You’ve worked so hard on your Facebook campaigns. You’ve done your planning, made your key visuals, and even braced everyone on the team to be ready to respond. Everything is perfect, except for one thing… your Facebook Ad Account is disabled.
While Facebook randomly disabling advertiser accounts isn’t exactly news, it can still be a stressful experience for both marketers and clients alike.
There are a variety of reasons why Facebook disables ad accounts, but they often boil down to not following their advertiser policies or contributing to negative customer experience.
If you’re wondering why this is happening, what you should do right now to get it working again, and what you need to do to avoid this headache in the future, read our guide below:
Why Your Account Was Disabled
Like every other social media website, Facebook regulates the kind of advertising that is allowed on their platform to maintain its community standards.
There are three main reasons for every Facebook Advertiser account ban: advertising policy infringement, negative customer experience, and unpaid advertising fees.
Should you still be confused at this point, don’t worry. We’ll talk about each type of issue and how it might apply to your account.
Advertising Policy Infringement
Facebook restricts certain products and services from being advertised that range from gambling, unauthorized dating websites, and CBD.
When it comes to some industries that have country-specific or location-specific restrictions like gambling, you may request to be whitelisted to be allowed to advertise your services.
Another possible cause of your account disabling is the image of your ad campaign. For example, the use of sexually suggestive photographs or certain degrees of nudity is not allowed on the platform.
However, Facebook does allow posts on sexual activity if it’s designed and posted for educational, humorous, or satirical purposes.
Additionally, should the nudity be intended as a protest, to raise awareness, or for medical purposes, Facebook can make an exception and allow the content to be promoted with a possible warning label. The platform is also more lenient towards artistic depictions of nudity such as paintings or sculptures.
Lastly, the final reason that your ad may have violated advertising policies is by using what Facebook considers inappropriate language in your ad copy, such as:
- Attacks that target vulnerable communities
- Racism
- Hate speech
- Acts of cruelty
Negative Customer Experience
Should your Facebook page be consistently getting negative customer feedback, Facebook will disable your account to prevent that type of feedback.
Common reasons for negative feedback include reports from other users saying that your account is posting or sending spam messages, irrelevant or broken landing pages, distasteful content, or controversial messaging.
Unpaid Advertising Fees
Usually in the form of pending payments, Facebook routinely disables campaigns of users who have been missing out on their fees. Alternatively, this can also mean that you have forgotten to update your payment details after your credit card expires or if you have decided to cancel it.
Now that you know all the possible reasons why your ad account could have been disabled, here’s what to do if it happens to you:
What To Do If Your Account is Disabled
Should you find that your ad account is disabled, you must immediately reach out to Facebook and ask for a review. You may do so in three ways:
- Contact your account manager
- Message a live support agent
- Send an appeal through their form.
We recommend doing all three to increase your chances. Here’s how to do each one:
Contact Your Account Manager
For high spending ad accounts, Facebook assigns an account manager that can help you utilize ads more effectively on their platform. Your account manager will be able to guide you through the process of identifying what exactly you did wrong and assist in the process of reinstating your account.
While this option is not available to everyone, this is the fastest way to get your disabled ad account back to work. Unfortunately, there is no way for you to apply for an account manager. However, there are two more options below that don’t require one.
Message a Live Support Agent
The second fastest option that you will have to resolve your ad account concerns is to speak with a live agent.
You may get in touch with the Facebook support team by going to Facebook’s Help Center, swiping down to the bottom of the screen, and tapping “Still Need Help”. If you are lucky, you will be able to see the following section:
Unfortunately, the live support option is not always available for all advertisers. In case you don’t see this option you can ask a friend or co-worker with an active ad account to do this for you.
Submit an Appeal Through the Facebook Form
Facebook has a dedicated form for advertisers to use to submit disabled account appeals. To file an appeal, you need to go to this section of Facebook’s Help Center where you’ll find the form you’ll need to fill to request a review.
While the process of sending an appeal to reactivate your Facebook Ad account is fast, be aware that Facebook may take anywhere from a few days to several months to review your case as it has millions of account users all over the world, and moderates an endless stream of content on its platform every day.
How To Avoid Getting Your Account Disabled
Millions of businesses rely on Facebook to reach their customers daily. While it is possible to reactivate a disabled Facebook Ad account, preventing it from being disabled is your best bet to avoid any issues.
To make sure that your Facebook Ad account is safe from banning, here are a few tips that you can follow to prevent this from happening to you:
1. Verify Your Business Manager
One of the best ways to prevent having your account disabled is to verify your business manager. By undergoing business verification, you can confirm that your business belongs to a real organization making it less likely that you are planning to commit fraud.
To do this, go to your business manager’s security center and under “Verify your Business” provide the necessary documentation such as government documents and certifications. Take note that verification may take a couple of days.
2. Avoid Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
VPNs work by routing your internet connection through private servers, which hide your computer’s original IP address. While this is great for protecting your identity, it can trigger Facebook’s internal security system as a result.
Your Facebook ad account may be wrongfully tagged as compromised and locked to prevent any malicious intent from hackers.
3. Request For Business Whitelisting
Surprisingly, a lot of advertisers don’t know about Facebook Rights Manager. Advertisers can promote products or services that are typically not allowed by their community standards if they have received prior approval.
For example, if your business is related to CBD or gambling, you would need special permission to target ads only in locations where it is legal. All you have to do is to go to this page of Facebook’s Help Center and submit an application with your contact email and additional information.
4. Respond to Negative Feedback
Using its Relevance Score system, Facebook detects how the audience receives your ads based on how many people have engaged with it or have chosen to close it. However, not all engagement is good engagement.
Despite maintaining compliance, Facebook prioritizes user experience and shuts down ad accounts when a large enough number of people file complaints. If you begin to notice an increasingly growing negative sentiment, pause or adjust your ads immediately.
5. Follow Advertising Policies
Lastly, the most important thing for you to do is to avoid violating Facebook’s advertising policies. Avoid unacceptable business practices and misleading claims that include deceptive offers, scams, and sensational claims.
Make sure that your ads lead to a working landing page that is not irrelevant to the ad, under construction, or an error page. Lastly, make sure that the ads you release do not contain any depictions of violence, excessive nudity, or overly suggestive sexual positions.
What To Do If Your Ad Account is Disabled Permanently
Unfortunately, Facebook will have the final say regardless if you have willfully or accidentally infringed on its ad policies. Should your ad account be permanently banned, all of your assets associated with that account will be affected.
From your Facebook page to credit card details, assets involved in a disabled account will be immediately flagged and remain on Facebook’s watch list indefinitely.
Knowing this, if you plan to create a new Facebook Ad Account, you must be extremely careful not to associate your previously flagged assets to the new account and avoid violating any other policies moving forward.
While the first time can be a shock, you can follow these tips to avoid having your account disabled again:
1. Create a New Facebook Account.
The Facebook security system keeps track of accounts and users previously involved in disabled accounts.
It may seem excessive to create a new Facebook account to be able to run ads, but it is a way to start over with a clean slate. Having no history of delinquency on the platform keeps you off the radar for longer.
2. Change Your Linked Credit Card
While it is easy to change accounts and names on Facebook, credit card details remain a strong indicator of repeat offenders. With this, Facebook cracks down quickly upon seeing the same credit card details from a previously banned ad account.
To bypass this, you may request a new credit card from your provider, use a different one from another bank or use prepaid debit cards such as Cash App, Chime, or PayPal Cash Card.
3. Create Ads Targeting Your Business Location
Building a good history is key to positioning yourself better should you have to go through another ad account review. Start by creating ads that focus on the region where your business is based.
From there, begin launching smaller value campaigns, settle your payments on time, consistently use your ad account, and comply with Facebook community standards.
Closing Thoughts
While having your Facebook Ad account disabled may seem like a nightmare, most of the time Facebook does it to protect your account from inappropriate use or possible malicious intent.
At the end of the day, Facebook is only looking out to improve their customer experience and make sure that you are releasing ads that are relevant to their community.
To stay on Facebook’s good side be sure to take note of its advertiser policies, read their updates for any changes, release relevant ads that lead to the right landing pages, and make sure that your payment details are always up-to-date.
If your products and services are not ideal to advertise on Facebook, there are plenty of other social platforms that you can use to build campaigns on that may be better suited to your brand.
Should you perform your due diligence, you should have no problem with maintaining your ad in good standing.
If you happen to be unlucky and have your account disabled, be sure to follow the advice we have outlined for you so you can get your Facebook advertiser account back or make a better one in no time.
