“Wait.. why can’t I run ads anymore?”
This is a question that thousands and thousands of business owners are starting to ask themselves. In recent weeks, Facebook has cracked down on advertisers on their platform for various violations of their terms of service. This has led to an increased number of people losing their advertising rights and leaving them feeling very confused and lost on what to do.
How did I lose my rights to advertise on Facebook? How long am I going to be restricted? Will I ever get the ability to advertise again?
These are all fair questions and if we know anything about Facebook’s customer service, you may be asking them for a while before you get any kind of response.
While every situation is different and we can’t guarantee this blog will be able to get you your advertising right back, we hope that you will at least get answers to some of your questions and know what next steps you can take for you and your business!
How did I get myself restricted from advertising on Facebook?
There are many ways that people get restricted on Facebook, but most of them come down to violations of their terms of service which you can find here. Facebook has these rules in place in order to protect its users from being directly targeted or fed misinformation.
Some of the most common ways we see people get restricted are by getting too many ads denied by Facebook for various violations, or directly calling out people based on the characteristics of their ads. For example, targeting new moms and in the copy directly addressing them as “new moms.”
But the most common reason? A mistake. Facebook uses algorithms to read your advertisements and decide if they violate their policies. Sometimes, this matching may get you restricted on accident if you use terms that could be skewed into violating their terms. A good example is a client of ours that had their account restricted because they ran an ad on “teeth whitening.” Facebook determined the word “whitening” was offensive and hence, restricted his account.
How can I tell if my account was restricted?
The easiest way to tell if your Facebook account has been restricted from advertising is to go to a page you are an admin of and try to boost a post. If you can’t boost and your boost button is greyed out, your account has likely been restricted. You can also visit this page at any time to see if your account has any violations associated with it.
Here is what an account with ad restrictions looks like:
What does having my account restricted mean?
Having a restricted Facebook account means that you are banned from utilizing many Facebook features including Facebook Ads, Facebook Pixel, Facebook Catalog, and more! This restriction is tied to your personal profile, so any business page or ad account you are associated with will also carry this restriction when accessed through your personal profile. The majority of the time, your business page won’t be affected at all and you should still be able to post as normal, you will just need another person with an unrestricted account to handle the other items.
What do I do if my Facebook account is restricted from advertising?
There is really only one way to get your access to advertising on Facebook back and that is to request a review. You can do that from the account quality page that we showed you earlier (but here is that link again so you don’t have to scroll up!).
If you have restrictions, there should be a button on the right-hand side of the page that says “Request Review.” From there you will need to follow the process to confirm your identity and submit your claim to Facebook. If they agree that you lost your rights to advertise unnecessarily, they will reinstate you. This process can take weeks or even months to process and there is a chance that depending on your violation, you will never get your advertising right back again. If that happens, you may need to look into creating a new Facebook page, having someone else within your organization own the page and the advertising, or, just trying to wait it out and see if your restriction is only temporary.
In summary, having your Facebook account restricted from advertising is a HUGE pain in the butt. You may be without advertising on your page for a little while and there is a chance that you may never get your advertising privileges back depending on your violation. However, as long as you request your review, you stand a good chance of getting back to advertising very soon!
For updates and news that we receive about account restrictions, follow our Facebook page today. We do our best to post whenever we hear any changes in policy or additional updates!
*Note SocialSurge Marketing does not represent Facebook and cannot directly assist you with getting your account unrestricted. We will not respond to these requests and we are unable to assist you in that way.