Getting your Facebook ads right and creating effective campaigns takes careful planning, copywriting, design work, and targeting. However, after submitting your lovingly-crafted ads for review, you may find they don’t get approved. And even after your ads get the green light, they can still get disapproved and paused at a later date.

Facebook unlike other social media platforms requires advertisers to submit each ad for review and must be approved before it can be published and released into the wild. In fact, if you’ve ever published a Facebook ad, you’re already familiar with the process – and you may have bumped into disapproval.

Unfortunately, Facebook disapproving ads have become a regular occurrence – especially for the financial services industry. So don’t panic and don’t get annoyed. Dealing with Facebook’s disapproval doesn’t have to be hard.

In this article, you’ll learn how disapproved Facebook ad works, the Facebook ad review process, how it works, common causes for ads to be disapproved, how to handle a Facebook ad appeal, and best practices for how your business can avoid ad disapproval.

Disapproved Ads vs. Disabled Ads Account

To start, it’s crucial to find out the difference between disapproved ads vs. disabled ad accounts, two of the biggest scares when managing Facebook ads. Many advertisers confuse these two concepts.

As the name suggests, disapproved ads are individual ads that are flagged down immediately or after running for some time because of one reason or another. You may have one or multiple ads disapproved, but that doesn’t mean your ads account has been disabled.

On the other hand, a disabled account results from repeated Facebook ad violations, or at times, highly negative feedback on your ads account.

Why Was My Facebook Ad Account Disabled?

Don’t panic! We’ll figure this out together!

Many advertisers claim that they got banned from Facebook for no reason, but this rarely happens. Facebook disables ads for one reason or another.

You’ll need to find out what you might have done wrong, so you don’t repeat it in the future (if it was your fault).

Your ad account can get banned because of your ads, or “suspicious” activity on your account. You can read the entire list of advertising policies here.

1. Overspending: Facebook wants to avoid spamming users, so you can’t spend exorbitant amounts of money on your ads all at once, especially when you have a new ad account.

We advise you to scale your daily budget up by less than 5%-15% until you’ve reached your advertising goals. 

2. Logging in from different IP addresses: Facebook may associate this with online fraud. If you log in to your Ads Manager using a different device, Facebook may consider this “suspicious” if it’s done too often.

We recommend that you only use one device. If you absolutely need to log in somewhere else, try using your mobile device.

3. Not keeping a tight circle: If any user on your ads account gets their personal advertiser’s account banned, you may lose your ads account by association. 

4. Late payments: When you aren’t paying pending bills on time, your account may get flagged as unreliable.

Make sure you always have a credit card on file or available credit on your account.

5. Unclear landing pages: Any pages that users are directed to through your ads should pertain to the information in the ad.

It should also contain business information like a logo, contact information, resources, company name, and a disclaimer. 

6. Using the same payment methods for different ad accounts: Facebook uses payment methods to recognize previous offenders.

If you’ve been banned in the past, avoid using the same payment method for the next ad account. 

7. Not keeping Facebook advertising information confidential: Make sure it stays with and isn’t used for anything like selling contacts to other companies.

8. Ads disapproved according to Facebook’s guidelines: Make sure your ads abide by the following guidelines. 

• The Facebook Community Standards They are based on authenticity, privacy, safety and dignity. 
• Facebook’s Terms of Service This concerns the content you are posting as an ad. 
• Facebook’s Advertising Policies (some things may take you by surprise!).

Facebook Advertising Policies

When reviewing your ad, both algorithms and human evaluators will look at different factors to ensure you’re following platform guidelines. According to Facebook, most ads are typically reviewed in 24 hours. Before your ad can run, Facebook staff review targeting, content, and positioning, in addition to your ad’s landing page. Though Facebook differentiates between “prohibited” content and “restricted” content, and problems with your creative or targeting, all and more can get your ad disapproved.

1. Advertising Prohibited Content

Facebook’s ad policies are pretty straightforward when it comes to what you can and can’t advertise. For example, no sex and drugs.

Here are the products and services you can never advertise on Facebook. However, there are a number of exceptions you should be aware of.

Weapons, ammunition, explosives

No guns, bullets, or bombs are allowed. Basically, you can’t sell anything that is intended to hurt other people. That being said, you can advertise blogs, groups, or websites about weapons, as long as they’re not specifically selling them.

Unsafe supplements

What counts as an “unsafe supplement” is totally up to Facebook. According to their ad guidelines, this includes but is not limited to the following: anabolic steroids, chitosan, comfrey, dehydroepiandrosterone, ephedra, and human growth hormones.

“Adult” products and services

No sex toys, dirty magazines, or “adult dating services”. Anything sex-related is pretty much a no-go unless it’s an ad for contraception or family planning.

If you’re advertising any form of birth control, make sure you exclusively target users over the age of 18 and focus only on the contraceptive aspects of the product.

Cryptocurrency

Facebook’s Product Management Director Rob Leathern stated that cryptocurrency ads “are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.”

You can read more about Facebook’s crypto ad ban here.

Payday loans

Payday loans, paycheck advances, or any other kind of high-interest, short-term loan intended to cover expenses between paydays are strictly forbidden on Facebook. These types of loans are frequently accused of taking advantage of people with lower incomes.

Multilevel marketing schemes

If your ad is offering people ways to “get rich quick” or comes across as a pyramid scheme, it’s going to be rejected. To make sure your business isn’t incorrectly classified as a multilevel marketing scheme, you need to fully describe your business model in the ad.

Tobacco or tobacco-related products

You can’t sell tobacco products on Facebook. According to Facebook, that includes the following:

Tobacco or tobacco-related products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, tobacco pipes, hookahs, hookah lounges, rolling papers, vaporized delivery devices, and electronic cigarettes.

There are two exceptions to keep in mind, though. First, anti-smoking ad campaigns are fine. Second, blogs, groups, or websites that connect people with tobacco-related interests are alright as long as they don’t directly sell tobacco products or paraphernalia.

Pharmaceuticals

Facebook bans all ads depicting or selling drugs, even if they’re technically legal. So don’t try to sell prescription medication on Facebook.

Illegal drugs or drug-related products

Any recreational or illegal drugs are strictly forbidden from Facebook ads, and so are images or videos that depict their use. The one exception is ads for drug rehab programs and support groups.

Read More: How to Troubleshoot a Disabled Ad Account

2. Advertising Restricted Content

Here’s the deal: you won’t always have your Facebook ad disapproved for trying to sell restricted products or services. That being said, only certain advertisers can promote this stuff, and often only in certain locations to adult consumers with prior written permission from Facebook.

This is some of the definitive lists of ads that are only allowed on Facebook after meeting a set of requirements (and what those requirements are):

Alcohol

This is a big one. We love a good beer ad as much as the next person, but if you’re selling booze then your ads need to comply with the local laws of every country you’re targeting.

If alcohol is illegal in any of the countries you target, your ad is going right in the digital trash bin. Likewise, all users targeted must be 18 or older. If you’re in Canada, that’s 19. In Japan, it’s 20. And in the USA, it’s 21 and up only.

For more information, here’s Facebook’s complete policy on alcohol ads.

Dating services

You can promote an online dating service on Facebook as long as you meet a set of standards. First, you can’t encourage cheating—you can only target people whose relationship status is “Single” or “Unspecified”. Second, you must either target “Men” or “Women”. Third, you can only target adults 18 and older.

Also, keep your ads “PG”—any sexual content (implied or explicit) is not allowed, and you’re definitely not allowed to advertise mail-order brides/husbands.

There are even more specific requirements that you should keep in mind if you have your heart set on advertising your dating service on Facebook—which you can read on their website.

Cosmetic Procedures and Weight Loss

These include adverts that market weight loss products and services and cosmetic procedures like rhinoplasty, hair implants, and dermabrasion that must be targeted to people aged 18 or older.

Branded content

Facebook considers influencer marketing or any brand partnership with a content producer to be branded content. Branded content posts are totally cool with FB, but you’ll need to tag your product, brand, or business explicitly in the ad using their branded content tool.

Real-money gambling

Dreaming of becoming a casino mogul through Facebook advertising? You’ll need written permission from Facebook’s ad review team first, and you’re only allowed to target users over 18 in locations where gambling is legal.

Supplements

If Facebook doesn’t think your supplement is potentially dangerous (see “Unsafe supplements” above), you can advertise it exclusively to adults 18 years old or older.

Subscription services

Promoting anything that involves a subscription? You’re going to want to read this list of special requirements.

Financial services

Are you in the finance game? All good, but to advertise your services you need to be careful about your landing page. No directly asking for people’s credit card or financial information, and you’ll need to be clear about any fees involved in your service right away.

Student loan services

This is pretty easy to grasp: only target users over 18 and don’t say anything deceptive, misleading, or fraudulent in your ad or your landing page.

Political advertising

Political ads are a hot-button issue on Facebook right now, and they’ve been taking steps to reform them internally. At the moment, you need to comply with all local election laws in the areas you’re targeting and go through a special authorization process to get any political ads approved.

That covers all the restricted ad types. If your Facebook ad is still not approved, it could be due to the fact that…

3. Not following community standards

Okay, so you’re advertising something harmless that wasn’t even mentioned above, but the Facebook ad review team is not having it with you. Where did you go wrong?

Introducing Facebook’s community standards. If you haven’t read them yet, we recommend reviewing them here.

Here are the standards Facebook uses to decide what content is allowed, whether it’s paid or organic.

Violence and criminal behavior

If your ad involves a real, credible threat, you will be banned. When it encourages murder, organized hate, terrorist activity, human trafficking, or any kind of criminal activity, you will be banned. If it publicizes violent crime, you will be banned. If it helps coordinate real-world violence, you will be banned.

Safety

Any ads that encourage suicide or self-injury will be rejected, anything involving sexual exploitation will be rejected, any bullying or harassment with be rejected, and any content that spreads someone’s private or confidential information without their permission will be rejected.

Objectionable content

Any ads that promote hate or discrimination will be denied, ads showing graphic violence will be denied, ads with nudity or sexual activity will be denied, and ads that target victims of serious physical or emotional harm will also be denied (of course).

Integrity and authenticity

Facebook’s ad review team will reject any content it views as spam, including anything false or misleading or which gives a bad ad experience to users. They will also reject any paid or organic content promoting fake news stories.

Intellectual property

If your ad violates any existing copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights, it will not be approved. Here are the specifics on what counts as an IP violation.

If you don’t meet even one of these community standards, your ad won’t get very far. If you’ve read these backward and forward and you’re still not getting your ads approved, there’s a high probability that it’s because…

4. You’ve made a mistake with your ad creative

You’re following all the community guidelines, you’re not advertising anything prohibited, restricted, or even controversial…so why is your Facebook ad still being rejected?

There are quite a few rules you need to follow when crafting your ad creatives to comply with Facebook’s policies. If you mess up on just one, it could be the reason your ad was rejected.

Here’s a quick run-through on the most common mistakes Facebook advertisers make with their creatives:

Having too much text in your ad image

If you’ve received a notification like this, you’ll need to cut back on your image text. Source: Facebook

This is a surprisingly common reason for Facebook ads to be rejected or have their reach limited. In fact, Facebook used to just have a cut-and-dry rule that if your ad image had over 20% of it covered in the text, it would be denied.

Now, they will just scale back the reach of your ad based on how much of your image is covered in the text.

Here are Facebook’s new tiers of image text acceptability:

OK – Your ad will run normally.
Low – Your ad’s reach may be slightly lower.
Medium – Your ad’s reach may be much lower.
High – Your ad may not run.

If you’re unsure whether you’re going to have your ad’s reach limited due to the amount of text it contains, use an image text checker tool.

Targeting personal attributes

The funny thing about Facebook ad targeting is that Facebook does not want your ads to tell users you’re targeting them. We know, we know, that sounds confusing.

But here’s what it means: you can’t directly or indirectly tell users in your ad copy that you know anything about them.

Personal attributes include “race, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, age, sexual orientation or practices, gender identity, disability, medical condition (including physical or mental health), financial status, membership in a trade union, criminal record, or name,” according to Facebook.

As a general guideline, avoid using words like “other”, “you”, “yours” in your copy. You can’t imply that you actually know anything about the users you’re targeting.

Misusing Facebook’s brand

You can use the word “Facebook” in your creative, and you can even use the Facebook logo, but you need to be careful about how you do so.

Capitalize “Facebook” and write out the full name in your copy. You can only use it as a singular noun, and it needs to be the same font size and style as the text around it.

Use the standard Facebook logo, but don’t use their corporate logo under any circumstances. Also, don’t change any Facebook brand assets you’re using from their original design.

Finally and most importantly, you can’t use the Facebook brand as the central focus of your ad. Of course, you can promote a Facebook Page, group, or event with your ad, but you can’t advertise it in a way that makes Facebook the most noticeable and significant part of your ad creative.

Making disruptive video ads

If you’re promoting a video ad on Facebook, you’re subject to some extra rules. First, no disruptive ad creatives like flashing lights or rapidly changing bright colors. Second, no content is meant for adult viewers only without prior permission from Facebook. Third, no over-the-top displays of drugs, alcohol, sex, profanity, violence, or gore.

Promoting predatory ads

You cannot prey on vulnerable users with your ads. Basically, your ad creative can’t harass or bully anyone using Facebook’s targeting mechanisms.

Not being relevant

Every single component of your ad needs to relate to the product or service you are selling. Also, your ad creative needs to have some relevance to the audience you’re targeting with the ad. Finally, all details of your ad creative must be true and accurate.

Writing poorly

Facebook cares about the quality of users’ experience with its ads, which means it doesn’t want your ads to look spammy.

This translates to grammar, punctuation, and capitalization too. Don’t use random capitalization or leave caps to lock on when writing your ad copy.

Replace letters with emojis or random characters to get attention. And lastly, use a spellchecker and keep an eye on your grammar, as ad creatives with bad spelling and grammar will also not be approved.

Okay, if you’re complying with every rule we’ve listed above and you’re still somehow violating Facebook ad policy, now we know it’s probably because…

5. You’ve made a mistake with your landing page

Just as important as your ad creative itself is the landing page you’re directing people to. If your landing page violates any of the Facebook ad policies mentioned above, your ad doesn’t stand a chance of being approved.

Facebook’s ad review team will look at a number of additional factors specific to landing pages to make sure yours is up to par, too.

Here are the landing page issues that could get your ad rejected:

Ad URL doesn’t match landing page URL

Don’t try any funny business—if you include a link in your Facebook ad, that link needs to route users to a landing page with the same web address.

For example, if your link says “www.cutecatpictures.com” and it takes users to “www.piratedmovies.com”, Facebook’s ad review team will not be pleased with you.

This also includes unintentional typos in the ad’s URL, so double-check your ad copy and your landing page to make sure they match before submitting your ad for review.

The landing page lacks business details

To establish trust with your business, you must include your business’s address, phone number, email, and privacy policy on any landing pages.

If there are any legal notices or disclaimers specific to your industry that you’re obligated to include, make sure they’re on your landing page too.

The landing page is false or misleading

You need to be totally honest and transparent with your landing page. You cannot include any misleading or false information about your products or services.

The page must also contain the product or service that the user expects based on your ad creativity. For example, if you’re advertising bike repairs on Facebook and your landing page is selling sketchy supplements, you’re going to have a bad time.

The landing page includes disruptive or spammy elements

Your landing page, like your ad creative, needs to deliver a quality experience to any Facebook users that see it. For that reason, malware, scripts that prevent users from leaving the page, and pop-up ads are all forbidden.

There is one exception when it comes to pop-ups, though. You may include them as long as the user intentionally clicks a button to make the pop up appear, like with a signup form:

Speaking of disruptive elements, auto-playing video or audio is forbidden, as are automatic downloads that start when your landing page opens.

The landing page is defective, unfinished, or a digital dead end

Your landing page can’t have bugs or appear “under construction” to Facebook. Broken links, unfinished media elements, and loading problems all fall into this category.

You also need to show Facebook that your landing page is connected to the rest of the internet. To do so, make sure to at least include internal links to the rest of your website.

The landing page doesn’t look like the ad creative

There needs to be some visual or textual connection between the ad and the landing page it links to. It’s a matter of signaling to Facebook’s ad review team straight away that your landing page is connected to your ad creative.

This could involve using the same copy, headline, or font from your creative somewhere on the page. It could also mean using a similar color palette or an identical feature image.

Overall, just make sure that an average user would see your landing page and immediately know it’s related to your Facebook ad.

Resolving the problem with your disapproved ad

Often, when disapproving an ad, Facebook will give you a good idea of where you went wrong. You’ll have to edit the ad to resolve the problem, then send it in again for review.

1. Chat with a Facebook Support Specialist in real-time

If your Facebook ad account has been disabled you have the option to chat with a Facebook support specialist to find out why your ad account has been disabled and how you can fix it.

Sometimes the Facebook support specialist might communicate with the Facebook internal team about your ad account issue.

The benefit of contacting Facebook business support is that you can chat directly with a Facebook representative or sometimes a Facebook representative might call you.

This will help you hasten the appeal process if you’ve already submitted an appeal, or if you haven’t submitted an appeal they will show you what to do in order to recover your ad account.

2. Fill out the form for a Restricted Facebook Ad Account

Another way you can get your Facebook ad account back is to fill an appeal form.

You can use this form to inform Facebook about your ad account being disabled and make a case if you believe you were not at fault for the ad’s account restriction.

After you submit your appeal, it may seem as if Facebook takes an eternity to respond. You can keep track of the progress of your appeal at facebook.com/support.

Don’t get your Facebook ad disapproved

Getting a campaign to run on Facebook is more than just about the ad. It’s about creating a great landing page experience, too. If you don’t, Facebook will disapprove of your ad.

Not only that, but it’s in the best interest of your campaign. Every ad needs its own dedicated post-click landing page to continue personalization throughout the campaign. The more relevant your content is, the more likely you are to convert your visitor.

In Conclusion…

Facebook advertising guidelines can seem freakishly overwhelming, but there are probably only a handful of regulations you’ll constantly run into, depending on the nature of your business. (And, if you’re an agency – you’ll probably run into all of them).

Whether you like it or not, you have to play by the rules when it comes to advertising on Facebook. A few minor violations could cost you valuable time by getting your ad rejected. Larger violations could even get your ad account banned—so better safe than sorry, right?

At the end of the day, following these guidelines will get your ads approved faster and help you build trust with Facebook. So study up!