If you’re responsible for overseeing the text messaging PNL at your company, you’re likely finalizing your planning and budget for the New Year right now. In uncertain economic times, it can feel critical to strike the right balance between nice-to-haves (e.g. improved message deliverability, better reporting from your provider, a less manual registration process) and must-haves (e.g. lower costs for sending and receiving messages, solutions for Carrier challenges like blockages on T-Mobile) – whatever most impacts the bottom line rises to the top of the list. However, auditing your A2P texting tech stack is a critical component of budget planning and revenue forecasting as your partners play a big role in hitting your goals.

With all the changes in the A2P market this year, knowing that you are getting the best product and service at the most competitive price from your provider can be confusing. We’ve found that many red flags are perceived as ‘the norm’ in the industry, making shopping around or optimizing your process seem impossible or even worse, unnecessary.

Here’s our guide to help you master finding the right messaging API provider for the best price – putting you on your way to cutting costs and boosting your ROI in 2023.

Are You Aware of These Red Flags with Your Current API Provider?

Mediocre or even poor A2P messaging performance is often overlooked as businesses assume it’s hitting normal standards. To be perfectly clear, if you’ve experienced low deliverability or blockages, paid high pass-through fees due to compliance issues, or didn’t receive enough transparency from your API provider this year, your ROI is taking a hit (and it doesn’t have to!).

We know the thought of doing a deep dive into your API provider and messaging performance is daunting. But the reality is, addressing the red flags you may or may not have recognized with your current API provider will actually save your bottom line immensely in the long run.

If your provider is not offering you answers to the following issues, replacing them should be the topic of conversation in your next planning and budgeting meeting:

• Addressing low deliverability or blocked messages. With the right partner, you could be receiving 100% message deliverability, meaning anything below that is subpar. If you've experienced low (or delayed) message deliverability and your provider can't explain why, it’s time to shop around. Additionally, if your provider has error codes on their website for issues they are responsible for managing such as “exceeding T-Mobile daily limits”, you should question why they haven’t invested in long-term solutions for critical issues.
• Advising you on industry changes. Your provider should be advising you on the changing landscape and benefits of migrating your toll-free or short code traffic to 10-digit long code (10DLC) numbers. 10DLC is much cheaper and just as effective as toll-free (all inbound messages are free!), but not all providers are making their customers aware of this, resulting in businesses missing out on savings due to a lack of information and guidance.
• Addressing high pass-through fees. With the ever-changing A2P regulations, if you’re running 10DLC traffic and your provider hasn’t advised you to register and offered guidance or support, they may not have your best interest in mind. Sending compliant messaging will reduce your pass-through fees by up to 4X, saving your budget in the long run. Unregistered traffic can also lead to heavier filtering and more blockages – yikes.
• Timely customer service. This seems obvious, but being able to get someone on the phone 1:1 when there is an issue to address quickly is a must. Each minute, hour, and day of shutdown is costing you money throwing off your 2023 plans.
• Simple and easy reporting. Does your provider supply you with easy reporting to ensure you’re maximizing your messaging deliverability? If you’re delivering to numbers that are out of service, turned off, or out of cell range, your provider shouldn’t just be cashing in (many charges for sending these messages) but helping to address the root cause and help you make adjustments so you aren’t wasting your budget.

Where to Check for These Red Flags

If messaging is a core part of your business, you should be constantly monitoring these items to ensure you're spending efficiently to boost your SMS & MMS ROI:

• Check your bill and review ‘payment per message’ monthly
• Check for Carrier pass-through fees: if your pass-through fees are above $0.002, you're overpaying likely due to being unregistered.

Expensive A2P messaging bills without clear deliverability reporting should never be the norm.

Schedule a consultation with one of our A2P experts to learn more about how Telgorithm can support you in reducing messaging costs, proactively solving for industry changes, and achieving 100% message deliverability for maximized ROI.