Facebook is one of the most effective ad platforms on the Internet. It allows you to target your demographic with precision that no other platform allows. Conversion rates are good and the advertising process is fairly simple. For that reason, the platform continues to be a highly utilized one by advertisers. However, there are a few policies that businesses should avoid if they want to get approved and get their content on the site without any delay.
1. Banned Goods or Services
The easiest reason for Facebook to reject your ad is when you are promoting a banned product. Facebook has an extensive list of goods and services not are banned that does not coincide with goods banned by the government.
Facebook does not allow pharmaceutical companies to promote their drugs on the platform. In fact, they don’t allow supplement, diet pill or other similar items to be sold. Certain financial products like payday loans, cryptocurrencies and penny auctions are also not allowed. Alcohol, cigarettes and related products are banned from the site.
Of course, malware, spamware, pornography and counterfeit goods are also banned. Gambling and lotteries are restricted items in many states and are not allowed either. Lastly, anything that is illegal under the law is of course banned. That includes drugs, many weapons, explosives, chemicals and other items.
2. Breaching Creative Standards
Facebook wants ads to succeed and they also want them to appear seamlessly with the rest of the site. They have established creative standards to do so. One of the most common reasons ads for good products are rejected is that they simply have too much text and don’t look good. They will send the advertisers back to the drawing board. Poorly written ads with bad grammar could also be rejected.
Another reason that ads are rejected is a call for a certain demographic group that you are targeting. Facebook does not want it to be so obvious that you are targeting users based on those characteristics. For example, they don’t want an ad that says “Here are ways to manage your diabetes” because that would seem medically intrusive. Instead, an ad that says “Ways to manage diabetes” is much better and more general.
Disruptive videos or pictures that are crude, lewd or irrelevant may also be banned. This may be a little subjective unfortunately.
Lastly, you are not allowed to use Facebook’s brand unless you receive express permission.
3. Links or Landing Pages
Facebook also monitors the links that the ad sends users to. If the link is to a site with prohibited content, the ad could be rejected. Many companies try to play a game by advertising one thing and directing web traffic to a site selling a different but related product which Facebook would not allow. This is now a case for being blocked as well.
Landing pages that are not descriptive, don’t have contact information or product information may also be banned. That is because these appear to be shells for hacking or other purposes.
In general, the landing page should be clean and free of spam. It should look complete and have a product or service advertised in the content in order to get approved.
4. Not Following Community Standards
Community standards is an amorphous term that is hard to define. In some cases, it is very obvious which content is not following community standards. These include ads that call for violence or incitement. Hateful ads targeted at specific groups are not permitted. Any ad that calls for self-harm is also prohibited.
However, these terms become a lot harder to define when entering the area of political speech. Of course, misrepresenting the sponsor of the ad or non-compliance with election laws prohibits the ad. However, Facebook does not want to get into the business of arbitrating political speech which is very tricky.
