Well let’s face it, any kind of rejection hurts.
‘What is the reason for my Facebook ad rejection’, has become a common question for all social media marketers. Facebook ad guidelines have become stricter than ever before on how Facebook monitors and reviews the content that users and advertisers promote. As a result, you need to be very careful to ensure your ads get approved.
The 6 main reasons for Facebook ads rejection:
- Advertising prohibited products or services: Here are a few products and services you can never advertise on Facebook.
These are: Weapons, ammunition, explosives, unsafe supplements, adult products and services, Cryptocurrency, Surveillance equipment, Payday loans, Penny auctions, tobacco-related products, Pharmaceuticals, Illegal drugs, malware, and Sensational Content too.
- Advertising restricted products or services: Only certain advertisers with prior documented permission from Facebook can run ads.
Some of these services allowed by Facebook with certain limitations though, are: Political advertising, Alcohol, Dating services, Real-money gambling, State lotteries, Supplements, Financial and insurance services like credit card, Student loan services. - Posting or Promoting objectionable content:
Content that glorifies violence, divisive content or one that celebrates humiliation of others is not allowed.
Content with hate speech or which encourages discrimination against people supported personal attributes like color, national origin, race, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, identity, family, disability is rejected.
Content of nudity or related to sexual activity is restricted. - Integrity and Authenticity:
Misinformation or false news, spam content often gets rejected and even more so lately as such content has created large scale issues in the past.
Deceiving offers or strategies to gather information about people that compromises their safety will be rejected.
Cybersecurity: Attempt to gather sensitive personal information by deceptive methods compromises authenticity & integrity standards of Facebook and therefore such ads are banned.
Sublime propaganda or manipulated content by political parties also has a chance of getting rejected.
Read more about Community standards of Facebook https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/introduction
- Mistakes in the Ad creative: Common mistakes advertisers make are: having too much text in the ad image, using incorrect aspect ratios and dimensions, misusing Facebook’s brand, making video ads with disruptive tactics such as flashing screens, and not being relevant.
- Made a mistake with the landing page: Sometimes landing page issues could also get an ad rejected: Ad URL doesn’t match landing page URL, landing page lacks business details, the Landing page is misleading, and Landing page includes spammy elements.
CASE 1:
Recently we were running Ad campaigns for one of our clients, a non-profit organization based in Gujarat, India. One of our ads got rejected by Facebook. It was a surprise for us as we didn’t use any political content, infact we were promoting educational content. The rejection stated a reason as our ad didn’t comply with the Facebook advertising policies.
Below is the screenshot of notification from Facebook of our ad rejection:
The detailed reasons we received from Facebook for the ad rejection are:
- Ads about a social issue that seeks to influence public opinion through discussion, debate, or advocacy for or against important topics like election, social rights, politics, etc.
- Social issues vary depending on which country we are planning to run ads, including the terms elections or politics.
We deciphered a few reasons internally for our ad getting rejected. It could possibly be the usage of the word ‘Politics’ in the copy. Also our copy was on the lines of how Politics is often misconstrued as a ‘dirty game’, a disguised act of retaining power. But is it really that?
So, we must be careful when running restricted content on Facebook. Your ads and content must comply with Facebook’s community standards of your country. We think this change in ad policy will certainly do good for India, given the country’s political landscape. In times of election particularly, there are high chances of institutions attempting to promote propaganda related content.
CASE 2:
One of the experts named Jon Loomer shared his experience with Facebook ad rejection. He shares why his Ad got rejected and what advertisers should follow to prevent it.
Source: https://www.jonloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/facebook-ad-rejection-abbreviations.png
Read more about the Facebook ad rejection by Jon Loomer:
Whether you like it or not, you must follow the rules for advertising on Facebook. A few violations could cost you valuable time.
Facebook Ad policy violations may lead to enforcement action against your Profile, Pages, or even ad accounts. Enforcement actions include: Disabling associated Pages, Disabling existing ads, Restricting the ability to run new ads, etc.
Following these guidelines will get your ads approved quicker and help you build trust with Facebook. Know complete guidelines in the official Facebook advertising policies page: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/