You’ve got anxious clients who keep asking you why their Facebook ads aren’t running and bringing in the moolah and all you can say is that you’re working on it. Facebook has decided to shut your client’s ad down because of a Facebook ad policy violation.
The challenge is reading between the lines when you get a Facebook ad policy violation because the reasons often seem obscure. Which ad policy did you violate? Below I’ll explain the most common ad policy violations.
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.
[Read Facebook Disabled My Account]
Facebook Ad Policy Violations
A ton of your Facebook ads have just been rejected! Another Facebook ad policy ban, dang. What do you do? Sweating, worried, you look at your account quality score:
What does this even mean? Maybe it has some answers?! Except this metric won’t actually tell you which ad policy violations weigh more heavily than others.
Was there just one ad policy violation that was the straw that broke the camel’s back? Or was it a sum total of all of them adding up?
It was a landing page issue, no wait perhaps it was controversial content (what the fuck is that?), or wait..those damn social issue flags! Facebook ad policy is not as clear as it should be.
Want to make sure your landing page doesn’t get flagged by Facebook? Click here.
I’ve spent years working at Facebook (even before the special ad category was invented) and today I’ll be blogging about Common Facebook Ad Policy Violations – Explained. Maybe all you care about is conversions, or scaling your Facebook ads to higher profits.
But FIRST you need to know how Facebook thinks to master Facebook ad policy.
Free eBook: Top 5 Reasons Agencies Fail at Facebook
How Facebook Sees Your Ads [Ad Policy]
Direct from the source for Facebook ad policy, let’s start with Facebook’s positive user experience blurb:
The average advertiser will not be able to read between the lines here and grok how Facebook’s philosophy described above applies to your funnel and your ads for Facebook ad policy. I’ll help explain. For my essential guide to Facebook ad policies click here.
“We want to help ensure that the ads don’t detract from the overall experience across our technologies.”
Marketers reading that often fail to connect the real meaning behind it to shape how they run ads and as a result, come off more click bait-y than intended, and end up in Facebook jail after breaking Facebook ad policy.
Perhaps your ad accounts in your Facebook Business Manager get disabled so now you try your personal ad account. Everything goes fine for a while then that gets disabled too. Now your profile get restricted from advertising as well.
WTF??
Reread that line above again. “We want to help ensure that the ads don’t detract from the overall experience.”
What is Facebook referring to with the overall experience?
Meta or Facebook is referring to the everyday journey of the average consumer, logging onto Facebook to check their notifications. That experience relates to how Facebook’s automations enforce Facebook ad policy.
Catching up on relatives that live in another city, seeing the Facebook Business Pages they liked, scrolling the feed for updates from their friends and websites that post news updates – this is the overall experience.
In the middle are the sponsored posts many Facebook users barely notice or distinguish from the non-ad posts. Facebook ad policy wants to protect the organic user experience as well. (Be sure to check you How to Remove a Restriction on a Facebook Ad Account).
Now let’s step into the shoes of Facebook’s policies and review the Newsfeed.
Facebook Ad Policy Progressive? Automations Are 1950s
If you want a persona, let’s look at Ward, from the hit series Leave It to Beaver.
Believe it or not, the way Facebook’s automations see Facebook posts very much align with 1950s conformism. And when they scan the Newsfeed for the Facebook ads that are running, if there is shocking content it will be removed.
For an in depth look at the top reasons why Facebook disables ad accounts click here.
Can you imagine, Ward – the father figure in Leaves It to Beaver seeing an ad on Facebook that appeared too spammy or too sexual? An even sterner expression would be on his face. He’d be outraged to see this:
Admittedly the post above is pretty dated as you can see from the older build of Facebook’s platform but perhaps that fits this analogy of a 50s sitcom dad looking at your Facebook ad with scrutiny for enforcing Facebook ad policy.
If your ad is too negative or too sexual it is going to get flagged and shut down, often without a specific explanation as to why. Because we are dealing with a very conservative Facebook 1950s sitcom dad automation, for Facebook ad policy.
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I could go on much longer about why that is – Facebook engineered their automations based on who comprises the USA (look at America’s population per Gallup 37% of Americans described their political views as moderate, 36% as conservative and 25% as liberal. Over 30% are over the age of 50).
But you didn’t come here for that did you?
How Facebook’s Core Values Shape Ad Policy Flagging
I’ll get to the Facebook ad policies you get flagged for most often soon enough. But it’s important not to skip this part because once you get how Facebook perceives ads this will help you reframe your ad copy and creative to be more compliant with Facebook ad policy.
No, that doesn’t mean you can’t kick pain points or be negative sometimes to inspire FOMO, or the need for a solution to a problem, but it does mean considering Facebook ad policies first and then conversion elements for high converting Facebook ads that follow Facebook ad policy.
So, one last time, let’s go back to Facebook’s ad policy philosophy of wanting to:
“…ensure that the ads don’t detract from the overall experience.”
If your ads are making Facebook users feel bad and they shoot a peace sign to the big FB, think about how many ads an average person sees in a day they won’t be seeing now. Are your Facebook ads blocked? Click here for expert guidance.
According to Siteeffy the average person sees over 10,000 ads a day.If you’re looking for the scoop on the top reasons that Facebook ads get rejected click here.
Transparently, I will say not all of those ads are on Facebook but a damn good amount is. One of my favorite Facebook ads SaaS blogs, Adespresso has one last Facebook statistic for this piece for how many millions view Facebook Stories:
Now this was back in 2020 – the number is even higher now. Facebook has 3.05 billion monthly and 2.09 billion daily active users as of 2024.
TLDR: If your Facebook ads are perceived as too sexual, too spammy, too clickbait-y, too misleading, too negative and Facebook users decide to get off Facebook and check out the new BeReal social media app instead or Clubhouse then…fuck that’s a truckload of money you just took from Facebook.
Facebook will 😡 your ad now and remove it because you just lost them thousands of dollars because every single ad that Facebook user saw was paying Facebook money. See how Facebook ad policy gets complex?
The kicker is Facebook has already told you this but, they have disguised these intentions behind generic wording to appear more consumer friendly (following their own policies of not being too shocking or negative). Full circle.
Now, let’s check out Facebook ad policy violations.
Circumventing Systems in Facebook Ad Policy
One of the biggest, and annoying flags you may have gotten is the Circumventing Systems flag. Facebook ad policy violations for this one are rather vague. Facebook’s official explanation for that flag is essentially, “I pity the fool who thinks they can sneak around my policies.”
Ok ok, so the automations aren’t exactly as cool as Mr. T from the A-Team. So, here’s a quick plan, study this infographic on Circumventing Systems: “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Circumventing Systems Guide 2.0
When you see Circumventing Systems, it’s confusing because it doesn’t specify the nature of your ad policy violation. Essentially it’s the external PR line that Facebook gives when you get that flag for breaking a Facebook ad policy that they won’t tell you more info about. But what does Circumventing Systems really mean? Let’s look at 3 realistic scenarios for this flag:
• Requesting people to DM you on an ad
• Trying to run an ad again that was just rejected
• Creating a new ad or ad account after shut downs
Keep in mind this is a relatively new Facebook flag that emerged late 2019ish in response to the 2019 lawsuit that waged war against real estate ads using income and zipcode targeting parameters (that lawsuit also led to the special ad categories filter). Facebook ad policy relates to bad PR for Facebook as well.
If you are requesting folks to DM you on a Facebook (or especially an Instagram) ad Facebook will assume you are trying to get around paying for clicks and flag you for circumventing the system.
Re-Submitting Rejected Ads Again
You just got a Facebook ad rejected? Oh shit! Let’s just try to run it again! That kind of dumb ass thinking is why you’re getting banned for breaking a Facebook ad policy.
Sorry not sorry for being so in your face about it but I’ve seen this thousands of times from the thousands of ad agencies I’ve worked with over the years helping them get compliant. It’s the same story every time:
“We got our ad rejected from Facebook, didn’t know why, so we tried to run it again!”
This is one of the biggest triggers for Circumventing Systems flag!! Facebook ad policy rules may be obscure, but doing the same thing and expecting different results is literally insane.
The logic is (and we are talking machine-logic) that Facebook assumes you are trying to get around their automations by sheer number of ads submitted even if these ads have flags you’d been previously shut down for.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a tactic that can work. Do I advise it? Hell no. Because eventually, when a new ad policy is distributed across the platform Facebook’s bots will rescan existing ads and shut you down for violating Facebook ad policy.
Even if the ads you were running were compliant at the time they went live.
Big agencies, who run 100s of ads in an ad set will often try to just overwhelm the automations by submitting so many ads that a few slip through that are not compliant. Or a bunch slips through depending on the bandwidth of Facebook’s servers.
Even if you are a smaller SMB, Facebook will assume that by resubmitting the same ad with the same flags again, that you are trying this tactic and that’s when you get hit with the Circumventing Systems flag. Also worth the read is Recover Facebook Ad Account Disabled.
Creating a New Ad Account or FB Page After Shutdowns
Now you’re like, ok, well, shoot, I’ll just make a new ad account. I’ll just make a new Facebook Business Page after my last one was restricted.
Well…you are in for a ride. There’s a 50/50 chance Facebook could miss this and your ads get live again. This will depend on the amount of traffic to the servers, how many ads are getting rejected and your personal history of rejections verses approvals for Facebook ad policy.
But, more often than not, Facebook sees this attempt as a way of sneaking around their ad policies and will shut you down again. Except now, you are defined as a bad character, internally, and maybe your profile gets restricted from advertising.
For this to even be a realistic strategy you gotta know WHY you broke Facebook ad policy in the first place and NOT do it again! This doesn’t mean just mash buttons until Facebook accepts your ad because that is like jump roping in a minefield.
Sure, you may not step on a bomb the first 5 to 10 skips, but that 11th or 12 time now shuts down your entire funnel? You lose A LOT more money that way than just finding the Facebook ad policy you violated and removing those flags from your funnel.
Your Facebook Profile remember is not a Facebook Business Page – it’s all your personal profile page stuff with your picture and your friends on it. You have to have a Profile to create a Business Manager and advertise on Ads Manager. That’s Facebook ad policy 101.
That’s one key to many doors, now revoked.
Don’t miss out on this interview I did on facebook ad restrictions and how to avoid them:
There is one last confusing ass reason you get the Circumventing Systems flag. One that really gets advertisers nerves in a jumble when seeing those ominous red letters in Ads Manager:
The X-Factor of Facebook Ad Policy
Facebook will often just slap the Circumventing Systems and disable ad accounts if they know you are violating ad policies, but can’t decide which one to use to shut you down with. Facebook ad policy is great right?
So in a sense, it becomes a header flag. An umbrella flag under which your actual Facebook ad policy violation flag sits. But, of course they won’t tell you about it.
Half the time they don’t know themselves because this shit is automated!
You could even go to Social Media Ad Week in New York City this year, and no one there could explain to you how and why Facebook policy automations flag some accounts but not others – but I can.
In order to solve that, you have to determine which flag triggered the Circumventing Systems flag, understanding that you aren’t actually being flagged for trying to sneak around their ad policies, but something else entirely. And remove the flags, replacing them with compliant copy. That’s the nature of Facebook ad policy.
My advice is to audit your funnel and determine which flags you have had recently that weighed the most heavily and triggered the circumventing systems flag before it gets to be too late and your ad assets are frozen.
Let’s now discuss another common Facebook ad policy violation: Clickbait.
Clickbait [Against Facebook Ad Policy]
We all know what clickbait is right? You’d be surprised how many professional marketers don’t really understand how much their ads look like clickbait. Despite having cynically remarked on almost identical clickbait ads they’ve seen themselves on social media.
Let me preface this section by saying, I can’t really tell you all the ways your ad is perceived by Facebook’s machines as clickbait just in a blog post. That would be more appropriate on a consulting call.
Below, I’ll highlight some of the reasons why your ads may be flagged as clickbait, leading to Facebook ads disabled. But first, let’s get clear on what exactly that is.
Wikipedia defines clickbait as:
“A ‘teaser’ aims to exploit the ‘curiosity gap’, providing just enough information to make readers of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content. Clickbait headlines add an element of dishonesty, using enticements that do not accurately reflect the content being delivered.”
Why this is a huge @#$%&!ing deal right now: hackers have multiplied like rabbits due to the war in Ukraine, and bad economics globally. (For the most comprehensive guide on the internet for helping to solve being hacked on Facebook click here)
Even grandma’s art page has been hacked in Illinois – and Facebook won’t help you. Suffice to say, if your ads feel like the type of clickbait hackers use, you may be mistakenly labeled one by Meta.
If your ads seem like clickbait, Facebook will shut you down. That means trying to over promise bigger results than feel realistic.
Ole Ward is shaking his index finger at you from his 1950s couch and saying, “Now now, that doesn’t sound realistic at all.”
If your ad is talking about “one weird trick” or “the leading doctor revealing the No. 1 worst carb you’re eating,” or “The $$$ Moneymaking Secret that Banks Don’t Want You To Know” then it will be flagged as clickbait.
Negativity
Misconception: Make people feel bad about their problem to buy your solution.
We see it all the time, an ad calling attention to a big pain point we have and then offering the solution if we click on a CTA button
That’s fine and dandy but there is a threshold of negativity that if you cross it by certain degrees, will then get your ads flagged or your Facebook ad account disabled.
Maybe you even get a Circumventing Systems flag out of the blue when in reality, you were just too much of a debbie downer in your ad copy and it is now flagged for not following Facebook ad policy.
My advice is to keep your ads more positive to avoid higher CPAs and possible Facebook ad policy shutdowns.
Sexual Content
TOO SEXY FOR MY SHIRT / ADS
Before Drake sampled this song, Gen Zers prolly never heard it lol.
It’s a pretty common flag in the beauty industry. From skincare ads, to bikini ads or even gambling ads (that’s a whole rabbit hole to go down). If you are showing too much cleavage Facebook is gonna 187 your ad.
There is such a fine line between what Facebook will allow for a sexy ad and what they will ban. Often this has to do with distance, angles, and perspective as far as following Facebook ad policy goes.
Some of my clients have had models in bikinis I had to coach them on how to get compliant with.
Can you imagine old fashioned Ward from Leave It to Beaver opening his newspaper, then widening his eyes in shock, jumping in his seat seeing this ad?
I can’t even believe Facebook has that image on their policies page!
For real, that shit looks straight pornographic. But Facebook felt the need to put that image on their Adult Content ad policies page because someone actually tried to run this as an ad!
Whew! You wouldn’t believe the ads I saw when I worked in the ads department at Facebook that people felt they could get away with. And yet, Facebook ad policy itself is not well explained.
There is a certain ratio of exposed skin you have to maintain when doing any images of women on Facebook.
Yes, I said it, women. Men can bare their chests all day on Facebook (for the most part although there is one exception to this) but women cannot. Damn patriarchy social media!
When you are creating ads that have cleavage and legs keep Ward in mind and how he may feel seeing this with his 1950s conformist views. That will help with Facebook ad policy.
Unacceptable Business Practices
Remember Circumventing Systems as a header flag for a litany of unrelated flags? Same thing here.
You gotta keep in mind a lot of stuff is unacceptable to Facebook ad policy.
When you get flagged for an unacceptable business practice ad it could be 1 of 3 main header flags:
• Spam
• Unrealistic Claims
• MLM
Also, this flag is known as Misleading Business Practices within Facebook ad policy rules.
I go into a lot more detail on Spam flags in my blog post How to Avoid Bans so peep that out for more details.
Remember when I mentioned the big promises of clickbait ads? This is kind of like a clickbait-lite flag. Facebook doesn’t come down as harshly most of the time for unrealistic claims unless you just have a whole bunch of them in a row.
Or, you just sound like a lunatic with something like “Lose 100lbs in 5 days with this new weight loss program.”
Are you starting to see how within the Facebook ecosystem, many of these flags are connected?
Clickbait flags are connected (but aren’t the same thing) as Unrealistic Claims. Circumventing Systems are connected to Unrealistic Claims (but aren’t the same) in both being header flags sometimes for unrelated Facebook ad policy violations.
MLM flags usually have to do with, although not exclusively, money. Talking about how much money you can make people online is a dangerous topic to approach given these MLM flags for Facebook ad policy.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How to fix ad account disabled on facebook
Your first step should always be to stop active ads running with the same copy as the rejected ad, then audit your funnel for flags, and appeal using the strategy outlined in the appeal section of the FAQs
2. How to enable my disabled facebook ad account
If you have a spare ad account in your Facebook Business Manager that you can run ads from, feel free to. BUT, identify the micro and major flags FIRST, so as not to repeat the same mistake.
3. How to appeal a disabled facebook ad account
As far as how to appeal a disabled Facebook ad account, you’ll get 48 hours to make your appeal. The best strategy is to communicate to Meta | Facebook that:
A. You understand WHY you were banned.
B. You are committed to following the policies from here on out.
C. You have identified and REMOVED the offending content from your funnel.
You can also get some top tips on facebook ad policy in this complimentary eBook: Top 5 Reasons Agencies Fail at Facebook
4. how to get disabled ad account up and running
Depending on how long your ad account was disabled, sometimes, if your appeal is written correctly, the appeal itself CAN potentially get you reactivated, if you understand to communicate with Facebook ad support correctly.
5. How Many Policy Violations Before Account is Shut Down?
Typically, it’s a 1 to 10 ratio. For every single rejected ad that you get, you’ll want 10 Facebook ads that are approved. After a pattern of behavior is established by machine learning, from Meta’s automations, you may spiral rapidly into Facebook jail if your ratios aren’t correct. 3 consecutive ads getting rejected risks your ad account getting disabled. But, it also depends on how severe the ban is.
And, if this still all seems too confusing, your clients are yelling at you to get ads live to bring in money, simply schedule a complimentary Facebook discovery call here
6. How to remove restriction on facebook ad account
As far as removing a restriction on a Facebook ad account, if we’re talking about a disabled ad account, well, you can rehabilitate your funnel and then appeal, possibly getting it reactivated if you do this SMART (I have methods that work if you’re in the appeal window). But as far as removing a restriction from Facebook ads, see the previous FAQ answer: you need to get in a positive approval-cycle ratio.
7. how long does facebook take to review restricted ad account
Now, ask yourself, is it an election year? Have there been over 20,000 Meta employees laid off? Did you word your appeal using specific language Facebook ad support can and will respond better to? These are the factors in play. Typically, you get an answer within a week. If you have a more severe ban or are in the special ad categories, you may get an answer faster but it won’t be one you like. Severe bans end up as permanent restrictions and they deliver that ban hammer faster than other lighter Facebook ad policy restrictions.
8. how to fix your access can’t be reinstated because too much time has passed since we restricted your account
In a situation like this, your recovery options depend on what is banned:
a) Facebook Ad Account
b) Facebook Business Page
c) Facebook Business Manager
d) Facebook profile
So, each one may have a different recovery option, depending on your situation, and type of ban it is, as well as your particular niche or business’s vertical, and the health of the accounts before the ban. Want to get a pathway to get Facebook ads live? Schedule your complimentary discovery call here.
9. How To Get Your Disabled Facebook Ad Account Back
First, let me also address the elephant in the room: personal and emotional attachments to disabled ad accounts. I’ve worked with tons of Fortune 500 level companies, and the amount of hair pulling and FML-ing over ONE ad account being disabled, is incredible. Sometimes, it’s faster, and cheaper, to just start a new ad account, and relaunch, rather than recover a tainted asset.
That being said, the same answer applies here to the instructions above, for appeals
10. How to unblock your Facebook ad account
Now, unblocking an ad account, may be possible if you get in fast enough with the right kind of messaging to Facebook ad support. While they are the gatekeepers, and don’t have any real power, they CAN talk to the right folks who, if you word your appeal right, can unblock your Facebook ad account. And of course, if you need next-level assistance, I’m always available to chat and see if it’s a good fit here.
Do you want to spend 200 hours researching all the ways your ads could get flagged or would you rather just have instant answers within 60 minutes for exactly why your Facebook ads are getting flagged?
Facebook software engineers have even asked me for help with their Facebook ad policy questions because they don’t even understand how the automations they created interface with actual business owners running ads for profit on Facebook.
Engineers from Twitter working directly with Elon Musk have asked for my help with Facebook ad policy.
I’ve worked with celebrities, influencers, written for and consulted major social media publications and can help prevent you from getting the ban hammer. Keep reading for more info:
New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations
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.
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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.
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