Why isn’t Facebook approving your ads? 68 possible reasons

If you’ve already made an advertising campaign on Facebook, chances are that you noticed that you had to adhere to certain rules in order for it to be approved. If you fail to pay attention to certain key things, Facebook reserves the right not to post your ad. In some cases, it can even suspend your advertising account. 

In order to avoid having this happen to you, we thought it would be useful to outline some points made by the American Facebook advertising guru, Jon Loomer.

So, here are 68 possible factors which could lead to Facebook rejecting your ads or, worse still, suspending your account.

General points

1. Your ads must adhere to Facebook’s Platform Policy
2. Any competitions and posts on your pages must adhere to Facebook’s Page Conditions
3. Content must not be misleading, fraudulent or fake
4. An account may only live within a single Business Manager at a time
5. Use of Custom Audiences must adhere to the conditions that are currently in force

Personal information

1. Advertising demographics must not be shared with external sources
2. Advertising data must not be used to build or augment user profiles
3. You may use a user’s details, but only with their consent and in accordance with the laws that are in force
4. You must not sell user details

Visuals and positioning

1. All ad components must be relevant to the product being promoted
2. No audio or flash animation that plays automatically without the user interacting with it
3. Your ad must not be sexually provocative
4. You must not exploit political policies, ideas or parties for commercial ends
5. Spelling and grammar must be correct
6. Symbols, numbers and letters must be used properly
7. Your ad must be precise and provide an accurate representation of the product/service you are promoting
8. Your ad must not contain content that asserts or implies personal attributes of a user (race or ethnic origin, religion or philosophical beliefs, age, sexual orientation or practices, financial status, etc.)
9. Your ad must direct the user to a functional landing page from which they are then able to navigate away if they choose
10. Your ad must not consist of more than 20% text
11. Any promotion of alcohol must comply with the relevant laws
12. Any promotion of dating sites must respect the laws that are currently in force
13. Any promotion of adult products must comply with the relevant laws

Content

1. Content must comply with all the laws and regulations
2. All claims made must be justified
3. No offensive content
4. Content must not be false or misleading
5. No spam
6. You must not promote illegal products or activities
7. You must not violate the rights of others
8. Video ads for health-related products must not launch automatically (autoplay)
9. Promotion of adult products is forbidden (ignore point 22)
10. Ads relating to contraception and family planning are accepted, but in moderation
11. The promotion of alcohol is forbidden in thirteen countries
12. If you wish to advertise alcohol, make sure that you do not infringe the relevant regulations
13. Ads for dating sites must not focus on their sexual nature
14. Ads for some dating sites are accepted, but only with prior approval from Facebook
15. You must not advertise illegal drugs
16. You must not advertise tobacco
17. You must not advertise drugs or tobacco
18. Ads for online games are only permitted in some countries, and only with prior approval from Facebook
19. Government lotteries can be promoted, but only if the promotion only concerns the country in question
20. Ads for offline betting are only permitted if they do not violate any of the relevant laws 
21. Promotion of prescription drugs is forbidden
22. Ads for online pharmacies are generally forbidden, unless they have received prior approval from Facebook
23. Ads for dietary supplements or plant-based supplements are authorised, unless they contain elements which Facebook considers to be dangerous
24. No links towards spyware or malware
25. Ads must not contain any software that results in an unexpected or misleading experience
26. Any software which performs activities hidden from the user is not authorised
27. No automatic downloads
28. No software which violates the rights held by other software
29. If you are planning to display ads for subscription services, you must adhere to the rules which are in force
30. Do not promote business models like pyramid schemes
31. Do not promote weapons

Advertiser community norms

1. If your ad receives many negative comments, Facebook reserves the right to remove it
2. Your ad must not violate the community norms put in place by Facebook
3. You may not promote illegal products or services
4. You may not harass, insult or intimidate others
5. You may not usurp another individual’s identity
6. You must not use hate speech
7. An ad cannot be aimed at minors if it is not considered appropriate
8. No sexual content, nudity or provocative content
9. No shocking, sensational or excessively violent content 

References to Facebook

1. You must not imply that you are in any form of partnership with Facebook
2. Use of the Facebook brand is extremely limited, unless the brand use measures are respected

Rights of others

1. Do not infringe or violate the rights of others
2. Do not infringe copyright laws
3. Do not infringe the rights held by brands
4. Respect the privacy of others

So what’s the moral of the story? Pay very careful attention to all of these rules if you want your ads to be posted and to avoid having your account suspended.

Yes, there are a lot of rules to obey, but Facebook puts them in place in order to guarantee that its users only see quality ads.

You can read our article about the key ingredients for a successful Facebook post here.