Ad Policies, and Community Standards and How and When to Request a Review

Denied. Disapproved. Rejected.

None of those words make us feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside but especially when we get a notice that says, “Your ad has been disapproved,” is not what you want to see.

If this has happened you are not alone.

In fact, I talk to a lot of people every day who have that similar angst. My name’s Jody and I’m from Social Charlie, and we specialize with Facebook ads for high ticket coaches. Ad disapprovals is definitely reason to be concerned. You certainly do not want a lot of disapproved ads in your ad account, and that can lead to, not only an ad account shutdown, but also a Facebook Business Manager shutdown.

Which, when your Business Manager gets shut down it is a real headache and an ad account, you can work around it a bit more easily, but nonetheless it is a pain, and it is something that can be avoided. Today we’re going to talk about several ways for you to avoid frustrating circumstances with Facebook ads not getting approved.

Pay Attention to Terms of Service and Community Standards

One of the first step to avoiding ad account shutdowns, business manager shutdowns, and feeling the full wrath of Facebook is to be very cautious with the Facebook terms. If you have not taken the time to truly read them, you should. The advertising terms and conditions and also the Facebook community standards. A lot of people just go out and launch some Facebook ads and they have not even checked the policies or the community standards. Danger my friend, danger.

You need to be aware of what you can and you cannot say not just for Facebook, but there are other regulatory authorities that enforce compliance. So if you’re making statements, then you need to back them up. And first of all, Facebook is making it a safer place for the consumer, so that people aren’t making random claims that may, or may not, be true. Some of them is like, “Oh yeah, I caught a fish. It was this big.” That’s really just a minnow. So Facebook’s wanting to protect the users, and that makes it a better place for advertisers as well, because the click bait creates a negative user experience.

When you take the time to tidy up the platform, enforcing more rules, yes, it can be painful for us, but it’s making it a better place for the user, which means they’re going to hang out, which has better news for us, the advertiser. If you are running Facebook ads, you need to check, and regularly check, the Facebook terms and conditions for advertising, and also the community standards. Because it’s not just what you put in your ads that could get things shutdown for you, it’s the content that’s on your page. So while your ads may be compliant, and then you’re posting all this other stuff on your page thinking, “It’s not an ad. I can say what I want over here,” wrong, my friend.

The content of your page can get it flagged and therefore you will not be able to run ads from that page either.

When you make sure you are following the guidelines with community standards and TOS of what to be putting on your page it is going to go a long way to keeping your ad account in good rapport with Facebook. Stay on the good side of Facebook by following the terms and conditions and community standards, being very aware, not only of what you put in your ads, but also what you put on your page. Facebook, as I’ve heard lots of people say and seen it myself, is an ATM machine, and you need to play by their rules. Don’t try and you know weasel around them, play by the rules.

Have Your Landing Page Aligned with Your Ads

Now some of the other reasons, which I commonly see that people’s ads are getting disapproved is one, they don’t have the correct information on their landing page. Their landing page they’re sending traffic to, you need to have privacy policy links.

It is a must to have your privacy policy links.

If you’re getting anybody’s details and they’re opting in, that’s actually like a sort of legal requirement, with some states, countries and with Facebook as well. You need to have your privacy policy linked on your landing page so that people can go and check it out. This is something that Facebook looks for. If you don’t have that, your ad can be disapproved, it may not even allow you to send traffic to that URL, because it’s in breach of community standards.

You definitely want to make sure you got landing privacy policy on your page. Also any terms and conditions of your page, or visiting your website, or income disclaimers. They’re important things to have in the footer of landing pages that you’re sending traffic to, so be very aware of that. Because Facebook doesn’t only look at what’s in your ad, it also goes and spiders, the bots look at the landing page as well. So when you get a disapproval through, it may say that your ad is disapproved, X, Y, Z reasons. It is then that you realize that you are fairly certain that your ad is in compliant. What do you do next?

Reach Out to Facebook

What we find works really well is to send Facebook a request for a review, and we’ll say that, “We believe this ad is compliant, and that it has triggered a false positive. We would like to request a manual review.”

Now, we don’t always get a manual review the first time.

It might still go through a bot and then it’ll say the landing page is the issue. So we checked the landing page and see it is all compliant. And again, we’ll submit that same request, “We believe the landing page is compliant. It’s triggered a false positive and would like to request a manual review.” And then everything’s compliant, it gets approved. No sweat, just be sure to check that things are compliant, and then reach out to Facebook support and get it resolved. So many people don’t think the landing page has anything to do with their Facebook ads not getting approved but it certainly does.

It may not be your ad, it may be the landing page, and the landing page still may be good, but Facebook has just flagged it with the bots and get a manual review, and it’s all good. Make sure ad and landing page are compliant.

Profanity in Facebook Ads can be a Deal Breaker

Some of the other reasons why ads will get disapproved will be one, profanity.

Using some less than desirable words in your ad copy, but also in the imagery. I had seen an ed that has been scrolling through like testimonials, and in one of the testimonials, in one of the screenshots, there was an F-bomb.

And it was just there in one little shot through this whole video. That was the only profanity that was in the ad, but Facebook is so smart at scanning things it’s really up to speed these days. You can’t get much past them. This means you need to make sure all of your assets, whatever you’re using in your creative, whether it’s a video, or an image, and definitely there in your ad copy, that you’re not using any profanity, because that’s not going to get approved.

Caution with Facebook and Instagram Brand Assets

Another reason is the use of Facebook brand assets or Instagram assets. That is either having a domain that has that social media platform in the domain URL, or if you’re using it in your ad copy, you could traditionally get away with saying Facebook and then having TM, trademark, at the end of it.

Make sure that you go back and check the terms and conditions, and it actually says in there about using the brand assets of Facebook and Instagram. Look at that and be aware.

You have to say it in an exact way and again, refrain from using it as much as possible. If you need to say it, say it once, but then use social media, put other … this platform or whatever, the world’s biggest social media platform, or something. Refrain from using the assets and don’t have images. I’ve had ads where it’s been a mobile phone and it will have like, a Facebook logo on the screen, that gets disapproved. If you’ve got testimonials, or screenshots, or a video of here’s people commenting, so it’s a Facebook post, not allowed. Stickers on computers, or if I had a logo behind me here, like my little Chiggers. If I had a logo there, it would be disapproved. So don’t use the brand assets. That’s number two. The reason why things get disapproved.

Asking Certain Questions Can Get You In Hot Water

Third reason, I commonly see when people are asking direct questions as a problem.

In particular, when they are highlighting an attribute like, “are you depressed, or are you suffering, or do you have issues with”, or whatever it may be?

I’ve even seen an ad disapproved because it said, “Are you tired of a boring ponytail?”

I am absolutely serious.

Since it had a negative connotation and it was a direct question about a personal attribute someone can associate with themselves. Unfortunately you and I both know we see ads all the time that are not in compliant yet they somehow got approved. But we must operate in integrity because when they do put your ads on disapproval, it increases the time you aren’t able to operate your ads as you need to for your clients. So, yes, you will see ads that say, “How would you feel if you wake up every morning and XYZ?” It’s asking a direct question. Facebook is not loving it, and so refrain from as much as possible. Again, if you’ve got to do that, do it once, but have it in proportion to the ad copy. If you’ve only got three sentences, don’t make one of them, do you suffer this, or hey you, I noticed whatever. You’ve got to be very sensitive.

Facebook is very sensitive about stalking people on Facebook, because privacy is paramount. So refrain from using you as much as possible. You will see it, you will see it in ad copy, and you’ll go, “ How are these people getting away with it?” Well, some people and ads may be going under the radar, but unfortunately it may not go under the radar for you. And you do not want to be the one that is made the example of. Therefore be very careful with word, you, and be calling out people directly.

False or Misleading Claims Won’t Serve You Well

And the fourth area I want to focus on is false or misleading claims. It may not be false or misleading and it might be true that you or one of your clients lost 10 pounds in three days. However, Facebook does not look kindly on anything like that.

Pro-Tip: If there is a timeframe with your statement, it can often times be perceived as bad by Facebook.

Whether it’s weight loss or income claims. If you’re in the entrepreneurial space, you may say, “This client of mine generated $40,000 in three weeks.” Yes, maybe completely true. However, you cannot say it up front in Facebook either directly in your ads. Be very careful about putting things like that over on your page, because your page could get flagged and cause you issues. Also be mindful that your landing pages do not want to have these false claims on them either. You’re going to have to put it a bit deeper in the funnel.

While that makes great direct response and makes everything super exciting, it’s not going to fly with Facebook these days. You’ve got to have more of a methodology, or a system, or a process. You need to establish more trust with your audience. That’s what Facebook is asking you for before you just go off and make claims like that. So those sorts of claims, even though they could be true, remember compliance trumps. You need to have them deeper in your funnel. So therefore, you may have them in the video that someone will opt in to watch. That there’ll be opting in to say, “Learn the case study that Serena had working with us, and her how she was able to stop XYZ and go on to X, Y, Z, like a benefit.”

Therefore, after they’ve opted in, that’s where you could have more of that information, where you can be saying, “Here’s the actual results that people have got,” and have those timeframes. Have before and after images, because heaven knows, don’t have before and after images in your Facebook ads, they don’t like that either. So that would go on the page after someone has opted in, where you are not sending Facebook traffic to directly.

I hope you have found these tips to be helpful regarding some of the things that people are often called up on, and getting their ads disapproved.

I know first hand that it causes frustration, stress and angst. But since it is avoidable much of the time make sure that you are looking at the terms and conditions and community standards. This will help you be in a better place to avoid getting in that situation to start with.

Need more help? I have a training on this over in my free Facebook group for coaches and consultants. Just head over to jodymilward.com/group. Inside you will find training with examples of Facebook ads, as well as the disapproval notice. I know sometimes we all learn best from seeing with our own eyes.

JOIN MY FREE GROUP HERE: https://www.jodymilward.com/group.

Come over there, watch that training, and be more informed so that you can have a pleasant experience running your Facebook ads.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

If you’ve got any questions about ad disapprovals, be sure to drop them in the comments and I’ll come back and check with you, and answer them for you next time.

Until next time, have a great one!

Jody