How long it takes
About a 2-minute read.
Three things happen in order: brand verification, campaign review, then attaching numbers. Here are realistic ranges, not best-case marketing numbers.
Brand verification
Usually minutes to a few hours. If the business name you enter matches the IRS record exactly, the brand verifies quickly.
If something doesn't match: 1-3 business days. Almost always a legal-name mismatch (a DBA used instead of the name on the EIN letter) or an EIN too new to be in the IRS lookup yet. Fix an Unverified brand covers both.
Campaign review
After the brand is verified, you submit a campaign. AgentMessage files it with the registry and the carriers review it.
Standard use cases (marketing, account notifications, 2FA, customer care, delivery alerts, and the rest of the dropdown):
- Clean submissions are often approved the same day, sometimes within an hour or two.
- Typical end to end: same day to 2 business days.
Use cases that need carrier sign-off (charity, political, emergency services, and similar, these aren't self-serve today; see Pick a use case):
- The carriers review these manually. Plan for 1-4 weeks depending on the use case and queue.
If a campaign is rejected, the clock restarts once you fix the issue. The most common problems, a vague description, samples that don't match the use case, a privacy policy missing the SMS-sharing language, are usually a same-day fix once you know what to change. See How rejections work.
Attaching phone numbers
Once the campaign is fully approved, attaching a number takes minutes. The one catch: you have to wait for full approval, not just the initial registry acceptance. Attaching too early fails until approval completes. See Phone number problems.
End to end
For a typical first program with a clean submission and a standard use case:
- Best case: brand and campaign live within a few hours.
- Realistic: 1-3 business days.
- Carrier-reviewed use cases or a first rejection: plan for 1-3 weeks.
How to keep it fast
- Get the details right the first time, read Gather these before you start before you open the form.
- Read Write a CTA that passes before drafting your campaign. CTA and opt-in problems cause most rejections.
- Publish your privacy policy and terms on a live URL before you submit. Reviewers visit them.