Have you ever found yourself trying to log into your Facebook Ads account only to see a red warning — “Your ad account has been flagged for policy violations? Any ads you’re running have been turned off. If you believe this was a mistake, please contact us.”?
Odds are you’ve violated one of Facebook’s ads policies that have triggered red flags for your account, resulting in a suspension from your Facebook Ads manager. With a suspended Facebook Ads account, you can’t create any new ads or run existing ones.
Facebook Ads accounts aren’t the only Facebook asset that can be suspended or disabled. Violations to Facebook policies can cause suspension for the following types of accounts:
- Facebook profile
- Facebook Ads account
- Business manager
- Facebook page
- Instagram account
- Facebook commerce account
If you’ve recently started advertising on Facebook only to get your Facebook account suspended, then continue reading to learn Facebook’s policies, how to dispute your suspension, and get your Facebook Ads account back.
Common Reasons for Facebook Ads Account Suspension
When it comes to Facebook Ads account suspensions, there are usually two primary causes — disobeying Facebook’s advertising policies, or receiving a high percentage of negative feedback on your ads.
Facebook Advertising Policies
Because Facebook’s advertising policies are ever-changing, it can be very easy for inexperienced Facebook marketers to violate these rules, resulting in a suspended account.
Let’s examine some of the simple rules Facebook enforces for its ads platform, starting with its prohibited content, which includes:
- Illegal products or services
- Alcohol
- Dating services
- Gambling
- Online pharmacies
- Subscription services
- Discriminatory practices
- Tobacco and related products
- Unsafe substances, including recreational drugs
- Weapons, ammunition, or explosives
- Adult content and adult services
- Third-party infringement
- Cosmetic procedures and wellness advertised to people younger than 18
- Sensation content, including violent and shocking content
- Hate speech, harmful content, controversial content
- Misinformation, including conspiracy theories
- Election ads
- Cryptocurrency
- Personal attributes, such as only target a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, etc.
- Spyware or malware
- Misleading or lying claims
- Low quality content
- Penny auctions
- Multi-level marketing
Most of Facebook’s Ad policies are common sense and clear to understand. However, there are instances when a marketer may be in the “gray area” of a certain rule, not sure if they’re violating a policy or not. In these instances, it’s best to avoid gray areas and rework your advertising strategy.
We recommend all Facebook marketers familiarize themselves with Facebook’s ad policies.
In addition to misleading, illegal, or banned content, the following mistakes can get your Facebook account suspended:
- Non-functional landing pages. Ads must direct people to a functional landing page. If they do not, this will be red flagged.
- Grammar and profanity. Ads must use proper grammar, free from profanity. Misspellings and swearing also make ads look spammy, and are red flags for Facebook browsers.
- Disruptive content. Video ads that use bright light flashes or other disruptive tactics.
- Relevance. Ads, including their pictures and text, must accurately portray the products being offered.
When it comes to generating lead ads, there are many types of information that marketers cannot ask for without Facebook’s prior written permission, including:
- Account numbers
- Criminal history
- Financial information, such as bank account numbers, credit scores, credit card numbers
- Social security information
- Health information, including past conditions or disabilities
- Political affiliation
- Religion
- Sexual orientation
Facebook’s 20% Text Ad Rule
You may not have been aware of all of Facebook’s many policies, but chances are you’ve likely heard about Facebook’s “20% text ad rule.”
The 20% rule means that a picture ad cannot have text or words covering more than 20% of the picture’s area. Facebook’s research has shown that ads with less than 20% of text simply respond better than cluttered, word-filled ads.
In the past, Facebook used to reject ads that featured too many words. This rule, however, is no longer enforced and is merely a suggestion to improve ad performance for marketers.
Largely Negative Ad Feedback
Besides violating a Facebook policy, the other main cause for a Facebook ad suspension comes from creating largely unpopular advertisements.
To ensure that Facebook Ads provides real value to Facebook users, Facebook will often ask for user feedback on ads.
In the Facebook Ads Insights, marketers can see “Negative Feedback” shown for their specific ads and promoted posts. There are four types of negative feedback a user can rate on an ad or post:
- Hide Post
- Report as Spam
- Hide All Posts
- Unlike Page
If you’ve found your account is suspended, look to your Insights page to see if you have highly negative feedback on your ads. If you don’t find negative feedback, then you can deduce that you’ve likely violated Facebook’s Advertising Policies.
How to Dispute Account Suspension and Get Your Account Back
To get your account back, you’ll need to contact Facebook right away to appeal your account.
In the red suspension warning at the top of your Facebook Ads page, you’ll see it says “If you believe this is a mistake, please contact us.” Click on “Contact Us” to submit your appeal to Facebook.
Another way to contact Facebook via your Ads Manager is to go up the right hand corner and click on the circular “?” icon, and then scroll down to the “Still Need Help?” button. This option may put you directly in touch with Facebook through an instant chat box.
In your appeal, start with an apologetic tone.
Remember, Facebook employees, not bots, will be reading these appeals and trying to help you. If you can, try to pinpoint the exact policy you’ve violated and apologize that you made an honest mistake.
It’s important not to antagonize or be aggressive when appealing your suspension, as this will usually not end up well for your account.
It will usually take between 2-7 days to receive a response from Facebook’s team.
How to Avoid Account Suspension Moving Forward
Once you have regained your Facebook account, the best way to avoid another suspension is to simply follow Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines.
Learn from your mistakes and avoid repeating them. If you were unsure which policy you violated, Facebook will let you know. Take the time to research their guidelines and ensure you’re not violating their rules again.
If your account is suspended and your appeal is rejected, an experienced team of Facebook marketers can help set up a new account for your business.
Hire Denver PPC to Manage Your Facebook Account
Denver PPC is a Colorado-based team of PPC professionals. We help organizations manage and succeed with their Facebook PPC campaigns and digital presence.
Our team includes 10 PPC management experts who are trained, certified, and experienced in managing Facebook Ads accounts and platforms in a variety of industries.
We also offer white label PPC management and white label PPC outsourcing for marketing companies looking to offer their clients more PPC services. This means we’ll do the work for you while your company gets all the credit.
Do you have a Facebook Ads account that needs optimization or an expert opinion?
Contact us to receive your free PPC account review and we’ll let you know how we can help. To learn more about our Facebook and PPC Management services, call Troy or Tony at 303-975-2810.
Or, contact us for a free consultation!
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