Facebook Ad Not Approved? How to Get Your Facebook Ad Approved

Why was my Facebook ad not approved?

There are many reasons why Facebook rejects an ad, including: Selling products not allowed on Facebook (tobacco, illegal products or services, weapons, etc …). Making sensational claims, using click-bait, or promoting misinformation. Facebook relies on automations which don’t read human context.

As someone who has worked at Facebook I can share insights to guide you to a better solution than banging your head against the wall when Facebook goes silent after ads are rejected.

My last blog, Cracking the Code: Understanding Facebook Ads Policy provided the popular Facebook Ads Dos and Don’ts guide.

But in this article, I’ll share why Facebook ads are not approved, what the process is behind these Facebook ad rejections, how long it takes and share  what to do if your Facebook ad is not approved and how to fix it.

How long does Facebook’s ad review process take?

When I worked in advertising at Facebook, we had a policy that still holds true today – new Facebook ads submitted for review take up to 24 hours.

That means it could take a full day before you get the yay or nay from Facebook’s automations.

If it takes longer than that, you should reach out to Facebook ad support for assistance. BUT beware of false information.

Even established brands like Hubspot get it wrong in their outdated article about the Facebook ad review process when they say: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.

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 was my Facebook ad not approved?

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?

There are countless reasons why Meta | Facebook rejects an ad, 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.

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.

You have to look deeper at the specific ad policies your ad triggered review for and how that relates to your industry for industry-specific facebook ad policies flags.

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.

3 Common Reasons for Rejected Facebook Ads

1. Personal Attributes

One of the most common reasons why Facebook ads are rejected, are for violating the Personal Attributes. Too often advertisers try to kick the pain points in an ad and end up making Facebook users feel singled out.

You want to avoid sounding overly negative and be very careful when using “you” and “your” with physical, emotional or financial attributes.

Take a look at Navigating Facebook’s Advertising Policies as a Business if you’re looking to go from ignorance on Facebook ad policy to having some clarity.

2. Sounding like an MLM

I know I know you’re saying,”But I’m not an MLM Trevor, this is just crazy!” It’s really easy to get false-flagged as an MLM. It’s super common.

Usually, if your ad copy has a giant promise, combined with a specific period of time, this can get you flagged as a pyramid scheme. So be aware of that and do your best to sound realistic.

It’s that time again – let’s debunk another piece of false information:


This is an old ass policy that no longer exists. The text-to-image ratio used to be that you don’t want over 20% of the image covered in text in a Facebook ad. You’d even get ads rejected for this.

But, that is no longer a real facebook ad policy. You may get your distribution slightly suppressed if you have too much text on your image. But, it is no longer a big enough flag to outright reject your entire ad. #liveandlearn

3. Sounding Spammy

I know, this sounds super generic but it’s true –  if your ad’s tone is too salesy you’ll endanger its chance of survival in the Facebook ad auction.

Be aware of what is already performing well on Facebook – and that some ads that are super click bait-y may still be on your newsfeed. But that doesn’t mean they are greenlit by Facebook’s automations.

It only means that for now their facebook ads are live. Just because you see a super spammy ad doesn’t mean you can create one as well – that’s false logic.

You’ll want to avoid sounding too spammy. Try to be skeptical of your own ads and look at them through the eyes of a machine whose only goal is to destroy your momentum if it thinks you sound spammy.

Then, tone down some of your ad copy, how hard you kick the pain points and how big you make your promises for results – until you get to the middle ground of having engaging copy that is also compliant with Facebook’s ad policies.

3 Best Practices for Facebook Ads

1. Review the Facebook ad policies at the same time as sales

This will help reduce the Facebook ad rejection surprise, if you keep facebook ad policies in mind while creating your sales strategy. Also, don’t give up on Facebook. Facebook is still the second most-widely used online platform, behind only YouTube. (TikTok may eclipse this – we’ll see).

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

2. Make sure your entire funnel is compliant

Facebook doesn’t just review your Facebook ad, they also look at your Facebook Business Page (your digital storefront), and your lander. You don’t want to leave ad copy that breaks policy on your LP and only make your ad itself compliant.

The whole funnel needs too follow Facebook ad policies.

3. Audit your ads before appealing

One of the dumbest mistakes even veteran ad agencies make is to resubmit a rejected Facebook ad right after it’s disapproved.

That hurts your score on the back end for your ad account. Many people do this based on the false logic that “Facebook has made a mistake.” Statistically, most of the time it’s the advertiser who made a mistake.

I can say this because I’ve worked with over 100,000 advertisers both when I worked at Facebook and in my own private practice for Facebook ad policy consulting.

TLDR: assume you are in the wrong, and find out why before submitting an ad again after a Facebook ad is disapproved.

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. 

How to appeal Facebook ad disapprovals

How to prevent or fix a Facebook ad disapproval

Establishing a baseline for what is allowed on Facebook and what is not allowed is vital. But, this can be one of the most challenging tasks you face.

If you recall what I mentioned earlier, about taking responsibility early on, instead of playing the victim, when it comes to Facebook ads not approved and not automatically assuming Facebook is wrong – it’s time to flip that on its head.

What do I mean? Well, Facebook’s automations can mistakenly approve ads that should be rejected. They are machines after all and machines break.

So, it’s possible that you have ads that were approved, but shouldn’t have been. Keep that in mind, when examining the ads you’ve run.

The best way to prevent your ads from being disapproved is to audit your funnel on a regular basis for compliance.

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

What to do for repeated or large volumes of Facebook ad disapprovals

Cause and effect: You have a shit ton of Facebook ads rejected over a 30 day period or 90 day period and now Facebook is giving you the stank eye.

The automations create a character profile of you based on your advertising history. Which means, even if you did nothing to get a disabled Facebook ad account with one major flag a bunch of tinier flags can add up.

If you have an overly extended ratio of rejected ads to approved ads, start right away repairing your ad account with ads you know will get approved. 

What to do if your Facebook advertising account is disabled

The first thing you want to do when you have a disabled facebook ad account is NOTHING. I know, sounds weird but let me explain.

Often advertisers will get themselves in worse trouble by trying to act too quickly. They appeal a disabled ad account without ever knowing why it was disabled.

This makes your facebook ad appeal weak af. If you can’t communicate to Facebook ad support why your ad account was disabled and that you’ve learned from it then, your chances of getting it reactivated are zilch.

If your Facebook ad account is disabled then the 1st thing you need to do is pause. Don’t take any actions. Then look at your funnel. Find the biggest flag that could have shut you down and evaluate the state of your ad assets:

‣ Business Manager
‣ Ad Account
‣ Facebook Page
‣ Personal Profile
‣ Ad History

Then after, you can make the best decision to get your ads live again. Need more help? Just schedule a discovery call with me – Facebook ad policy is my zone of genius.

Edit or create a new ad

I only tell this to my clients whose funnel I’ve audited: once you have the exact reason why your Facebook ad was not approved – you can edit it and resubmit it for approval.

But, I usually only give this guidance once I’ve determined why an ad was rejected. The difference in my methods is I’m not guessing, since I’ve worked in ads at Facebook, I can tell without a doubt why an ad was rejected.

That, or simply create a new fresh ad without the same flags as the old one, as I mentioned earlier in this article. 

Request another review of your ad

ONE of the biggest mistakes ad agencies make is to repeatedly request a review for a disabled Facebook ad account or rejected Facebook ad without ever knowing why they were shut down.

This is the equivalent of kicking your TV when the signal is shaky. Sometimes, you get lucky and this brute force approach works. But most of the time it hurts more than helps because you annoy the fuck out of Facebook and lose what remaining appeal chances you have.

Me? I’ll open up a dialogue with Facebook ad support first, before submitting an appeal, to get it on their radar.

And of course, I audit the funnel to determine the actual reason for a Facebook ban before ever contacting Facebook.

How to Get a Facebook Ad Approved

Really the best policy is to warm up new ad accounts before going into the hard-sell campaigns.

This gets Facebook a lot more friendly towards you – from an automations level – and more likely to approve more ads of yours.

Let’s put it this way – if you have a great history with Facebook without a shit ton of shut downs, then those ads which are on-the-line for getting rejected will often get a free pass.

Does this mean you can post any kind of ad regardless of Facebook ad policy? Of course not. But, you are more likely to have some leniency if you have a good ratio of approved ads over rejected ones.

Kinda like if you get pulled over by a cop, who sees you have 3 traffic violations this month, versus getting pulled over by a cop on the highway and when they check your license see you have a clean record.

Which traffic stop do you think will go more friendly for you?

Obviously the one with the clean record. Facebook operates in the same way. The fastest way to get a Facebook ad approved is to warm up accounts first and establish a history of approved Facebook ads before embarking on your main ads campaign that your clients hired you to run.   

How to submit a review after Facebook Ads are rejected

I like to be 100% sure I know why Facebook put a client’s ad funnel on the radar before appealing. You’re probably tired of hearing me say this but it’s really the closest to fool proof you’re going to get.

If, by some strange miracle, your ad is completely legit without a Facebook ad policy violation, then by all means appeal the fuck out of it. But there is a method that works better than others.

Before I get into the method, let me also share, that about 1% of the 1000s of ad agencies I’ve worked with actually see their ads rejected due to a glitch. 99% of the time there is a hidden ad policy flag that just isn’t obvious.

And we all know that Facebook isn’t going to communicate what that flag is. So, the chances are slim to none that it is a Facebook bug. At least not the bug you think it is.

Here’s my method for submitting a review after a Facebook ad is rejected:

I uncover the ad copy or creative or flag on the lander that causes the ad to be rejected. Then I contact Facebook ad support and let them know specifically which flag I may have been flagged for and ask for them to appeal it for me.  

This has a higher success rate than clicking on Request Review. 

Learn More

Knowledge is power, yet we have a nation full of idiots who often regurgitate memes as news and don’t research jack before quoting someone famous lol. Don’t be that guy or girl or blender (if you self identify as a blender).

But the more you know the better off you are when it comes to avoiding Facebook ad rejections.

What I see happen a lot is advertisers quoting a “fact” they saw on a Slack channel, Facebook Ad Hacks Group or reddit post and basing their handling of Facebook bans from just guessing.

I’m not guessing. I worked at Meta, my info is a lot higher quality than randos online pretending to be experts. Ever seen Jerry from Rick & Morty and Rick will say made up fact, and Jerry will just agree to go along with the crowd?



Don’t be a Jerry. Be a Rick. 

On the other hand, even if you memorized Facebook’s Ad Policies you’d still risk a shut down simply because Facebook’s bots flag you based on machine syntax not human. Facebook isn’t transparent about why you are flagged. I am.

Your ads have to follow a 1000 more rules than you are actually told about.

BUT – don’t miss out on an opportunity to never get flagged again.

What if you had a guarantee that your ads were compliant before they went live on Facebook? What if you knew 100% without guessing why your ad account was disabled? What if you knew why your Facebook ads were blocked and had a path to get ads live again?

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.