Facebook Ad Account Restricted? Here’s How to Fix It

Is your facebook ad account restricted and you want to fix it?

If you had a punching bag with a picture of Facebook on it, I’m sure it would be hard to resist a few jabs, crosses and left hand hooks if your Facebook ad account has been restricted.

My last ad guide, Facebook Ad Not Approved provided the 3 Best Practices for Facebook Ads Checklist (policy-wise). It’s helped a lot of people saves time and energy when auditing their ads before going live.

“Facebook ad account restricted” – that’s a phrase that strikes fear and frustration into the hearts of ad agencies worldwide. If you’ve experienced the agony of being left in the dark, struggling to find answers and resolutions from Facebook, you’re not alone.

It’s a common tale of countless marketers who face the silent treatment when their ad accounts are restricted, with no clear path to recovery. But you’re in luck finding this blog because I’ve worked at Facebook for many years and I’m here to shine a light on the murky waters of ad account restrictions.

(Also a good roadmap: What to Do After Violating Facebook’s Ad Policies)

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. 

Facebook Ad Account Restricted: Violating Content

There is a secret book of thousands of flags that Facebook will use to shut you down. Many of these flags are not even understood by the engineers at Facebook because they don’t run Facebook ads for profit, just testing.

If you asked Facebook some examples for violating content they refuse to tell you a damn thing:

“Ads must go through our ad review process and comply with our Advertising Standards. If we find that an advertiser runs ad content that severely or repeatedly violates our policies, we may apply advertising restrictions on their Business Account, ad account, Page or user account.”

As you can see, clearly Facebook has not said 1 single thing about what kind of copy they consider a violation of their ad policies. But no worries, I got you covered.

And don’t give up on the big FB yet – Facebook provides the highest return on investment of all paid channels for a majority of companies. More than 1 in 3 listed Facebook ads as their best performer in terms of ROI, ahead of Google Paid Search and Instagram (HubSpot)

Let’s talk about the misunderstandings the bots have when you attempt to navigate the hurdles of getting flagged before your facebook ad account’s restricted.

Facebook Ad Account Restricted: Evading enforcement

Let’s say you ran some ads, and got shut down and didn’t know what to do, so you ran some new ads instead. Facebook will automatically assume you are a spammer for doing this.

Just hear how Facebook phrases it: “Evading enforcement.” If you didn’t know any better you’d think Facebook was describing Dog the Bounty Hunter skip tracing a deadbeat dad in Florida evading paying child support.

With Meta, aka Facebook, it’s always assumed you are guilty first before innocent. If you keep that in mind, you’ll understand why we need to get super granular on your ad copy being compliant before ads go live. (Check out my article Facebook ad account disabled next steps).

As Liana Lang, CEO of Power Up Strategy Inc. said, “Please meet Trevor, my ‘secret weapon’ for all things Facebook compliance. I highly recommend hiring him to help you out especially if you plan to be running ads.”

Want the same white glove treatment navigating Facebook shutdowns?

Click here, to schedule a discovery call.

Facebook Ad Account Restricted: Account authenticity

You ever wonder why so many people get locked out of their Facebook profiles? It’s because Facebook is trying to stop the hundreds of thousands of spammers in 3rd world countries from taking over Facebook.

This is a real threat – not an exaggerated one. I’ve run multiple Facebook Groups with many thousands of members and I’ll tell ya, we got floods of spammers trying to join every day from Bangladesh, Mumbai, the Phillippines and more.

Facebook’s official line is:

“Accountability and transparency into who is running an ad is critical to the integrity of our ads ecosystem, and we want to support authentic connections between people and businesses. If we find that an inauthentic user account set up an ad account, Page or Business Account to run ads, an advertiser may face advertising restrictions.”

But back to why people get locked out of their Facebook Profiles that create the Facebook Business Pages, Facebook Ad Accounts and Facebook Business Managers:

If you log in from a new place Facebook will assume you are not an authentic account and give you multiple security challenges.

Don’t blow this off and use an old email you don’t have access to for your Facebook Profile because that can literally crash your ad campaigns when you cannot respond to a security check Facebook sends you.

Navigating Facebook’s Advertising Policies as a Business is a good read too.

Facebook Advertising restrictions for unusual activity

Piggybacking off the last flag if your Profile authenticity is questioned, let’s talk about the danger of assumptions in the Facebook ecosphere.

If you try to log in to your Business Manager from new locations outside your normal zip codes – especially new countries – Facebook will assume you have been hacked.

This kind of assumption will tank your entire funnel. Because if Facebook labels you as a bad actor early on – not only are your ad accounts disabled, it’s likely you may be locked out of accessing even more features.

The solution is not a VPN. Those get flagged too. It’s to either add someone from your team that lives in the country you’re visiting, to your Page roles or Business Manager roles or both or to change your Personal Profile’s location for the city you live in.

Or just don’t fucking risk your entire funnel by being lazy and not paying attention to where you are when you log in to Facebook, and Facebook’s ad and business tools.

Like, be mindful. If you don’t have to, don’t log into Facebook’s business suite when you’re traveling and if you have to – plan this out better ahead of time, knowing the risk of getting shut down and doing preventative tasks to avoid this happening.

Did you already say something that got your Facebook ad account disabled?

Don’t get ripped off! Read How to Recover Facebook Ad Accounts now

Or you can just get access to me and get my best practices. Imagine having access to someone who has firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of Facebook’s automation systems and their impact on advertisers’ accounts.

As a result of my unique experience collaborating directly with Facebook’s engineers, I offer a level of expertise that surpasses any other professional in the field who are just guessing at why you’re in Facebook jail.

Let me leverage my combined tech and advertising background to help your ad agency overcome the hurdles of restricted Facebook ad accounts and achieve exceptional results.Schedule a free discovery call here. Or, if you’re in a rush, prepay for your consulting call and skip the line.

Your ads have been rejected for policy violations

Your ad account was banned for too many rejected ads

Ever been arrested? It goes on your record. Facebook keeps a similar record and every rejected Facebook ad is like getting arrested. Even if you’re not convicted, the arrest is on your record.

Some of my clients before working with me, actually thought Facebook doesn’t track as much as it does but, consider running ads a mini-criminal-background check every time you hit submit.

Facebook’s bots keep track of every rejected ad. They automatically cross reference this database when you submit a new ad for review. If you cross a ratio of more rejected than approved ads, you’ll get banned. So, keep an eye on that ratio to avoid a band.

Already completely banned?

If you are running ads and spending $100K a year or more on ads, I can help with that.

Also check out: Top Reasons Why Facebook Disables Ad Accounts

Facebook account has been restricted from advertising for security reasons

Banks run the country and are bailed out despite many American’s abject hatred of socialism lol. Well, banks can fuck up your advertising on Facebook too. Let me tell you why.

If Facebook gets the idea you are trying to run ads and not pay for them like teenagers trying to steal beer from a gas station.

Here’s the hidden truth:Banks have automations just like Facebook does for financial security. Obviously not the same type of automation, and of course lacking all machine learning. BUT:

You may have told your bank that Facebook ad charges were cool, but unless you have alerts on your phone set up, there is still a high chance your bank will block Facebook ad charges and not tell you.

When that happens, Facebook assumes you are a sneaky teen in a gas station trying to steal some shit, and assumes you are trying to cut and run.

So don’t just double check, triple check your bank and make sure you have alerts on your phone set up as well as checking your online banking account for pending charges. This will save you a huge headache.

If you’re like Sean Schmitt, Executive Manager of Marketing & Technology for Stewart J. Guss, Attorney at Law, you don’t want to waste time trying to figure out Facebook’s automations:

“With his invaluable insight to the inner workings of Facebook and its flagging systems, & expert knowledge of Facebook ad policies, Trevor really helped our team connect the dots and refine our process and get our ad account back in good standing with Facebook.”

Click here, to schedule a discovery call.

You have too much negative feedback on your ads

Your competitors can fuck you up using the self-reporting feedback tools and hide all your ads. Facebook’s bots will then assume Facebook users hate your brand and shut down your ads.

At the same time, if you have an ad with low quality content or use bad targeting (like targeting 20 year olds with old man denture ads) Facebook users can put you in the dog house too.

Make sure you split test your ads on multiple audiences and block competitors from seeing your ads when possible. 74% of people who earn over $75k per year use Facebook (Sprout Social)

Advertising restrictions for policy violations

There’s a number of ad restrictions you can get that aren’t a total shut down. Sometimes Facebook will just limit a few features like the ability to post on your Facebook Page or use videos if they feel you are abusing these features.

Really, the list is endless for why you could have gotten shut down but it isn’t impossible to figure out. You just may have to hire an expert that knows the playing field to avoid being blind sighted by another facebook ad account restriction. 

Facebook ad account restricted – what does it mean?

If your ad account is restricted it means a few things:

‣ You can’t run any Facebook ads
‣ You have a black mark on your Business Manager
‣ Your ability to run future ads is threatened
‣ You must do an equal amount of positive actions to undo this
‣ You may need to relaunch in a new Business Manager

How did I get myself restricted from advertising on Facebook?

That’s the million dollar question right? How did I get myself restricted on Facebook? It could be a number of things. For one, you simply could’ve just had too many rejected ads.

Remember when I made the analogy between getting arrested and having ads rejected? If you have 0 convictions but 20 arrests and then apply for a job with the State, how do you think HR will treat you compared to a candidate without any arrests?

Facebook is the same way. Also, you could have been restricted because of a special ad category issue, or a major violation such as denying covid is real.

There are industry-specific violations for gambling ads, political ads, real estate ads, and if you’re trying to run CBD, forex or crypto ads (don’t).

When my client Happi Digital, an eCommerce Agency hired me to audit their Facebook ads, I uncovered flags that if left alone could have shut down their entire ad agency.

Need Facebook ad policy expert too? Schedule a call with me right now.

Why is my Facebook advertising account restricted?

Sometimes you’ve simply said one word in the wrong context. Keep in mind that Facebook will assume you are guilty first not innocent.

I see a lot of folks shut down for Personal Attributes flags (check out my Personal Attributes Guide here).

A TLDR answer to this question is: You’ve done something that the Facebook automations do not like or have misinterpreted. You’ll want to try to audit your funnel and correct these errors with compliant copy. 

How can I tell if my account was restricted?

In a perfect world, Facebook would email you right away saying, “Your account was disabled at this date and time because of XYZ.” But, that’s not the world we live in right?

In your Business Manager you should see a list of your ad accounts in the Business Manager settings and next to the list of ad accounts, you’ll see a sign that says it’s disabled.

Your Business Manager may show you this in your notifications too. But, if you can’t run ads from your ad account, that’s a pretty big tell your account was restricted.

What do I do if my Facebook account is restricted from advertising?

The first thing you should do if your Facebook ad account is restricted from advertising is to stop everything you’re doing and look at the state of each ad asset:

‣ Business Manager
‣ Facebook Business Page
‣ Ad Accounts (besides the restricted one)

It’s possible to relaunch in a new ad account as long as your new ads don’t have the same flags as the old ad account that was banned. The first thing you need to do is establish the integrity of all of your ad assets before taking any new actions.

If you need help rewriting ad copy to be compliant with Facebook I offer a prescreen service – book a discovery call here.

To troubleshoot your restricted account:

This is a conversation with machines – whether you realize it or not- you are troubleshooting the decision a machine made. You’ll need to think like a machine does to be successful.

I know you’re like, “I wasn’t expecting some Ex Machina sheeeit!” Welp. What can I say? AI is huge and it’s why you were shut down on Facebook.

Given that you are a human, reviewing machine decisions, you’ll want to be super analytical, reviewing every single component of your funnel.

I’d start with the last 5 Facebook ads you’ve run.

Start there, and audit your entire funnel and look for chances to judge yourself robotically. Imagine you were an AI designed to shut down Facebook ad accounts and see what you find.

Don’t know how to talk bot language? I’m always here to help just book a discovery call as this is my zone of genius when it comes to Facebook ad policy bots.  

How to appeal advertising restrictions

I’ll give you a solid pro tip here: appeals hinge on 2 factors to be approved:

1. Your funnel must be compliant before appealing
2. The time window has to be correct

If you have the same damn flags that got you on the radar with Facebook’s bots and you appeal – I mean that’s like running over your boss’s dog then asking him for a promotion.

You need to audit and clean your funnel first before appealing – otherwise what evidence are you giving Facebook that you should be reactivated?

Once you get back up and running make sure to include power words in your ads. Here are 5 power words to get higher response from your ads: You, Free, Because, Instantly, New (AdEspresso). Back to appealing:

TIME is super important. You have approximently 48 hours to appeal. Outside that window, ad account recovery is nearly impossible – although I have a few other options for you if you are stuck.

Just like my client Dr. Emi benefited from my funnel audits for compliance, you can too. It all starts with a free discovery call here. By the way, Dr. Emi was just featured on the Today Show on NBC.  (In a rush? Skip the line with prepaid funnel audits with VIP Access).

What are the other reasons for Facebook ad account restriction?

While it is highly unlikely it could be a glitch that got you on Facebook’s bad list. But not the glitch you think – where many advertisers think Facebook just mistakenly flagged them.

It’s possible you could have 0 ad account flags, but your payment method got flagged because of the bank rejected Facebook ad charges too many times.

So, maybe your bank is cool now, but the damage has been done and your credit card is blacklisted. That could lead to a disabled facebook ad account. Also, there is currently a bug in the payment methods tool.

And also your ads could be fine, your CC could be fine, but your website is not compliant. Your website is yours, but if it’s connected to Facebook ads, you’ll have some scrutiny. For more info read How to Fix NonFunctional Landing Pages

Having trouble defining where that line exactly is for what you can and cannot say? This is my zone of genius, schedule a free discovery call here. 

Why does Facebook restrict ad accounts without notice?

Here’s the reality behind the scenes: When I was working at Facebook I saw tons of things that were awful that Facebook users posted, or ran ads about.

You have no idea how much content is on Facebook that is just horrible, because Facebook takes it down before you see it. From terrorists, to abductions, to the worst kind of slurs and hate speech – and not some butthurt BS but threats of violence.
I say that to say this: Facebook has a better safe than sorry approach. This doesn’t work well at scale at 2.5 billion daily users but it works – somewhat.

Facebook will disable your ad account if you give the bots the wrong impression and can be typecast as a bad actor on some level. So, reputation management digitally and robotically is super key to keeping your ads live on Facebook.

Final thoughts: how to prevent Facebook’s ad account restrictions?

The best way to recover disabled facebook ad accounts is a preventative measure:  frequently audit your Facebook ads before they go live.

Ensure they are compliant and make sure that’s as important as your conversion metrics. Stay up to date with new changes Facebook makes to their ad policies.

facebook ad account restricted: Learn More

The say every good business owner understands the value of delegation and doesn’t wear all the hats. If you’re a good business owner, instead of doing it all, you delegate what you’re not so great at so you can focus on scaling what you are great at.

Let me help you do that and get back to focusing on what you’re great at.

If you’re blindly trusting social media marketing agencies who know how to make ads convert but not the inner workings of Facebook ad policies, you’re selling yourself short and it’s a risky proposition.

Want to eliminate risk and have a 100% guarantee your Facebook ads are compliant before going live? Keep reading for these answers and more: 

New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations

After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant.

Get solid answers directly from the source instead guessing, googling, and playing roulette. Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.

You’ll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled.

My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. I’m featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith’s Marketing Essentials Course.

Save energy and money – how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? Talk today. 



If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now!

If you’re ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you’re eligible – Schedule a call or contact me via email.