easily appears in search results, increasing your chances of visibility. This raises awareness of your brand and attracts more new customers, enhancing your global presence.

 Enhanced Credibility and Trust: As mentioned earlier, the green tick badge adds credibility and formality to your business activity, making you a trusted and secure entity for your customers in buying and selling transactions. This encourages them to open and interact with your messages at all times.

Access to Advanced Features: Official accreditation from WhatsApp grants you advantages not available to regular WhatsApp Business accounts, such as fewer restrictions on the number of bans the account receives, displaying your company name instead of the phone number, which helps your customers easily remember your brand identity. Also, verified companies can fully benefit from WhatsApp Business tools without limitations on these features.

Boosting Your Marketing Strategy: You can use your verified WhatsApp Business account for marketing purposes, such as sending promotional messages to an unlimited number of customers or executing targeted advertising campaigns for specific customer segments.

Improving Business Efficiency: Verifying your WhatsApp Business account streamlines customer support and response processes by facilitating access to automation features that enhance efficiency and organization.

Competitive Edge: The green verification badge gives your business a competitive edge over competitors in the market, gaining customer trust in your activity, providing 24/7 customer service, and simplifying support operations. Surely, these will enhance your brand reputation and distinguish your company from others.

What are the conditions and requirements for WhatsApp Business Verification ?

While obtaining verification for a WhatsApp Business account isn't overly complex and doesn't require many conditions and procedures, there are some requirements outlined by WhatsApp Business for companies that seek to verify their accounts to obtain the Green Tick Badge. Verification isn't achieved through payment like other verification badges, but rather by fulfilling these conditions to acquire the badge. These criteria can be summarized as follows:

1. Registering an account on the WhatsApp Business platform (API) . To complete this step smoothly, you'll need a WhatsApp Business API service provider like Seen.

2. Verifying your business within "Meta Business Manager".

3. Activating "two-factor authentication" to enhance account security.

4. The entity seeking verification must be a company with official documents proving its business activity and formal presence in the market, not an individual or a public figure's account.

5. Your WhatsApp Business account must comply with WhatsApp's policies, usage standards, and privacy guidelines.

6. The information provided to WhatsApp must be accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with the data on your other platforms and accounts.

7. Your brand must be recognizable and have a strong online presence, easily visible in search engines.

8. It's important to have used your WhatsApp Business account for a period and have a good track record of interaction with customers.

9. Achieving at least Level 2 of messaging levels, meaning sending at least 1,000 messages daily to demonstrate to WhatsApp that you're effectively using the platform to grow your business.

10. Avoiding having your business activity fall under WhatsApp's list of prohibitions, including (drugs, tobacco, gambling, alcohol, weapons and ammunition, digital currencies, dating services, unlicensed medical products or services, adult products or services, and live animal trading).

If you meet these requirements, you can easily apply for verification and await approval, which usually takes from two work days to a maximum of three weeks. If the application is rejected due to not meeting any of the above criteria or if your account is in its early stages and hasn't gained sufficient trust from WhatsApp's management, you can submit another request after the waiting period, which is 30 days from the date of rejection.

Recommendations to Increase Your Chances of obtaining WhatsApp Verification

After adhering to WhatsApp Business Platform standards, there are a few recommendations and tips worth following to ensure you obtain the green badge swiftly as quickly as possible.

1. Use an Official Email Address

Utilizing an official email address bearing your brand name for verification requests, rather than your website's email address, adds professionalism and credibility to your request. This official email should also be used when verifying  your business on Meta Business as well.

2. Enter the Display Name Correctly

Ensure that the display name of your brand on WhatsApp is accurately and consistently aligned with your brand name across other digital platforms. This avoids confusion with WhatsApp's management. Also, make sure the name complies with WhatsApp's standards and policies. Meta has provided standards and conditions for entering the display name during the verification process, which you can access here.

3. Build a Strong Online Presence

Part of WhatsApp's evaluation of your business activity involves measuring your brand's popularity and reputation, as well as how your target audience engages with it. Therefore, it's recommended to work on promoting and showcasing your brand across search engines and social media channels before taking the step of WhatsApp Business verification account.