It's a common scenario: You, a business owner or marketing manager, painstakingly creates an ad that's absolutely perfect for your target audience. The copy is perfect; not too demanding but just the right amount of urgency. The image is perfect; tasteful, relevant, and uplifting. And you've nailed down the targeting so hard you can practically feel your bottom line rising already.
Then Facebook ruins your day, and possibly your campaign, with that awful, stupid "Your ad is disapproved" message.
"What?" You say. "What could possibly be wrong with this ad??"
Chances are, your ad was disapproved for one of the following reasons:
- Facebook sees it as discriminatory (this is a WIDE net we'll discuss further down)
- There’s too much text
- You’re advertising an age-restricted product
- It’s too sexually explicit
- It’s advertising one of the following categories: Drugs, online gambling, adult entertainment, firearms,
Reading ALL of Facebook’s complete ad policies can take a good chunk of the day (if you’re a fast reader), so below is a summary of the top 5 reasons your Facebook ads are getting disapproved.
1.Facebook Sees Your Ads As Discriminatory
This is the biggest (and most confusing to understand) reason why I’ve seen Facebook ads get disapproved. You may not think you’re being discriminatory, but Facebook is very, very particular about what constitutes “discriminatory.” They recently updated their policies to comply with applicable U.S. laws that prohibit discrimination, and have had a long-time stance against many of the morally-questionable practices used by mainstream media ads (2 a.m. weight-loss and pharmaceutical commercials, anyone?).
When advertising on Facebook, you cannot advertise to people based on their race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family status, disability, and medical or genetic condition. What this means is that both in your targeting and in your ad copy you need to be extremely careful you’re not using personal attributes to your advantage.
Some examples of discrimination in Facebook targeting include:
·Excluding certain ethnicities in an ad for apartments
·Only targeting people with a certain credit scores for housing
·Excluding people for services based on sexual orientation or age
·Filtering for gender when running a recruitment or employment ad
Even if your targeting is by the book, you can still get in trouble with your ad copy and your images.
Discrimination in Facebook Ad Copy:
Your targeting isn't the only place you can get in trouble for discriminations; you also need to watch your ad copy and imagery.
When writing Facebook ad copy, you can’t use a person’s personal attribute, but you can talk about the attribute in general.
Three trigger words to watch out for if you don’t want your Facebook ad disapproved are “you,” “your”, and “other.” These by no means are the only trigger words, just the ones used most frequently.
Let’s take for example the ad copy “Meet other Christian Singles.”
You are allowed to say “Meet Christian Singles” but as soon as you add the word “other” in, the ad becomes targeted to a singular person.
Let’s take another example ad copy: “Are you gay? Come to our dance club!”
See that trigger word? That’s a no-no. However, if you changed the ad copy to “Come to our gay-friendly dance club,” there wouldn’t be an issue.
One last example: “Treat your depression with these new counseling services.”
NOPE. Sorry. Change it to “New counselling services for depression,” and you’ll pass with flying colors.
Ad Image:
You can’t sensationalize health images, and you can’t use before and after photos. If you try, your Facebook ad will be disapproved.
2.There’s Too Much Text in Your Ad
Facebook values high-quality, creative images. That being said, the old marketing tactic of jamming high-impact fonts and words into an ad won’t work on this platform. You are allowed to have up to 20% text on your image before you get penalized. Facebook provides an image text checker, where you can upload your ad images to test the ratio.
Currently, Facebook categorizes ad images in four categories: OK, Low, Medium, and High.
When the text in the image is OK, the ad will run normally. If it’s any higher than that, the ad reach gets incrementally lower, relative to the amount of text.
3.You’re Marketing a Facebook Age-Restricted or Country-Restricted Product
One of the main reasons a Facebook ad is disapproved is because of country or age restrictions. If you’re selling something that is age restricted, like alcohol, you need to reflect that in your age targeting. If you’re selling something age-restricted across different countries, you need to set your targeting to the highest age restriction in your country set.
If you’re selling country-restricted products, be sure to reflect that in your target audience. For example, ads promoting or referencing alcohol are prohibited in some countries, including but not limited to: Afghanistan, Brunei, Bangladesh, Egypt, Gambia, Kuwait, Libya, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
4.Your Facebook Ad Is Too Sexually Explicit
Sorry American Apparel and Abercrombie, you’re SOL.
5.Your Facebook Ad Is Advertising Drugs, Online Gambling, Adult Entertainment, Firearms, or Other Fun (but Restricted)Things
Unless a pre-approved exception is granted, you aren’t allowed to advertise:
·Illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs
·Online real money gambling, real money games of skill, or real money lotteries — including online real money casinos, sports books, bingo, or poker
·Adult sex toys, “adult products,” p*rnography, strip clubs, escort services, “adult friend finders,” etc.
·Firearms, ammunition, paintball guns, bb guns, fireworks, explosives, pepper spray, knives, Tasers, or weapons of any kind, including those used for self-defense. Ads may not directly or indirectly link to landing pages where people can purchase any of these products.
·Prescription pharmaceuticals or products containing anabolic steroids, chitosan, comfrey, dehydroepiandrosterone, ephedra, human growth hormones, melatonin, and any additional products deemed unsafe or questionable by Facebook in its sole discretion.
Did Your Facebook Ad Get Rejected and It’s Not in One of These Categories?
Yea, I’m actually not that surprised. While these are the 5 main reasons for Facebook Ads to get disapproved, there are about 150 more reasons why your Facebook ad could have gotten rejected. Make sure you’re familiar with Facebook’s Ad Policies, and if you still can’t find the answer, shoot me a message or get in contact with our social media marketing team at Blue Corona.
Facebook marketing is an incredibly detailed, nuanced process that takes years to master and a team of analysts, graphic designers, and social media marketers to perfect. Sure, boosting a few posts on your own or running a website click ad can be the easiest thing in the world, but when you get up to more complicated campaigns, you’re in a whole new world. That’s why I always suggest you consult with or hire a Facebook marketing company for your in-depth campaign strategies. Check out my social media marketing team at Blue Corona, and good luck with your Facebook ads! #socialmediamarketing #socialmedia #facebookads #facebook #facebookadvertising
