Most marketers already know that Facebook rejects ads for alcohol, weapons, and other prohibited goods. But businesses sometimes find their ads blocked for other reasons too.
Aitarget has collected 10 of the top not-so-obvious reasons Facebook rejects ads that businesses face almost every day.
Part 1: What & How You Advertise
Note: We aren't going to explain why businesses and brands can’t advertise alcohol or use nudity on Facebook. You can see all the rules for advertising on Facebook here. We recommend that you review and follow those guidelines closely so that you don't get blocked.
1. Advertising Different Businesses From One Account
Let's say you own a beauty salon, a clothing store, and an auto shop. You’ll need to create a separate ad account for each of those companies because, assuming they have different sites and social network pages, Facebook considers them different advertising objects. You can manage them all from your Business Manager.
Tip: your administrators should be real people and you should only add more if needed. Also, only provide the minimum level of access required to perform their work — to edit business settings, add new users, or whatever else.
For most tasks, there are separate roles in Business Manager. Finally, add a minimum of two administrators to your Business Manager so that you don't lose access if one quits.
Source: Business Manager
2. Advertising From a Workplace Profile
Don't create a special workplace profile with your work email to run ads. Facebook recognises and blocks these accounts. You need to be a real person to have a personal profile on Facebook. For your company, however, a business page is required.
Also, note that the profile should contain your real name, photo, and email. This is necessary to restore access if the profile is blocked, as the social network may request a passport photo to confirm your identity.
3. Misleading Landing Page
Double-check where the user ends up by clicking your ad link. Facebook rejects ads if they link to a site that is under development or doesn't match the advertised product. The ad will also be rejected if it gives a link to a PDF file, a closed Facebook group, or to Facebook's homepage.
By the way, the social network also considers a website’s Web of Trust rating.
Source: Facebook Advertising Policies
Part 2: Ad-Related Reasons
Facebook aims to ensure users have a positive experience on their social network while they’re interacting with ads. With that in mind, here are a few reasons Facebook rejects ads for what the ad says or shows.
4. Don’t Overpromise
Facebook’s advertising policy prohibits giving false hope to users or guaranteeing results. It's always possible that customers won't get what they were promised. Wording along the lines of, "The best cream for dry skin!" is also forbidden.
If you have full confidence in the effectiveness of your product, prove it. Add customer feedback to your ads or show the product in action.
By the way, this includes advertising services with inaccurate results like astrological services (any prediction is approximate in nature, so it can be inaccurate).
5. COVID (Again)
Despite COVID-19 taking over 2020, taking advantage of the pandemic in ads is also prohibited. You cannot promise that you’ll save users from the virus, even for products ranging from real estate far from the city to virus blockers.
Can you advertise designer masks as a fashion accessory? Yes, but don't promise your customers that your masks will save them from any risk of infection.
Importantly, if you announce COVID-19-related schedule changes in your ads, they won't be rejected.
6. GrAmMaR
It's hardly surprising that Facebook rejects ads with obscene language. But some seemingly harmless writing choices can get turned away too.
Try to avoid Caps Lock (except in common abbreviations) and don't use unusual characters (♧ ♥ ♡ ♢ ♢) or punctuation marks.
7. Cute cats!
Sad as it may seem, Facebook rejects ads with cute cats and dogs (if they aren't part of your business).
Automatic moderation may skip such a creative ad, but later it will be blocked during the check. While cute cats can provoke clicks, the policy states that the creative and the landing page must clearly represent the product or service.
Facebook advocates for honesty and healthy competition. Therefore, no cats to grab attention for an unrelated business!
While it can be tempting to take shortcuts to try to grab users’ attention, you don’t need to! Your products are full of advantages for users who buy them, so showcase this in your ad. Enrich your creatives with appealing data: product information, ratings, reviews, price, discounts, and other promotional elements.
Aitarget’s overlays for crafting feed-based static and video ads boost conversions by 15–30%. You begin with the on-brand template and scale it to any format and length while keeping the same level of visual quality and product credibility.
8. "Give us a thumbs-up and subscribe to our channel!"
Yes, you can speak in such terms in a vlog, but you can't launch an ad that provokes clicking on it or sounds like an open call to 'like'.
This also includes images with artificially drawn-in buttons that don't exist – Facebook moderation won't allow them.
To increase audience engagement you can add a CTA to your ad with a link to your website or blog. Launching an ad for reach with a link to your profile or website will be of great help. It's inexpensive and helps to introduce your product to the audience.
9. Before/After
While the best way to prove the effectiveness of a procedure at a clinic or the positive results of using your fitness club might be before-and-after-style photos, using these for ads is prohibited by Facebook policies. The result you are promising users may not be true, and such ads may induce a negative self-image in users.
It's better, instead, to launch product ads. With smart and creative technology, they are available even if you don’t have a catalog.
Aitarget tools can create video content for ads from your logo, colours, fonts, and a few product images or even a website page. You'll get a video in just a couple of minutes. All you need is to add an intro and launch the campaign.
10. Adult-Specific Content
While we said that we didn’t need to talk about alcohol since its prohibition from Facebook advertising was clear and obvious, it is worth noting that ads shouldn't contain it in any form.
So if you have a restaurant or your business is somehow related to circumstances or events that could include the potential presence of an alcoholic drink, be careful. Your creatives can't contain filled glasses (even if you advertise other goods), you can't give a link to a menu containing a wine list.
And don't forget to check the landing page to which your ad leads: if there are images or mentions of alcoholic beverages, moderation will reject the ad.
Not-So-Obvious Reasons Facebook Rejects Ads (In a Nutshell)
- Promoting different businesses from one Ad Account
- Advertising from workplace profiles
- An irrelevant landing page
- An unproven guarantee of a certain result
- Comparison of before/after results
- Directly encouraging likes and adding non-existent buttons to the creative
- Cats that are not related to your business
- Filled glasses, even if you don't advertise alcoholic drinks
This all might seem like bad news, so here's some good news.
Any ad block can be disputed.
If your ad was rejected but you are convinced you didn't violate any of Facebook's advertising policies, feel free to send your ad to moderation again.
If there really is no violation, your ads will be launched automatically (assuming the campaign was active).
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