Review generation templates control the design and content of the email and SMS invitations sent to customers. Yext provides several built-in templates to get you started quickly. You can also customize existing templates or create your own.
View and Manage Templates
Navigate to Reviews > Generation > Templates to view your invitation templates. Each template has four associated invitation types shown as tabs:
- Email Request: the initial invitation email
- Email Follow-up: an optional reminder email for recipients who have not yet left a review
- Email Response: sent after a review is submitted
- Text Message Request: the SMS invitation
Each template has a Template ID shown below its name. When sending invitations in bulk, you can specify a Template ID to use a particular template for that send. One template is designated as the default and is used whenever no Template ID is specified.
To set a template as the default, click the three dots in the top right corner of the template in the left sidebar and select Set as Default.
Preview a Template
Select a template and choose an entity and language at the top of the preview panel to see how the invitation will appear for that entity. For email templates, you can preview both desktop and mobile views. For text message templates, select an entity and country.
Configure Email Follow-Up
Each template can be configured to send automatic follow-up emails to recipients who have not yet left a review after receiving the initial invitation.
To configure follow-up emails for a template:
- Select the template from the left sidebar.
- Click the Email Follow-up tab.
- Toggle on Enable Follow-up Emails.
- Set the maximum number of follow-up emails (up to three) and the number of days before follow-ups begin.
- Click Save.
- Click Edit Template to customize the follow-up email content.
Customize a Template
To create a new template, scroll to the bottom of the template list and click Add Custom Template. To customize an existing template, click the three dots next to it and select Duplicate, then edit the copy.
There are two ways to customize a template:
Edit with AI: click Edit with AI and provide instructions describing the changes you want — tone, design, brand colors, or other preferences. Click Apply Edits to update the template.
Edit the code directly: click Edit Template to reveal the HTML. Edit the HTML to customize the template as needed. All available embedded fields are listed in the Template Glossary in the right sidebar. Use CTRL+F to search for a field by name and copy the parameter.
When referencing embedded fields in custom templates, use the format {{tag.[[field ID]]}}. For example, {{tag.review_submission_url}} for the built-in review submission URL field, or {{tag.c_customField}} for a custom field.
To link customers to a review submission page in the template, use one of the following:
- Review Balancing URL (recommended): use the parameter
{{tag.review_submission_url}}. This directs customers based on your review balancing algorithm. - Specific publisher: use
{{tag.review_submission_url_PUBLISHER}}, replacing PUBLISHER with the publisher's API name. For example,{{tag.review_submission_url_googlemybusiness}}for Google Business Profile.
Use Review Distributions
If you want to automatically split invitations across multiple templates — for example, sending 70% using one template and 30% using another — create a review distribution.
To create a distribution:
- Navigate to Reviews > Generation > Templates.
- Click View Distributions.
- Click + Create a New Distribution and enter a name.
- Click Edit Distribution.
- Click + Add Destination and select a template.
- Adjust the sliders to set the percentage of invitations each template should receive. The total must equal 100%.
- Click Save.
When sending invitations, specify the Distribution ID instead of a Template ID to use the distribution.