Six Reasons Facebook Hates your Ad
Short version: It’s you. You didn’t read the Terms of Service. But how many people actually have? I’d say judging by our inbox very few 😅
Ugh, so what am I doing wrong in my Meta Ads?
Here is the cliff notes version. If your Facebook ads are declined, it’s likely that Meta believes you are:
Violating policy in your ad copy or creative
A repeat offender who has an account quality issue
Linking to an untrusted domain
Using imagery that violates policy in your ad or on your landing page
Promoting a website that contains content that violates policy
Promoting prohibited content
And as ads are flagged by AI, sometimes they also just get it wrong.And we can get a real Meta employee to check the campaign and get you sorted again.
Still convinced you’re on the naughty list? Let’s do a deep dive on the six most common reasons Meta hates your Facebook Ad and why your ads keep getting rejected.
You’re attempting to advertise prohibited content on Meta
We often hear from people who are sure that their industry or keywords MUST be prohibited from advertising on Meta because they have had so many ad declines. However the prohibited list is short & sweet with no real surprises.
So take a quick moment to double check that you aren’t on the prohibited list….and celebrate because your issue is resolvable:
Anything illegal or adult in nature
Some dating sites/gambling sites/lottery promotions
Some health topics unless targeted appropriately (ie family planning, breastfeeding, contraception are ok if targeted appropriately, weight loss not so much)
Alcohol advertising (age related and region specific)
Tobacco, drugs, weapons, and pharmaceuticals - but herbal & dietary supplements as well as some pharmacies are ok
Before/after body images
Payday advance/loan services
Multi Level Marketing
Nudity
2. Your copy violates Meta Terms of Service
We can hand on heart say that 90% of enquiries we receive regarding rejected Facebook ads fall into this space. This is also a really good reason why you should be running ads from inside Meta Ad Manager and not via boosted posts. An ad campaign allows you to tweak and make small changes and re-submit ads easily. You don’t have to get it right first time, and Meta Ad Manager makes learning where the line is nice and easy.
So what’s wrong with your ad copy? Meta promotes user experience above all else. Essentially Meta wants your ads to attract attention in a positive way that doesn’t make anyone feel like their personal information is being used to target them. Here are some simple examples of where you might be going wrong when it comes to ad copy.
❌ Nope ❌
Are you struggling with your finances?
Meet local Christians just like you!
I bet you’re tired all the time
✅ Yes ✅
We help protect your family’s financial future
Auckland’s Top Christian coffee group
4 expert tips to beat tiredness!
Some. version of those on the nope list might still make it through AI, but a combination of calling out personal traits mixed with negative slant is more likely to get you hit with the rejection hammer.
Simply put Meta does not want you to imply that you have knowledge of your targeted audience and it does not allow you to imply or assert any personal attribute. So avoid directing addressing ethnicity, religion, beliefs, age, sexual/gender orientation, disability, any medical conditions, or financial status.
This does not mean these keywords or topics are prohibited - it’s about the context of your copy. Check out the Christian example above - we can mention religion without asserting that we KNOW the person reading the copy is Christian .
And yes that’s a real headline from a real approved Meta ad.
3. Your Facebook Ad creative violates Meta Terms of Service
Text in image? Gone are the days where Facebook rejected all ads containing text but AI is still used to check that the image is easily understood. If your imagery is poor quality or hard to understand or cluttered it may be rejected.
Before and after images? The most common rejection in the wellness, health and beauty space. There are some ways around this for the brave amongst us.
Nudity? There are a few legitimate reasons you may use nudity in your creative such as advertising for Lactation Consultant services - you might just require some support in contacting Meta to have your account switched to manual approvals for creative in these cases.
4. Double check your Facebook Ad Creative
Yep this one is so common we’re mentioning it twice.
Does your image violate copyright? Even the smallest amount of copyrighted branding in your image can trigger a rejection.
Is your image a still from a video that includes a play or pause button? You are misleading users that your image is a video.
It can really be the silliest, smallest things and lucky these are easy to fix. No harm, no foul… as long as you dont keep trying to get the original creative approved.
5. Your landing page violates Meta Terms of Service
Landing Page Relevancy: If your landing page is not relevant to your ad copy, or does not exist (your site is down, blog isn’t live yet) the ad may be rejected. AI can be confused especially if your landing page does not contain a lot of text or your SEO isn’t completed.
Landing Page Content: Meta Terms of Service includes the content of your landing page - so you can’t point a perfect Facebook ad campaign to prohibited content.
Our friends in the wellness space have accounts that are often flagged for nudity because any image showing skin can be picked up as prohibited - which can be a challenge for midwives, pregnancy resources, breastfeeding experts and other family planning related industries. Part of planning your website imagery and branding should include landing pages for ads that may be less image heavy to avoid running into problems regarding nudity.
In the financial & insurance industry, any mention of money may be flagged by AI (prohibited content - cash loans) however a manual review (and submitting an electronic declaration that you aren’t offering cash loans) will often resolve this issue in less than a day.
Other website related reasons: Your website was down when your Facebook Ad Campaign was reviewed, or you created an ad for a scheduled blog that isn’t live yet or your domain is brand spanking new and Facebook doesn’t know whether to trust you yet. Easy fixes in Meta Business Manager and Meta Ads Manager.
6. Real life Meta rejected ad campaigns…for a giggle
Even though we feel like we have a pretty good handle on Meta’s Terms of Service and various advertising policies, we also stumble across lesser known (or lesser experienced) policy violations on occasion too.
Client 1: Creative rejected as misleading
The issue: One of our clients supplied a video as creative for a new Facebook campaign and the automatically generated thumbnail image included an image of the triangle play symbol. The campaign was rejected on the basis that we were misleading users that the creative included functionality that didn’t exist.
The fix: The client re-supplied her creative minus the automatically generated thumbnail and we swapped the video creative out in the original rejected campaign - which was then approved within 15 minutes.
Client 2: Copyright Infringement and disabled Meta Ad Accounts
The problem: Our client was struggling to run any Facebook ads, couldn’t understand why all of her ads were rejected and she had lost access to more than one Meta Ad Account which were now both disabled. The client had recently appeared on a television show and her cover image on Facebook included branding from the reality show Survivor. Which is considered a copyright infringement.
The fix: We created a Meta Business Manager account and a new Meta Ad Account for the client, making sure she had a new payment method loaded, and then created an ad that did not violate Meta Terms of Service. It pays to note that the new ad campaign was also declined (that poor quality history hanging over the client’s head) - but we as an agency requested a manual review and it was approved within 3 hours with no further issues in the account in the last six years.
No, Meta just hates me and my business, and you’ll never convince me otherwise!
We promise Facebook and Instagram don’t hate you or your industry. Unless you’re in adult entertainment, or medicinal cannabis… then yeah you have a challenge on your hands.
Remember that you can request a manual review on your rejected Facebook Ad Campaigns at any time but Meta aren’t playing around… if you request a review for a campaign that violates policy, expect a terse manual decline and very little explanation.
So don’t get angry, get informed.
