Since COVID-19 many businesses, organisations and agencies have reported that their Facebook ad account was or is disabled.

Facebook reviews millions of ad accounts every day on the platform.

They usually review ad accounts which are not compliant with their list of terms and guidelines.

Facebook has the following guidelines for advertisers:

Ad Policy: your ads will be reviewed by Facebook when you go to publish them. Typically an ad will be reviewed within 24 hours.

Terms of Service: if your ad account is linked to your personal Facebook, make sure your account follows the rules.

Often Facebook user accounts are disabled due to fake names or using a personal profile for business purposes. You should also have a strong password and use 2-factor authentication.

Prohibited content: there are around 31 categories of prohibited content on Facebook ads which can range from not allowing the promotion or selling of drugs (legal and illegal), adult products or content, profanity, poor grammar, deceptive or misleading claims and personal attributes.

Although Facebook ads often have greater targeting, a lot of advertisers get tricked by the personal attribute rule because they start to ask questions or write copy that presumes someone’s demographics, health or characteristics.

As an example, in the wellness space, a common occurrence is when we say things like “feeling stressed or anxious” because this goes against Facebook ad guidelines.

Often by asking a question and not implying we know someone too much, our ad will be less likely to be rejected. Playing on emotional language too heavily can also impact this.

Political advertising or social issues: advertisers will need to verify their identity in order to run these ads.

You’ll need to ensure your ID matches your Facebook name. If not, you will need the ID notarised by a public official (justice of the peace). Also, note Facebook does not allow expired identification.

Note: If your ad account repeatedly does the wrong thing, you could face permanent suspension or deletion of your ad account.

For some users since COVID-19 there’s been a few cases where ad accounts were wrongly disabled.

Upon a successful appeal, the accounts get restored and things tend to go back to normal. In this scenario, it often relates to a bug or issue on Facebook’s side.

This email is an example of what the message from Facebook looks like.

In this email is a link which allows you to request a review for the ad account.

The email should also include general details on why the account was disabled.

In some cases, the information provided may not be correct as was the case for this client.

Note, always check your Account Quality page first and ensure the message is legitimate before clicking links or viewing any attachments.

The email should have come from Facebook.

In order for your account to run ads again or even to add users, you will need to submit an appeal.

The review process can take a few days, sometimes a few weeks, depending on how many tickets Facebook support is managing.

To find out more about dealing with Facebook Ad Support, read on here. 

By Ray Pastoors, LYF Solutions