“I completely understand your frustration.” It’s a common response from the Facebook support team when your ads or ad account are disapproved or rejected. Understandable frustration, indeed!
The frustration is real. Especially when your ads have been performing well for months, if not years, only to find that one day the campaign is disapproved. Or, you make a subtle change to one of your ads and find that Facebook has rejected it.
I’ve experienced both scenarios many times, with my own ad accounts as well as many clients. And although this may sound like a bit of a rant, it’s also an analysis of why this happens and what we can do about it.
Understanding Why Facebook Rejected Your Ad
There’s no shortage of information provided by Facebook about Advertising Policy and Guidelines. As a Facebook Marketing Partner, we spend a lot of time reviewing these. We also work with their Customer Support team to ensure our ads meet their standards.
Yet even with these extra measures, we can still run into problems with ad or ad account rejections.
Here are some of the common reasons why Facebook may have rejected and/or disapproved your Real Estate-related ad:
- Not selecting the Housing Category for real estate related ad campaigns.
- Your Ad copy contains Personal Attributes. For example, you may have an ad that targets Renters, Seniors or buyers that have poor credit. Remove language from this ad that asserts or implies personal attributes.
- Your Ad contains poor grammar and/or spelling that is not correct.
- Deceptive claims. Avoid content that may contain misleading claims or content.
- Misleading buttons on images. (e.g. a video play button on an image)
- Too much text in an image. Text can comprise no more than 20% of the image area.
- An unusually high amount of negative feedback on the ad, such as people marking it as spam or hiding it.
- Your ad leads to a landing page that is not relevant or under construction.
- Your targeted audience includes parameters that could be considered discriminatory. (Avoid this by selecting the Housing Ad Category when setting up your campaign. This removes those settings from the campaign.)
How To Appeal Facebook’s Decision
Most often, automated review systems trigger Facebook disapprovals. An appeal gets a human involved who can review the ad and the decision.
If your ad or ad account is disapproved, you will see a message in your Ads Manager. You may also get an email from Facebook with a brief description of the violation. If you feel like you’ve made the necessary changes and want to submit an appeal, Facebook will provide a link to do so.
Once you have submitted your appeal, you will see the open case in your Facebook Support Inbox. Keep an eye out for any responses from the Facebook Policy team. When you do get a response, you should get it by email as well.
What You Can Do To Avoid This From Happening In The Future
Become an expert when it comes to Facebook Ad Policy. Take the Facebook Blueprint Exam on Ad Policies and show Facebook that you’ve done your research.
And if you’re serious about advertising on Facebook, create a Business Account. Inside the Business Account, you can manage multiple assets such as Ad Accounts and Pages. You can also manage the People you want to have access to these assets.
You’ll also have access to the Business Help website, which contains a wealth of FAQs and has direct links to the Help Community. The Business Help Center has a section to Contact Support via Chat. This feature is very helpful in expediting appeals or just getting hold of a live person.
What To Do While You Wait?
There’s something to be said about diversifying your portfolio. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you may lose all your eggs! Rather than focusing on the Facebook Ad Platform only, explore other options like Google, Bing, and LinkedIn. And always make sure you have leads coming in from more than one Ad Campaign and/or Ad Platform. Not only is this a smart business decision, it’s likely to bring in a different type of lead, one that may be a better fit for your business.
If you need further help or information on how to get more leads for less money, time and work, please sign up for a Free Online Marketing Consultation. We’ll explore your options and find the best fit for you.
