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The rule

The template that opens the conversation must be a utility template: strictly transactional, echoing what the visitor just submitted. No offers, no discounts, no promotional language, and no purchase call to action. You configure and submit this template yourself, and getting it approved is a prerequisite for going live.

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Why, and why it is not a style preference

Meta classifies templates by their content, not by the category you select. A template it reclassifies as MARKETING stops being deliverable under the same conditions — it begins failing with error 131049, which does not announce itself. Your sends simply stop arriving.
That silence is the whole problem. A rejected template is obvious; a reclassified one is not. Keeping the first message strictly transactional is what keeps it working, which is why this reads as protection rather than paperwork.

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The line, shown rather than described

Compliant — it acknowledges an action the person just took and offers nothing:
Not compliant — same opening, but the second sentence turns it into an advertisement:
The difference is not tone or length. It is whether the message exists to confirm something the person did, or to sell them something they did not ask for.

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Practical guidance

  • Echo the specifics the visitor gave you. A message that repeats their enquiry reads as transactional because it is.
  • Do not include prices, promotions, urgency, or a call to action to buy.
  • Do not use the first message to introduce products they did not ask about.
  • Once the person replies, you are in a normal conversation and these constraints no longer apply. The restriction is on the message that opens it.