Essential Facebook Ad Policies to Know [Ultimate Guide]

 

There are essential Facebook ad policies you must know before running ads on Facebook. One of the biggest mistakes most advertisers make is to think only of conversions instead of asking, “Will Facebook even approve my ads?”

How much of an expert are you on Facebook ad policies? That is a trick question. Unless you work at Facebook, you won’t know half of them, given there are thousands of banned words, and ad policies you are supposed to know and follow but are not told about. Are your Facebook ads blocked? Click here for expert guidance.

Before publishing an ad it is essential to know the risks that an ad contains to getting your entire funnel shut down by the automations Facebook relies on to enforce their ad policies.

You’re in luck – I’ve worked at Facebook for years, way before they came up with “Meta” and can provide answers on how to follow their ad policies. Like the social media marketing team of Tony Robbins found out when I prescreened all their Facebook ads for compliance, in the Knowledge Broker Blueprint launch - understanding how Facebook's automations flag helps you to prevent getting flagged.

Want the same VIP treatment I gave their team? Schedule a discovery call here.

So, let's pause for a second, and focus on getting familiar with Facebook’s ad policies, prior to clicking that publish button. It is important to ensure that the ad complies with the advertising policies in order not to get rejected.

Want a TLDR? For the most common Facebook ad policies explained click here.

1. Understanding Why Facebook Has Ad Policies

From Facebook:

Simply put – Meta’s Facebook ad policies are an instruction manual to help you know what you can and can’t do. Like no before-and-after pics for weight loss ads. If Facebook didn’t have any ad policies at all, clickbait farms from third-world countries would dominate your feed with the spammiest, identity-stealing garbage you can imagine.

It’s also for Facebook’s protection. If Meta allowed any ad to run and there were ads showing illegal activities – then Meta would be the one getting sued first. Then the advertiser. Each time an ad is submitted by an advertiser, it is reviewed against these policies.

This is a multi-step process that is completed within 24 hours or less. If you have an ad that is stuck in review for longer than 24 hours, you’ll want to contact Facebook ad support. You can contact Facebook through this most recent link (you’ll have to had run ads first that spent money to have access to this link).

Something to note: Depending on what part of the world you’re in, this link may not work because you have to contact Facebook ad support during their business hours 8am-4pm CST ish. These hours change depending on staffing.

For an in depth look at the top reasons why Facebook disables ad accounts click here.

Here are some of the top issues Facebook flags for, sourced from Meta itself:

2. Reviewing Facebook Ads

Here’s a tip: before you hit that “Submit” button [cinematic build-up music] make sure to review your ads to make sure they are compliant first. Every advertisement on the Newsfeed of Facebook or Instagram has to be approved and up to snuff for your ads to go live. If you're looking for the scoop on the top reasons that Facebook ads get rejected click here.

But what should you focus on when reviewing your ad before submitting it for Facebook’s automations to review? I’m going to break down the elements of a Facebook ad that will be considered during the review process, in order of priority:

• Ad copy above the creative
• Ad headline
• Destination URL matching Display URL [If Applicable]
• Landing page
• Privacy Policy
• Ad creative
• Type of business

3. The Ad Review Process [in depth]

Ad Copy Above the Creative

The riskiest part of your Facebook ad is the ad copy you’ve written that goes above the image or video of your ad’s creative. Facebook’s automations scan this first and foremost. You use a banned word, or frame your advertisement in a spammy or clickbait way – these words alone will get your ad shut down.

Ad Headline

If the headline – the words right beneath your ad’s creative – sound like they are breaking ad policies, Facebook will flag that next.

Destination URL Matching Display URL

If your display URL doesn’t match the actual destination page’s URL in a Traffic campaign objective ad, then Facebook will flag you for trying to deceive their machines. So be careful about those bridge pages between your ad and the main sales page.

Landing Page Contents

Your ads will be rejected if the content on the landing page is against Facebook’s ad policies or is not fully functional. Check out my blog post on how to fix a non functional landing page for more information on this.

Also, consider ad sense here as well. If your Facebook ad shows one product or service but your lander shows an entirely different one – you’ll get put on the radar if not shut down.

Privacy Policy

Every landing page connected to your Facebook ad must display a privacy policy. This privacy policy has to be reviewed and approved by Meta. If your privacy policy is not compliant or nonexistent this alone will get you shut down.

Ad Creative

After reviewing all of the above, the automations then scan your video or your still image to see if it is following Facebook’s advertising policies. So, while not the first thing Facebook scans, it is still vital to keep your images compliant. If they look crazy, unrealistic, spammy, etc you’ll be rejected.

Type of Business

Let’s not forget that certain types of businesses are not allowed on Facebook. If you are just so eager to run ads you didn’t stop to think:

“Is my type of biz even allowed on Facebook?”

Then you may have wasted a lot of time. If you’re running an MLM, that isn’t allowed on Facebook. Anything to do with student loans isn’t allowed on Facebook. Cryptocurrency ads aren’t allowed on Facebook (just educational how-to ads about that topic and that’s a slippery slope.” CBD isn’t allowed on Facebook. And more.

Once you’ve submitted your ad to the machines, the automations will decide whether or not your ad should be approved within 24 hours. You’ll get an email (filtered by gmail into the promotions tab or social tab) from Facebook that your ad has been approved.

Or your Business Manager will have the notification.

But don’t rely on Facebook to tell you this, they often forget to send the notification, so you’ll need to manually check your Ads Manager to determine if your ad was approved or not.

Before placing an ad on Facebook, be sure to check an essential Facebook ad policy to know: prohibited content. What’s prohibited content?

4. Prohibited Content Includes:

Keep in mind that there are specific instructions for each segment of Facebook’s prohibited content above. Dating for example is allowed on Facebook but has to follow extra stringent requirements.

The same is true for anyone advertising jobs, politics or real estate – due to the special ad categories. If your ad falls under the “social interest” category – even if by mistake – then the automations will require more rules for you to follow.

Facebook changes every few months, so if you’ve been looking for the old “prohibited content” policies, they are actually split up now into five categories:

1. Unacceptable Content
2. Deceptive Content
3. Dangerous Content
4. Objectionable Content
5. Content-specific restrictions

The last section is where we get into the weeds of ad policies more where some types of businesses like dating or gambling may be allowed but with restrictions on how they can advertise.

What confuses advertisers like yourself is that there is not one set of policies that apply identically to all types of businesses. The ad policies are specifically tailored to your type of company. For the most part.

Real estate ads for example have certain ad policies only realtors have to follow that isn’t the same for other industries also advertising on Facebook.

Same goes for crypto type ads. Meaning – just because you may have understood one industry’s Facebook ad policies, doesn’t mean that will always translate to another product or service if it is in a different vertical.

5. TLDR for What Is Not Allowed on FB

Above Facebook shows you some of the many ad policies you have to follow. You’re like, “Woah. I don’t have time to pour through 10,000 pages of ad policies.” I feel you. I’m a Facebook ad policy specialist and I’ve worked at Facebook in ads, tech and my projects have been announced by Mark Zuckerberg at Meta.

I offer consulting if you need it and are eligible. But in the meantime, here is a quick and dirty TLDR for what is not allowed on Facebook:

• Don’t try to sell weapons like knives, tasers, explosives or guns
  Keep in mind the automations may flag you if you even talk about these things. Watch your use of idioms.
• Adult content to minors
  Whether your ads are exposing cleavage, or selling alcohol – make sure your Facebook Page is age-gated for 18 and up or 21 and up depending on your state.
• Shocking content
  graphic violence, bright flashing lights that induce seizures, things that are too shocking may be flagged.
• Personal attributes
  Any ad that makes Facebook users feel singled out negatively is going to risk this flag. Don’t run ads the negatively call out Facebook users’ religion, beliefs, race, ethnic origin, sexual practices, medical condition, gender identity, or financial status
• Misleading Ads
  If your ad promises an unrealistic amount of money, or results you’re going to get hit with Misleading Business Practices flag
• Social issues ads or politically exploitative content
  Be careful how you word things if you are not doing social issues. If you say specific phrases that make FB think you’re a social issues ad – they’ll flag you for this even if you aren’t
• Popup Boxes on landing pages that interfere with a Facebook user’s ability to leave the page
  This is considered really click bait-y by FB
• Malware
  Just don’t try to spam people with malware, simple.
• Bad Grammar or punctuations, symbols, letters and numbers.
  Because of all the spammers using Google to translate words into English, your grammar is looked at by FB’s automation
• Fake Buttons
  If you have one of those images of a video with a fake play button Facebook doesn’t like this at all for CTA button on images which are not real
• Exaggerated Results before-and after-images
  Whether you’re in weight loss, money making, start-a-business or health if your testimonials or result pics look too over-the-top Facebook will flag you as spam
• Advertisements that promote payday loans
  Loans in general are hard to advertise for on FB, I’d steer clear of it
• Fake Landing Pages
  Clickbait farms, MLMs and affiliates try to use techniques to disguise the content on ads or landing pages. They’ll put a link in a Traffic ad to a lander that is compliant but put a redirect to another lander that converts higher but is totally not compliant. This is one of the worst flags you can get that will lead to your IP address getting blocked and your profile restricted from advertising so don’t do it.

6. Restrictive Content vs Prohibited

Restrictive content are ads that can be published on Facebook but are close to being prohibited so they have extra strings attached. The main element here is the fact that Facebook itself has to follow local laws where your ads appear.

Because of this, certain types of businesses have extra scrutiny because by allowing these types of businesses on Facebook, Meta is taking a legal risk.

Any product or service that your city, town or state has laws about will fall under the restrictive content.

Let’s start with the most obvious ones:

• Ads that advertise real online money gambling or real money lotteries
  Also included is bingo or sports books or online real money casinos. Facebook will only allow lotteries run by the government.
• Alcohol ads must comply with local laws of the state you’re running ads in
  Any additional guidelines or licenses specific to the region you’re running ads in also apply. Make sure your targeting an audience above the legal age to drink where you’re advertising
• Dating
  You’ll need written permission, just like gambling, before you can place ads that promote online dating services. These ads have to follow dating targeting requirements and guidelines for dating quality.
• Online pharmacies (and offline)
  This is another written permission from a Facebook ad. You have to get that first for any ads promoting offline and online pharmacies to be approved.
• Herbal and dietary supplements
  These can only target users 18 years and older
• Subscription services
  These are considered restrictive content and you’ll need permission to place these type of ads on Facebook.
• Copyright Infringement
  If you are using a major brand name you’ll need a licensing agreement. FB may let it slide the first time but it’s a minefield waiting to be stepped on if you’re name dropping without an affiliate agreement

7. Future-Proofing Your Facebook Ads

“Move fast and break things,” is the old philosophy Facebook championed. The “move fast” part is big right now. Because Facebook’s ad policies change so much, sometimes things that used to be ok are flagged later as noncompliant.

In order to have a chance at keeping your ads live there are a few best practices I’ll share.

Know who is on your Business Manager

I can’t tell you how many times an advertiser I worked with had every ad perfectly compliant – or only a small flag – but someone else was way worse on their Business Manager. So, keep tabs on who is in the People section of your Business Manager’s Business Settings.

Are they running ads elsewhere? If so, the quality of those ads will affect all the ads you have running in your ad accounts.

Only let people you know for a fact are not running ads elsewhere in your Business Manager. Make sure you know what type of ads -and have actually seen them- they are running elsewhere to protect your assets.

Otherwise FB will trace anything and everything that one person is connected to even if they are just having fun “experimenting” and they will shut you down if you’re connected.

Look at your ads from Facebook’s POV

What’s important to Facebook? Keeping Facebook users on Facebook. Fighting fake news. Staying out of PR battles. Not making Facebook users feel bad with overly negative copy.

Not sure where the line is for what's too negative and what isn't? When I worked with Harv Eker, author of the Good Millionaire, I customized his ads to balance that line perfectly. Schedule a call here to find out more.

Put your Facebook glasses on and look at your ads again and make sure they are compliant on a regular basis. Check the ad policies on a regular basis as Personal Attributes and Prohibited Content have changed recently. Hire an expert in Facebook ad policies to prescreen your ads for compliance before they go live

Focus on Compliance First – Then Conversions

I know we all want money to rain from the sky – and that’s great. However, reframe how you think about Facebook ads:

How much money are you losing from Facebook ads getting rejected or Facebook ad accounts getting disabled? Or from Facebook Business Managers getting restricted from advertising? [Check out my popular article on what to do if your Facebook ad account gets disabled]

That sweet spot – a converting ad that is also compliant – is what you want to aim for. Just realize, since you’re running ads within Facebook’s ecosystem, focus on compliance first then look at how you can get your ads to highly convert while still following the ad policies.

This is a much more sustainable pathway than trying to sneak around the ad policies, being naïve or ignorant of them, or just being lazy pressing “submit” without taking the time to review your ads for compliance issues.

I totally get it, having run my own social media marketing Facebook ads agency before – you want sales, your clients want sales, you just want to get there as cheaply as possible while making the most amount of money.

The time, energy, and money that is wasted when Facebook shuts you down can be avoided. What if there was a way to make sure that every ad you submitted for review was already pre-approved?

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. I'm a Facebook ad policy specialist and can audit your funnel, and share what to say that Facebook wants to see instead - but just isn't telling you.

Want to book a call to talk to Facebook and get results? Get solid answers directly from the source instead of 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 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? My calendar is here.

I get 100s of emails a week from businesses and advertisers asking for help when their facebook ad account keeps getting disabled, so my calendar gets booked fast. But if you want to get to the front, you can pre-pay for a consulting session here: Book a call

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.