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Why isn’t Facebook approving your ads?

Categories: Marketing
Author: Carolyn Menz
Why isn’t Facebook approving your ads

You’ve spent a lot of valuable time crafting the perfect Facebook ad (or so you thought), only for it to get rejected. Ouch.

Rejection is never fun, but Facebook has implemented its advertising rules and regulations for good reason. Facebook has overwhelmingly become one of the premier platforms for advertising to a targeted audience, while at the same time remaining committed to providing the best possible experience to its regular users. Facebook also wants your ads to perform well so that you keep coming back to the site to advertise. With all of that in mind, the social media giant has crafted a set of Facebook ads best practices aimed at helping you create successful ad campaigns. It’s a win-win-win: Facebook makes money, you get your message in front of a hyper-targeted audience, and users get to enjoy the safe and honest social media community they’ve been promised.

To get the most out of your Facebook advertising experience, you may want to keep this Facebook Ads Guide to Approval handy.

Although there are many, many types of ads to choose from – link click ads, boosted posts, page like ads, carousel ads… the list goes on – the Facebook ads best practices remain the same across the board. So, determine what it is that you want your audience to do upon seeing your ad, whether that’s to visit your website, like your Facebook page, or download your app, and choose the type of ad that will help you achieve that goal. From there, all ads are held to the same standards.

As soon as you click the “Send” button, your ad is reviewed by Facebook and is usually approved or rejected within 24 hours. During the ad review process, Facebook checks the following component of your ad:

Once your ad has made its way through the review process, you will receive a notification letting you know whether it has been approved or rejected. If it’s been approved, there’s nothing more for you to do. If it has been rejected, you can either edit your ad to comply with Facebook’s guidelines, or if you think it has been rejected in error, you can appeal the decision and request a second review.
Most likely, if your ad was rejected, it’s probably because it contained prohibited content, which includes:

While some of the prohibited content sounds vague (for instance: low quality or disruptive content), you can appeal to Facebook to better understand why your ad was rejected. Similarly, Facebook restricts content related to alcohol, dating, gambling, lotteries, online pharmacies, supplements, subscription services, financial services, branded content, student loan services, political advertising, and cryptocurrency products and services, and it requires additional means for obtaining approval to promote this type of content.

Equally important to note is that any ad that utilizes an image containing more than 20% text, or any ad that improperly mentions Facebook, may also be subject to rejection.

If you’re unsure whether your content meets Facebook’s ad guidelines, you can use an ad approval tool like this one, which checks for text-to-image ratio, to test out your ad prior to posting.

Do you need additional help designing and implementing targeted advertising on Facebook? Contact Paradigm Marketing & Design today to schedule a consultation.

Carolyn KO 326x375

About the Author

Carolyn is COO at Paradigm Marketing and Design, where she oversees the agency’s day-to-day operations and ensures the quality of every deliverable that crosses our desks. At Paradigm, we believe every project has a purpose, and Carolyn makes it her mission to turn that belief into reality with strategic guidance and oversight that help businesses achieve growth goals and maintain their competitive edge. 

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