There are a huge variety of the kind of ad account restriction you may get flagged with. Often, online behavior is monitored along with the history of your ad account. Keeping your ratio of rejected ads much less than your approved ads can move you in the right direction.
One of the most frequent reasons I’ve seen for an ad account restriction for unusual activity is because you’ve logged into your Facebook app on your smartphone in a new location. I’d be very careful about logging into any ad tools while traveling.
Facebook’s advertising standards that regulate if the ban hammer is dropped for an ad account restriction operate on the principle that the more people stay on Facebook, the better connected the community on Facebook is. Which then leads to more ads being shown to a bigger audience – keep that in mind when kicking pain points in your ads.
If your Facebook account has been restricted from advertising, this guide will show you how to appeal your account ban and create ads again in no time.
Your advertising access is restricted – what does it mean?
When your advertising access is restricted and you have a restricted ad account, it means your Business Manager is next on the chopping block for bans. You won’t be able to run ads and your entire business will be under scrutiny.
I’d remove any and all Facebook Business Pages from your Business Manager after an ad account restriction (depending on the severity of the ad account restriction) otherwise, if you leave a Page in your BM, it won’t be able to be used ever again, if that BM gets disabled.
As far as appealing – that is a topic I’ll address later or in another article.
Facebook says your ad account is restricted because the bots it uses to scan for ad policy violations have determined that you have a pattern of breaking the rules. And as a result, Facebook or Meta, doesn’t want to risk further bans from you so they take away the ability to advertise.
Have you ever tried to cure something you’re sick with without knowing first what it is? Strangely enough, most ad agencies try this exact thing with a restricted ad account without diagnosing what went wrong.
And they’ll resubmit non-compliant ads literally minutes after it was rejected to bully their way to approval. That’s not a good look. Facebook is more than likely to punish you for this spammy behavior.
The first step in unrestricting your Facebook ads is diagnosing why you got banned in the first place, and then strategically making your next move after identifying the problem.
Want to stop guessing on why you got put in Facebook jail? I’ve worked with celebrities, 8 figure businesses, major brands and ran an ad agency myself while working in ads at Facebook. Schedule a free discovery call here.
Sometimes just one word can get you banned, so this question isn’t easy to answer. One thing clients will ask me is, “What are the most common reasons people get banned?”
Having worked with over 10,000 advertisers both when I was working at Facebook and in my own firm, I can share there are an endless amount of scenarios for what gets you a restricted ad account and you’ll need to talk to someone with expert knowledge in Facebook ad policies to get the right answer and get your Facebook ads live again, and bringing in revenue without losing any more money and time to FB bans.
Usually Facebook is supposed to send you an email (check your spam folder) if you have a restricted ad account. If not, you’ll want to either go to Facebook Ads Manager, or go to your Facebook Business Manager and check the notification bell.
Really some of the best advice I can give here is to look at your history of advertising and identify a common theme amongst the rejected ads – clearly there is a piece of ad copy that is raising alarm bells. Once you do this, you can remove it from your funnel and work on the appeal.
So, Two-factor auth or 2FA is a double-edged blade: On one hand, it meets the requirements both YouTube and Facebook have for professional accounts. And it’s better protection against hackers.
But on the other hand, it can be a nightmare if you forget your password and get permanently restricted or locked out. Make sure you document everything so that you don’t become so clever with your passwords that you lock yourself out too.
If you see the above message beware: you are about to enter into David Bowie’s Labyrinth without an escape plan. I see this shit all the time – idiots online keep telling ad agencies with an ad account restriction to verify their Business Manager while in the middle of a Facebook ban.
This is why that is a dumb idea that will get you deeper into Facebook jail: You are asking Facebook to extend EVEN more trust to you, while under scrutiny for a ban. It’s a recipe for getting into the never ending loop, that usually either never ends or ends with your Facebook Business Manager unverified and Facebook asking for proof of identity. It is better to audit your ads that got rejected and identify the flag before taking any further steps.
If you have other admins on your Facebook Business Manager, it may be possible to appeal a restricted ad account, if you currently don’t have access to Facebook ad support chat portals. Just make sure they don’t have bans elsewhere.
I put the above headline in to point out that there is never a “just add water” fix for a restricted ad account. Articles online that say that shit “After you successfully complete this process, your account will be reinstated.” have no fucking clue.
If Facebook made a mistake in flagging you, and you can word your appeal correctly then you MAY be able to reinstate your account. I’ve done this successfully with more than one client, but it’s a case-by-case basis. It depends on your type of business and type of ban.
FAFO seems to be the universal agency strategy for recovering a restricted ad account on Facebook. Want to stop guessing?
If you’ve been shutdown a lot but never got answers, you’re like one of my clients, Steve Martinez, Vice President of Apollidon Learning.
“Trevor took us through the process of getting one of our University of Texas ad accounts reinstated (within minutes). He offered some critical insights to why our Facebook Ad Account was disabled and shared options to reduce our chances of future issues. We have a better understand of how the algorithm works and know exactly what to do and say if our account gets disabled again.”
Want to see how I can help you? Schedule a free discovery call here. Or, if you’re in a rush, prepay for your consulting call and skip the line.
One of the best ways aside from 2FA to secure your account is to silo several Business Managers so if one is shut down you can still run ads from another one. And to always know who’s on your Facebook Business Manager.
Because if someone in your BM has a restricted ad account in ANOTHER BM, Facebook can AND WILL trace this back to you and punish you for things he or she did. That would suck. Secure your account by knowing who is on your BM and making sure they are free from bans.
Let me debunk some more BS on this. Requesting review for inexperienced advertisers is not advised unless it’s part of a bigger strategy. I have used it but only in a specific way, and when I have, it has been successful. But you can’t just request a review
Even established brands like Hubspot get it wrong in their outdated article about the Facebook ad review process when they say:
- Ads are manually reviewed, so if more people are submitting ads for review, there can be a longer wait time. Expect to wait longer during holiday seasons.
This is only partially correct. Yes, during the holidays your ads will expect delays as that is the biggest advertising time of the year, but your ads are not manually reviewed for ad account restrictions.
This rarely happens. Facebook’s automations do 95% of the ad review process and Meta has created new automations to police the old automations. The Matrix yo. We almost here.
Typically, if you’ve got a good history of Facebook ad approvals, and are established, your ads will get approved faster than a new ad account with a blank history.
Also, read a Facebook Ad Policies Checklist.
Why Is My Facebook Ad Account Restricted?
Tell me if I’m wrong: you don’t give a damn about this dumb little pop up what you want to know is WHY your Facebook ad was rejected. #amiright?
Facebook Ad Account Restriction Sources
There are countless reasons why Meta | Facebook’s ban hammer gives out ad account restrictions, including:
- Selling products not allowed on Facebook (tobacco, illegal products or services, weapons, etc …).
- Making sensational claims, using click-bait, or promoting misinformation.
- Ads not following Facebook’s advertising guidelines, such as branding requirements and text restrictions.
- Disruptive or low quality content that negatively impacts a Facebook user’s experience
Oh and if you’re not running video ads, you’re missing out. 500 million people watch videos daily on Facebook.
Be careful about the sources you trust when it comes to facebook ad policies. Hubspot gets their information wrong again here about why Facebook ads are not approved:
The lies!!! Well, to be fair, maybe not lies, but definitely bad info for advertisers here. WE ALL KNOW FACEBOOK DOESN’T SAY SHIT ABOUT WHY YOUR AD WAS REJECTED!
It’s about scale. Facebook or Meta now, is too huge to care about telling advertisers specific reasons why their ads were rejected. Engineers at Facebook have even asked me for advice on how and why their automations flag ads and how to avoid ad account restrictions.
The TLDR of it is the Account Quality Page uses identical algorithms to the Page Insights – which has always been buggy, and never accurately reflected ad account metrics or page metrics.
(Check out my article Facebook ad account disabled next steps).
So, for Hubspot to say, essentially, “There there, no worries, Facebook will solve it all and everything will be explained in the Account Quality Page,” is straight bullshit if you are serious about fixing ad account restrictions.
Facebook Ad Account Restriction: Look Deeper
Facebook itself is under fire from PR storms, privacy issues as well as a stupid amount of hackers and spammers creating imposter accounts on a whole new level.
Why is my Facebook account restricted from advertising for no reason?
Facebook’s automations flag based on machine logic and pattern behavior, usually if you get shut down out of nowhere it’s because you’ve done a series of smaller Facebook ad policy violations that added up to a threshold.
Are actual humans reviewing the ads?
No, most of the time, unless you’re a special ad category, machines review and decide the fate of almost all Facebook ads.
How worried should I be about Fake News?
As recently reported, Facebook or Meta has pulled out of being a source for news. Be careful what and how you say anything to do with news, medical facts and covid 19.
To be honest, you have to switch how you think of Facebook ads up. And approach things from a machine-learning perspective. Despite the mad rush to AI-everything right now, the majority of advertisers on Facebook fail to consider how machines are automated for policy flagging before running ads.
Facebook Ad Account Restriction New Solution
Ad agencies: tired of getting the silent treatment from Facebook when all you want to do is get your Facebook ads live and revenue in the door?
I’m a Facebook ad policy specialist who worked at Facebook and I’m trusted by high level brands that take accuracy and results seriously.
I can show you how to resolve FB bans even if Facebook ad support is useless to resolve ad account restrictions.
Don’t lose any more money from Facebook bans and schedule your call with me now.
Don’t take my word for it, let my clients tell you what it was like working with me:
It shouldn’t be a mystery on what to do to recover from a ban. I strive for customer satisfaction, being a business owner myself.
My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. How much is it costing you to have a disabled Facebook ad account? Talk today.
I’m featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith’s Marketing Essentials Course.
If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure expert-level Facebook consulting. Book a call with me now!
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