Dealing with getting a Facebook Ad Account Restricted? As I’ve written before..it’s happening A LOT these days.
And when you reach out to Meta they give you a wall of silence or misinformation.
Not that helpful is it? I’ve worked at Meta and will share some tips here on what to do if you’ve been hit by the dreaded ban hammer.
I’ll also briefly touch on one of the biggest mistakes businesses make with AI.
I’ve worked with top brands both in my private practice and when I was working at Facebook, before and after it renamed the company as Meta. I don’t write filler or fluff but industry-backed solutions so, stay tuned to learn some secrets to AI and Facebook ad policy, reducing the risk of getting banned when running ads on Facebook.
I confess, I drank the kool-aid my first days working in ads at Facebook back in 2016. I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to discover how great a company Facebook was from the inside. But what I found was my coworkers mashed buttons without understanding anything about running profitable Facebook ads and the higher ups used contract labor to fill seats instead of invest in training Facebook ad support to be more competent.
Facebook will punish you for ad policies you can’t even read on their transparency center online because the automations are programmed to flag for much smaller policy violations without notifying you, and now, you’re just as likely to talk to someone in India on chat, if you can even reach a human. This is a result of the bad management of vendor relationships and contract labor without upskilling the Meta staff about how Facebook automations actually work.
It’s a shock seeing things like “Your account is restricted ” and the truth about Facebook restricted ads is that it is not a human making the final decision restricting your ad account.
Even as you’re reading this blog your phone already has notifications for Instagram or Facebook but I guarantee 9 out of 10 times those notifications won’t tell you that you have a restricted account or why it happened.
Would you like to make $10,000 a month from Facebook ads without ever dealing with Facebook jail? Well I’m about to knit you a patchwork quilt with a map out of Facebook jail.
I’ll tell you what can help – learning more about how Facebook’s bots enforce advertising restrictions, so you don’t get caught and sent to Facebook jail for breaking their rules. Certain ad policies like Personal Attributes flag they have gutted their website of all images showing you what to beware of. In fact, this blog has those images on my ultimate guide to personal attributes here.
Want to save time and money? Just schedule a complimentary discovery call
Up next, I’ll dive into one of the biggest mistakes you’re making with AI.
Your Brain Is the Workflow AI Can’t Replace
We’ve always imagined AI as a sleek upgrade to human intelligence: faster, sharper, and tireless. Hollywood fed us these fantasies:
Minority Report with its pre-crime predictions, Iron Man building empires from his garage with the help of Jarvis, Her whispering emotional support from the cloud. What’s crazy is I see friends on Facebook saying how much they’re in love with their ChatGPT they’ve named.
But reality isn’t scripted by Spielberg. We don’t have sentient allies, we have machine parrots, trained on the internet’s best and worst guesses, mimicking expertise while quietly eroding our instinct to think. It’s what’s called predictive analysis.
Boomers see this & say:
“Finally! Something that can mow the lawn without talking back.”
Gen X? “Cool. Can it replace my boss?”
Xennials? Just praying it doesn’t delete the playlists they burned onto Spotify in 2012.
It seems like these days we’ve confused responsiveness with reasoning. But that’s the problem with AI: it doesn’t think. It just predicts what thinking looks like.
And when we remove real thinking from workflows, we lose something subtle and vital. Judgment. That split-second, pre-verbal decision-making humans do naturally. The kind of intelligence that can’t be A/B tested or “scaled.” We see this blind spot creeping into every corner of business, Steve Jobs understood this with his Think Different campaign…Read the rest on my Substack channel here
Why Facebook Ads Aren’t Dead
I hear a lot of moaning and groaning about the state of Facebook ads, and people questioning if they are still profitable. They are, but, it’s all about subniching down a marketing strategy based on your industry. A stay at home mom is now making over $3 million a year from Facebook ads.
This Nashville Mom Started a Flexible Side Hustle on Facebook — Then Grew It From $1,000 to $275,000 a Month: ‘Like a Scavenger Hunt’
For Katy Allen, 38, inspiration struck at her daughter’s baby shower in 2016. Allen began working on Artful Agenda, which offers digital planner services, in 2017. She said an an interview:
I started working on Artful Agenda in 2017. I came up with the idea for it when talking to a close friend at my daughter’s baby shower in 2016. I always loved paper planners, but I needed something digital that synced with Google Calendar. I couldn’t find anything that did that while also focusing on being aesthetically pleasing and fun to use.
Katy then created a way to survey her potential customers and customize her digital calendar the way her audience wanted:
I hired a business coach. At the time, her coaching business was fairly new, so I was able to get a very affordable rate. She was a manager of a co-working space here in Nashville and was well-connected because of the business owners she met there. She was able to set me up with meetings with people who had experience with UI design, app development, etc.
The other thing I did that was super important was create a private Facebook group where I posted all of my mockups and ideas. At first, it was just friends whose opinions I trusted, but the group soon grew to include other people who bought into the concept of Artful Agenda. This group gave me incredible insight into what type of product I needed to make. I posted pricing surveys, asked for feedback on mockups and more.
Katy then discusses what allowed her scale: Facebook Ads
The thing that really allowed my business to take off was investing in paid online advertising. I would say my ad agency, Foxtail Growth, was a huge part of my early and continued success. My advice would be to find an agency that can offer strategic growth consulting along with actually running your marketing.
It doesn’t matter how awesome your app or software is — you are most likely not going to grow your business successfully without a significant marketing budget. It’s easy to be a little naive at first and assume that if something you make is great, it will just organically spread. I think a lot of apps struggle because all of their budget goes into developing the app, but then they don’t have enough of a user base to become profitable.
I started earning modest yet consistent monthly revenue right away because I had built up a large group of beta testers in my private Facebook group. Once I launched, they were excited to become paying customers. I made $1,000 to $2,000 a month, but I wasn’t profitable because I had overhead costs for things like tech support. It wasn’t until I ran ads for six months that I started to become profitable.
What does growth and revenue look like now?
Our annual gross revenue is right around $3.5 million now, and our average monthly gross is around $275,000. We are positioned to grow 10% year over year in the second half of 2025. In our earlier years, growth was pretty rapid — over 100% growth year over year.
What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
Treat getting started like a scavenger hunt. Think of one person you could reach out to for advice or to pick their brain. They will likely be able to point you in a direction, and where they point you is the next stop on your scavenger hunt. It took a lot of meetings and being pointed to the next person who might be able to help me to figure out how to actually take action and make it happen. Be willing to ask a lot of questions and go in the direction you are pointed. Every person you talk to is another clue on your journey.
It looks like as much as naysayers tell me Facebook advertising is dead, there are so many people ON facebook and running profitable ads on Facebook. You just have to find your niche, test out what they like, then give it to them instead of just the spray and pray method of blasting out ads to anyone and everyone.
BUT I guess none of this matters if Facebook has banned you, so let’s address ad restrictions.
Facebook Ad Account Restricted:
About advertising restrictions
Often a Facebook ban happens because Facebook already had their eye on you. Getting an ad account restriction on Facebook happens when FB ad policy automations build a character profile of your ad account based on ad approval vs ad rejection basis. Get too far in one direction for rejections, and the red alert goes out to the bots to shut you down.
Your advertising access is restricted – what does it mean? Facebook account restricted what to do
R
Want to know the secret to escaping Facebook jail?
Thought so.
Now let me explain…
I’ve seen folks banned for how they phrased their shipping and handling policies. It was a skincare company, so they had to watch out for getting hit with the Personal Attributes flag.
And yet, that wasn’t even what got them under fire when they found me and asked for my help. It was the small print in their S&H policy that violated a big policy they had no idea Facebook was punishing them for.
When you get your advertising access restricted it means the Facebook bots found something big or small somewhere in your funnel against policy.
Ready to stop guessing and stop losing money and time? Click here for a complimentary discovery call.
I’ve worked side-by-side with the software engineers at Meta, and offer better answers on this topic than many blogs you’ll find after googling facebook ad account restricted. All white hat.
It’s 2049, and you’re jumping rooftop to rooftop, you’re running from the evil Facebook replicants attempting to shut down your Facebook ads and steal your ad profits with unnecessary bans, what should you do?
Ban the banners? Hulk out like Bruce Banner? It’s important to remember Meta is a big company, and there’s a lot of contradictory info because, and I know from working there, Facebook’s teams don’t communicate with each other very well. For example….
Guns for sale on social media despite Meta’s policies against it
Glocks, military-style rifles and “ghost guns” have all been advertised for sale on easily accessible sites like Facebook and Instagram. Each ad appears to be in direct violation of Meta’s own policies, raising questions about the company’s ability to effectively moderate content. Some of the ads go even further, potentially violating local and federal laws.
Meta has banned ads for the sale of firearms since 2016. The company’s policy simply states: “Ads must not promote the sale or use of weapons, ammunition or explosives. This includes ads for weapon modification accessories.”
But more than 230 of these ads ran on Meta’s platforms in just over two months, many directing users to Telegram for the actual transaction, according to a new study released Oct. 7 by the Tech Transparency Project and the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.
And yet, you run one ad for a skin product or cosmetic surgery and everything gets banned in the blink of an eye. Ironic isn’t it?
I bring this up to remind you that Meta faces other pressing issues aside from helping you restore your restricted ad account. And with this pressure, Facebook typically responds by increasing their reliance on Facebook ad policy automations to enforce facebook ad policies – which means it’s getting more dangerous to run ads. There’s a higher risk of restrictions now more than ever – even when they so obviously fail.
So, it’s vital to understand how the Facebook bots flag ads and ad accounts.
If you’re like my client Jack Randall, President of Social Flight, you’re tired of beating your head against the wall trying to guess why Facebook has shut you down, and want answers faster.
“Trevor helped me successfully diagnose exactly why my ad account was disabled, and helped me frame out a plan to move forward.” 👍🏻
Click here, to schedule a discovery call.
Facebook Ad Account Restricted:
Why does Facebook say my advertising access is restricted?
Facebook typically says your advertising access is restricted because it tracked a sequence of actions violating Facebook ad policies. It can be one thing that gets you a facebook ad account restricted after it’s removed you’re good, or it could be a series of smaller actions over time Facebook’s automations have logged and determined, overall, you are deliberately choosing not to follow policy.
Other times it could be a log in issue, a bank issue, or a business model conflict if the automations flag your ads as belonging to a banned business model (like MLMs). Make sure to read my blog on removing ad account restrictions here.
Facebook Ad Account Restricted: Violations
Advertising restrictions for policy violations
If your Facebook account is restricted from advertising, it may hurt your ability to earn money in the future, so you’ll want to make sure your overall track record is in the black not the red. That means more approved ads than rejected. If your facebook account’s restricted it was done by bots.
Given how automated Facebook’s policy bots are, to be successful not getting thrown in FB jail, you’ll want to understand how and why these policy automations flag to avoid being on their radar. There’s some nuance to this you’ll want to know to side step getting a facebook ad account restricted.
Advertising restrictions for unusual activity
If you buy a new smartphone, and are in a new location, download the Facebook app and log in, you could get hit with the unusual activity flag.
With a Facebook account restricted from advertising you may get the flag for unusual activity. Now, this can be frustratingly vague. Which activity was unusual? Why? How does this relate to getting a facebook ad account restricted?
Meta thinks you are a hacker when it sees new log ins, especially if you’re traveling out of state, out of country, when logging in. I’d suggest avoiding logging in to Facebook business tools while traveling to avoid this flag.
Read the ultimate guide on what to do if you’re hacked while running Facebook ads or want to prevent this from happening here.
How Serious is a Rejected Facebook Ad?
You see those images above? Facebook has stripped their policy site from showing these clear examples of what they do and don’t allow. But I got your back and will continue to provide them for more transparency on Facebook ad policies. Speaking of which let’s talk ad restrictions.
Your Facebook ad gets rejected, you appeal or try to run it again, then your ad account gets disabled. You try to appeal this (probably incorrectly) and then that appeal gets rejected and your Business Manager gets disabled.
It all starts with the Facebook ad and whether it follows ad policies or paints you as a bad actor to Facebook trying to circumvent systems if you try to run the same ad already rejected, multiple times leading to a Facebook ad account restricted from advertising.
If you’ve read How to Unrestrict My Ad Account you get how vital your appeal strategy is and has to be when it comes to appealing a facebook ad account restricted. The problem with getting hit with a Circumventing Systems flag is that Facebook’s bots are not specific about WHAT you are circumventing, and HOW to fix this. I have a short little guide to add a bit of help here.
Circumventing Systems Guide 2.0
What does a restricted Facebook ad account mean?
When your ad account is restricted, you cannot run Facebook ads at all. It means that your other assets like your Facebook Business Page and your Facebook Business Manager may be at risk too after getting a facebook ad account restricted.
Bad habits. Everyone has habits and the habits you have when creating ads can get you in trouble if your habits don’t include a compliance check up or sometimes you can get banned for simply acting too quickly. I’ve seen a series of quick thoughtless actions lead to a facebook ad account restricted before.
Facebook is supposed to send emails to your email account associated with your personal Facebook profile every time you have an ad approved and rejected. BUT, they end up in spam sometimes. You may not see these emails if your gmail has filtered these out to the promotions tab or social tab.
Logging into Meta Business Suite or Facebook Business Manager and going to the ad accounts you own on the Ads Manager page, you’ll typically see red letters detailing the warning you have gotten or ban.
How do I unrestrict my Facebook ads? Facebook ad account restricted tips
A good practice for preventing a facebook ad account restricted is to audit your funnel for potential flags and remove them, making everything compliant BEFORE submitting ads to Facebook to review.
And you don’t want a facebook account restricted because the ad account creation limit for new Facebook Business Managers is only 1 or 2 ad accounts most of the time. This means being aware of what may get banned and avoiding it is a full time job you can’t slack on if you want to avoid getting a facebook ad account restricted
It pays to be informed of what Facebook is doing as it effects industries at large, like Facebook’s recent ad policies on selling CBD on Facebook. You need to stay current to avoid Facebook accounts restricted from advertising.
Why is my Facebook ad account restricted?
Now, it is not your fault that you don’t understand the policies – Facebook is clear as the vision of a serious scotch drinker after the 4th glass. But, most likely your Facebook ad account is restricted because of a few words in your ad copy, privacy policy or the creative you chose.
Given my history of working with thousands of ad agencies both while I was working AT Facebook and in my own practice, I have stats on which ad policies are triggered the most in specific niches. Like personal attributes flags being higher in weight loss niches, or MLM flags being higher in the start-a-biz online vertical.
Understanding how YOUR specific niche interacts with Facebook ad policy automations is KEY to staying out of Facebook jail and avoiding a facebook account restricted.
Facebook ad account restricted: Ad rejections
Your ad account was banned for too many rejected ads
When you step over a certain ratio of rejected ads, Facebook has a separate automation that determines the health of your ad account. If you are not paying attention to this as you run ads throughout the quarter, you could end up on the wrong side of the ban bots. So, as the meme below states, you’ll need to study your ad account history a little more carefully to avoid this type of ban.
Now, resolving a facebook account restricted can be a lot easier to prevent than recover from.
If you’ve read my Common Mistakes to Avoid When Advertising on Facebook you found out the hidden clues in FB warnings – that you may need an expert to decode into everyday language.
Just like my clients, the social media marketing agency for Wu-Tang ClanWu-Tang Clan discovered, there 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 to avoid getting a disabled Facebook ad account.
Facebook ad account restricted: disabled accounts
What Disabled Facebook Ad Account Means
If you see that, “You are restricted from running ads” this means you missed the canary in the coal mine beforehand. SOME element in your ads attracted the attention of Facebook ban bots and there were warning signs. Probably not obvious because Facebook isn’t that transparent.
Now, depending on what type of Business Manager you have you may be able to create a new ad account as long as the new ads have 0 flags in them that the old ads have.
When reading the Facebook ad policies on Facebook ad rejections you may feel frustrated, because they won’t talk about your specific situation in any detail, if at all.
Facebook ad account restricted: Trust the right answers
A big hurdle to overcome with dealing with a Facebook ad account restricted is who to trust online. Most articles you’ll read come from outsiders, who have not worked at Meta and are shaking a Magic 8 ball to come up with best guesses.
Even worse, chatting in to Facebook ad support, you talk to people who don’t seem to understand your questions. I’ve heard stories from clients who got in a worst ban after talking to Facebook ad support before finding my blog.
And Facebook has a spotty track record for providing reliable advice on how to solve a facebook account restricted.
I’ve heard some people say that Facebook ads aren’t worth using anymore and don’t turn a profit – every week my calendar is booked with calls from businesses running high converting ads on Facebook making hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. So, while Nas may have rapped that Hip Hop is Dead (with the recent beef with Kendrick Lamar and Drake you know hip hop is alive and kicking) Facebook certainly isn’t dead either.
Per Sprout Social, Facebook is the third most visited website following Google and YouTube, respectively. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
The platform boasts 3.065 billion active users on a monthly basis.
This makes it the most used social media platform worldwide.
In 2023, Facebook’s total ad revenue amounted to $135 billion, up from $116 billion the previous year.
Don’t leave money on the table just because you don’t understand the way the bots flag for policy, I can help you there.
Is your Facebook ad account already disabled? Don’t get ripped off! Read How to Recover Facebook Ad Accounts now!
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).
Facebook ad account restricted: Business Manager
What is a Disabled Facebook Business Manager?
If you are restricted from running ads, when your Facebook Business Manager is disabled within the Facebook Business Suite as they (annoyingly) renamed it, then you may need to relaunch your brand depending on how severe this ban is.
Sometimes Business Manager bans if they are appealed fast enough with the right language can be overturned.
But out of lets say 100 disabled Facebook Business Managers I’ve seen, 1% gets recovered.
Facebook account restricted from advertising? KNOW THIS: What you want to keep in mind is the Facebook Business Pages – as they are your digital storefront for your brand name – and take them out before your Facebook Business Manager gets disabled!
That being said, when you have a disabled Facebook Business Manager that means every asset inside is jeopardized.
- Ad Accounts
- Facebook Business Pages
- People connected to this BM
Facebook ad account restricted: Causes
Here’s why:
When you have a disabled Facebook Business Manager, Facebook keeps track of who is in the Business Manager and the other BMs they are connected to.
So, everyone in a disabled Facebook Business Manager is at risk of having everything else they are working on getting shut down too. If you FORGOT a lurker in your BM who has a facebook account restricted it WILL come back to bite ya a$$ so BE AWARE.
A disabled Facebook Business Manager is the next to the worst ban you can get on Facebook.
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.
Facebook ad account restricted: Pages
What Does it Mean When Your Facebook Page is Restricted?
We saw many Pages go down in 2020 – when the pandemic first hit America with e-comm businesses that had shipping delays in China due to covid-19 shut downs. These e-commerce businesses saw their customers giving them bad reviews that took their Page quality score beneath a 1.
Then, just by automation alone, their FB Business Pages got restricted. And they didn’t even have a facebook account restricted-just the Page got shut down.
This is challenging because if you try to relaunch a new Facebook Business Page with the same brand name you may get blocked by Facebook right away for circumventing systems. You’ll need a better strategy more finely tuned for relaunching.
Want to stop losing money over Facebook bans? Get the expert advice of someone who worked at Meta here.
Facebook ad account restricted: Reasons
Why is my Facebook advertising account restricted?
Still asking what to do when seeing, “You are restricted from running ads”? If you want to get to the bottom of why your Facebook advertising account is restricted, you’ll want to audit your funnel. This is to identify what was the biggest risk that got you on the radar and eventually shut down.
Have your Facebook ads been blocked? Read this blog here.
Here’s the deal, even if you read all of the Transparency Center policies on ads, you still wouldn’t know how to prevent a ban.
In reality, there are 1000s more that you are policed on by the automations but never told about.
Want access to a funnel audit to ensure you are compliant? Click here for a discovery call.
How to appeal advertising restrictions
There is a right way and a wrong way to appeal getting a Facebook ad account restricted. The wrong way is to mash buttons, click request review, and wait for the Facebook gods to grant you clemency. With staffing shortages, and reliance on automations, the first approach won’t get you far. But identifying what got you flagged, and what is the hierarchy of risks in your funnel and replacing the offending content with compliant copy is a much better place to start before appealing.
Facebook ad account restricted: Fixes
How do I fix my restricted Facebook account?
No one wants to see: “You are restricted from running ads.”
If you googled disabled facebook ad account or Facebook ad rejections you’ll find a number of bullshit articles out there – even by major brands – that will just tell you to “Request Review.”
That CAN help if you have already removed ALL the flags from your funnel. But if you have not…Full stop, no pass go, don’t click it.
What you’re doing here is saying to the automations that shut you down: “Hey bot, I know you are machine, but can you decipher human empathy and context? Even better can you send this Appeal to ANOTHER robot? And put my fate in the next bot’s hands?”
Really the best chance you have is to appeal within 48 hours of getting shut down AFTER identifying the EXACT source of the Facebook automation flag.
Anything less than that, and your chances diminish by A LOT. Now, if you’ve found me within that time period, I can possibly help you, depending on your type of business and other factors. Click here to schedule your call and avoid a further shut down and avoid a permanent restriction.
Want a better answer than Facebook ad support gives? Keep reading.
Learn more
Learn more about the appeal process: when appealing keep in mind you’re chatting wit outsourced workers who have a goal of getting more chats per day than increasing real resolution rate.
They will try to shut you down every step of the way. I can help you navigate these hurdles, and get the best chances you can have for making an appeal if you have contacted me fast enough after a ban.
Beyond that window, the chances get slimmer. But you do have other options if your goal is to get Facebook ads live again and not just trying to recover old disabled ad accounts.
What if you had a guarantee that your ads were compliant before they went live on Facebook?
Keep reading for these answers and more:
Facebook Ad Account Restricted Solution
Business owners & 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.
Don’t take my word for it, let my clients tell you what it was like working with me:
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.
My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. How much is it costing you to have a disabled Facebook ad account? 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.
Top 10 FB Ad Swipe File
Unlock the Top 10 Facebook Ads That Are Working Right Now — For Just $9.97
Train ChatGPT to Think Like Your Business—in Under 10 Minutes
In this video course you’ll learn how to teach ChatGPT to think like your business, using a simple template anyone can reuse for marketing, sales, or strategy.
Stop getting generic AI output.
This quick training shows you how to “prime” ChatGPT to act like your strategist or marketer—with just one reusable prompt template.
No coding. No plugins. Just a smart system you can use today.
ChatGPT Made Simple, No Tech Skills Needed
Want a book instead of a video course on getting ChatGPT to make your business more money?
This is a beginner-friendly guide that shows you how to get real business value from ChatGPT—no coding, no complex setup.
Discover how to write better prompts, get smarter answers, and work faster today. Copy and paste prompts that get you quick success are included.