Running Ads on Facebook is one of the nightmares people face due to the ever changing policies of Facebook. Not strictly adhering to the policies only means one thing – the Ads gets rejected and at times, the account gets restricted from running ads. Any ad that follows all the rules and looks professional enough for publication receives a green “Active” message next to it, meaning it has been approved to start running. However, a red message tells you that the ads has been rejected because the automated Facebook review system flagged your ad for violating its rules.
There are many reasons your ads can be rejected according to Facebook’s policies which are basically in two categories – restricted or prohibited. Kindly know that all rejected Facebook Ads include details about why they were rejected in the first place.
Use of Restricted content
The restricted contents occur when advertisers don’t follow Facebook’s Advertising Standards or other policies and terms, they may face advertising restrictions.
However, you will need to make sure that you follow the rules related to that specific restriction. This is usually based on the area you are living or advertising to.
Common examples of restricted ads content are:
- Use of many text on ads image of video content
- Ads About Social Issues, Elections or Politics
- Ads that are too specific to an individual: the use of ‘your’ or ‘name of people’ in ads.
- Improper grammar, using ALL CAPS, and substituting numbers 4 letters.
- Improper copyright usage of images and videos.
- Unrealistic claims or promises just to get the audience to click on your ads.
- Display URL doesn’t match the destination page.
Other restricted content examples:
Alcohol, Dating, Gambling & Gaming, Subscription Services, Branded Content.
2. Use of Prohibited Content
Prohibited contents are contents that are not allowed at all on Facebook. These contents automatically get your ads or even page a ban from Facebook. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to solve this one.
Here are some Prohibited content examples:
Illegal Products or Services, Discriminatory Practices, Tobacco and Related Products, Unsafe substances (illicit or recreational drugs, regardless of state or country legality), Weapons, Ammunition, or Explosives, Misleading Claims, Multi-Level Marketing (MLMs), etc.
Discriminatory Practices
Facebook ads are prohibited from discriminating against individuals or groups of people. According to Facebook’s guidelines, “Ads are discriminatory when they deny opportunities to individuals or groups of people based on certain personal attributes such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family/marital status, disability or medical or genetic condition.”
What to do if your ad is rejected due to restrictions
A rejected ad isn’t the end of the road for advertisers. There are procedures put in place to get the ads running again.
Create a new ad or edit your ad
The first thing to do is to create a new ad or edit the affected ad to comply with Facebook’s policies. Facebook will treat the ads as new ads and freshly reviewed to see if the right corrections have been made.
Request another review
If you believe that your ads ad account was incorrectly rejected or restricted, you can request a review of the decision in the Account Quality section of your Ads manager. According to Facebook, requesting another review of our decision will not hurt your standing with our company in any way.
Disabaled Ads Account
After repeated ad violations, the next common thing is to see Facebook ban your entire ad account. This is because Facebook deems accounts that are known for repeated violations a ‘risk to their platform and image’. Therefore you should endure to follow all laid down policies by Facebook or contract your ads job to an experienced digital marketer.
Should your account be banned, you can also request a review of our ad account ban. To do so, head over to the account quality page and select the ad account that has been banned.
Contact Facebook support directly.
If you find that you didn’t get the results you liked during your appeal or haven’t seen an outcome from it at all, you can also reach out to Facebook directly – although this isn’t an easy thing to do and it is time & effort consuming.
To do this, head over to the Facebook Business Support page; scroll all the way down to the bottom and you’ll see a form to contact their support team directly: