10 Things You Need to Know About Facebook Ad Policy

Does facebook ad policy frustrate you because of restricted ad accounts?

Facebook ad policy can change in the blink of an eye and unless you’re on the right side of the automations, you can be banned real quick. BUT you’re in luck, because today I’ll be sharing 10 things you need to know about Facebook ad policy to safeguard your account.

With new markets opening up for Meta Quest, Voicebox AI Speech Generation and the Creator Monetization Program (which I worked on at Facebook), you’ll want to stay ahead of the curve and not be left behind with new changes to Facebook ad policy.

If you didn’t miss my guide to navigating Circumventing Systems, then you have the latest pro tips on avoiding Facebook ad bans.

In this article, I’ll share my expert advice coming from working at Meta on how to navigate the Facebook ads policy strategically instead of just guessing and hoping you don’t get shut down. You’re in safe hands today.

Don’t forget to bookmark: Facebook Ad Policies Checklist

Just like my client Juanita Ingram, Amazon reality TV show star found out, here are micro flags in ad copy and landing pages that have to be removed first before attempting to appeal or relaunch a brand with Facebook.

Want the same white glove treatment navigating Facebook shutdowns?

Click here, to schedule a discovery call.

Table of Contents

Facebook Ad Policy Overview

The first thing you need to know about Facebook Ad Policy is that traditional PPS formulas don’t always work. With the massive layoffs Facebook has done since Nov 2022, Meta is relying on automations more heavily than ever before.

As marketing guru Neil Patel says, a lot of successful ads are using AIDA,

(A)ttention: Draw users into the ad with an attention-grabbing headline.
(I)nterest: Get the user interested in your product by briefly describing the most important benefit of using it.
(D)esire: Create immediate desire for your product with a discount, free trial, or limited-time offer.
(A)ction: End the ad with a call to action.

The challenge you the business owner, or you the ad agency face is creating killer ad copy that converts but also doesn’t run afoul of the facebook ad policies using AIDA.

And unfortunately, you have a ton of bad advice given – both by outsourced sweatshop workers at Facebook ad support and by social media sites who only offer random guesses as facts when they are both dead wrong.

One of the common fallacies is to click “Request Review” when reviewing your Facebook ad account’s Account Quality. 89% of the time that puts you into a loop with machines reviewing decisions by machines.

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

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 to stop guessing on why Facebook flags you and get real answers?

Click here, to schedule a discovery call.

Facebook Ad Policy Checklist

Facebook Ad Checklist

2. Meta advertising policy principles

The 2nd thing you need to know about Facebook ad policy is the philosophy behind banning. A lot of folks go wrong not understanding what Facebook’s goal is, and the internal reasoning behind ad flagging decisions.

The human point of view, from the policy makers who told engineers I worked with, how to frame the automation’s machine logic for flagging.

Now, externally, Meta or Facebook says that it’s core guiding principles for Facebook’s philosophy are as follows:

• PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM UNSAFE AND DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES
• PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM FRAUD OR SCAMS
• PROMOTING POSITIVE USER EXPERIENCES
• PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY

Also advertisers must follow Community Standards and Advertising Standards. In addition, advertisers on Instagram must also follow the Instagram Community Guidelines.

In reality, these vague ass bullet points don’t truly communicate what Facebook prioritizes as a business: engagement.

It’s very similar to how YouTube’s algorithm switched up in 2012. Before 2012, YouTube ranked its videos by view count – the more people watched a video, the more it would be presented to other viewers.

The problem was that people learned to game this algorithm easily. All they had to do was to give a video a clickbait title, encouraging people to open it and watch a small portion of it.

Of course, they would quickly realize that the video didn’t do what it promised, so they immediately left it and moved onto the next video in the queue.

Before long people were complaining about the numerous click-bait videos. YouTube changed its algorithm in 2012, this time favoring duration – watch time – and session time (overall time spent on the platform per Influencer Marketing Hub).

Why do I bring up YouTube in an article about Facebook?

It’s because both platforms have the same goal: Keep people on their website as long as possible. Anyone who gets in the way of that will get punished with bans. And there’s A LOT of money made in keeping people staring at the screen, whether that’s on laptop or smartphone.

Mobile ad revenues reached a record $154.1 billion in 2022, up 14.1% year-over-year (YoY); mobile now has a 73.5% market share of total internet ad revenues (IAB, 2023)

If you keep that in mind when considering why Facebook may shut you down for a piece of ad copy or a creative image it will help guide you to compliance. If your ads drive FB users off FB, that loses FB money.

(Check out my article Facebook ad account disabled next steps).

3. The ad review process

The 3rd thing you need to know about Facebook ad policy is how the ad review process works. Facebook’s policy, after you submit an ad for review is that they will decide if it’s a yes or no within 24 hours.

But, what they don’t tell you is that the machines also review the total ratio of approved ads vs rejected ads in the past 90 days when you submit an ad.

Let’s say you have an ad that is kinda on-the-line but isn’t overtly against Facebook ad policies. BUT you recently had a shit ton of rejected ads. What will happen is the ad that is mostly ok, will get rejected.

And then this can trigger a full review of your ad account, and in turn lead to a shutdown if your ducks aren’t in a row.

Navigating Facebook’s Advertising Policies as a Business is a good read too if you’re looking to go from ignorance on Facebook ad policy to having some clarity.

4. What to do if your ad is rejected or if your business asset is restricted

The 4th thing you need to know is the bad advice fake gurus give who haven’t worked at Facebook like I have – they all tell you (and Facebook tells you to as well) to click Request Review. That is where the shit starts to hit the fan. Facebook tells you to do 1 of 2 things:

“Create a new ad or edit your ad You may create a new ad or edit your ad to comply with our policies. These ads will be treated as new ads and reviewed by our ad review system.”

“Request another review If you believe the ad, ad account, user account, Page or Business Account was incorrectly rejected or restricted, you can request a review of the decision in Account Quality.”

Here’s the fucked up part about that advice – if you have no clue why Facebook flagged you, how the hell are you going to edit and resubmit the ad??!

And we also see the same bad advice I mentioned above, about just clicking Request Review. The only time Request Review works is if you are already directly working with a competent person at Facebook who is manually monitoring the requests coming in (good luck with that).

The only real option you have is to work with an expert that knows exactly what the machines look for in your funnel to flag, remove those triggers and resubmit the same ad or a new ad without the same flags.

Even if you came to my hometown, Austin, Texas for SXSW, and attended marketing conferences, you won’t get good intel on recovering Facebook ad accounts because of how obscure Facebook ad policy is.
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

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).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.

Community standards

The 5th thing you need to know about Facebook ad policy is that you need to distinguish the ad policies from the regular Facebook user policies. Because another area of confusion for advertisers is understanding the line between Facebook feed content and advertiser content – when it comes to facebook ads policy.

Community Standards are just for non-advertisers – the Facebook users you are sending ads to. It’s simple stuff like don’t post nude photos or try to talk about terrorism.

Or don’t talk about how cocaine is a helluva drug. Even if…

Typically, you don’t see Community Standards violations for advertisers given these are 2 different policies, one for ads ( facebook ad policies) and 1 for reg folks – but if you are running ads about a sensitive topic, the post itself you make may get a CS flag too.

So, be aware of that.

But you know the real way Community Standards affects advertisers? Buying or renting ad accounts and Business Managers.

“As stated in our Community Standards, you must not sell, rent, buy or exchange site privileges, such as administrative access, for assets that belong to you or that you manage. Helping anyone evade or circumvent our enforcement of our policies or terms of service is also prohibited.”

Funny how a policy regulating advertisers isn’t listed in the ad policies first, but in the Community Standards for people who don’t run ads. But there it is – Facebook forbids you from renting or buying ad assets from other advertisers.

If you took a look inside Meta’s open source A.I. program you’d see nothing is slowing down for Facebook’s reliance on machines to make decisions that impact human lives, namely advertisers. To safeguard your ad account you really need to understand Facebook ad policy or risk losing money with Facebook bans.

Learn more

I hope you’ve found this article on how to navigate the Facebook ads policy strategically instead of just guessing helpful.

I’ve created a lot of helpful guides on my blog, but nothing beats hands on guidance for avoiding shut downs from someone whose worked at Facebook for years.

What if you had a guarantee that your ads were compliant before they went live on Facebook?

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 deep at Facebook and I’m trusted by high level brands that take accuracy and results seriously.

After years of working at Facebook, 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:

My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. How much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? 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!

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.

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