According to HubSpot's 2020 "Not Another State of Marketing Report", Facebook Ads produce the greatest ROI over Google Paid Search and Instagram for more than one in three marketers. In 2020, over three million businesses utilized Facebook ads, but you can bet that many struggled to get their ads approved.
Just because a business wants to give their money to Facebook for ads doesn't mean Facebook will take it. It's not as easy as many think it is to get those ads up and running AND to produce the results you're hoping for.
Getting your ads up and running is the first step, which is what we're going to dig into here. There are key best practices you can follow to give your ads a higher chance of approval. So, rather than guess or risk your account being locked from all of your ad attempts and fails, read on.
How Facebook's Ad Review Process Works
According to Facebook's Advertising Policy, most ads are reviewed within 24 hours. I've noticed this can vary depending on the industry, with industries such as healthcare and auto repair seeing quicker turnaround times than local organizations and nonprofits. However, they're all held to the same standards.
It's important to plan ahead with ads, expecting that they could take more than 24 hours to get approval and making sure that you abide by Facebook's Community Standards and Facebook's Advertising Policies. If you've never run ads before or have a history of ad rejection, your ads could take longer to review. If you have a long history of successful ad reviews, then you'll likely see ads approved much faster.
Facebook ads are manually reviewed, so you can typically expect longer wait times during holiday seasons when most businesses are running ads on social media. Ads were taking days to be approved during the first nine months of the pandemic, and that was frustrating for many marketers.
If your ad isn't approved and you think there was an error after ensuring you followed Facebook's standards and policies, then you can always appeal it. Sometimes this works, but most of the time something was missed. But don't feel bad if you missed something, because there is a lot to remember and numerous rules to follow!
How to Find the Reason Your Facebook Ad Was Rejected
If you've taken a look at Facebook's Community Standards and Advertising Policies, you know that there are MANY reasons your ad could have been rejected. But how do you know the specific reason your ad was rejected? Fortunately, Facebook now provides you with easy access to see this information! Just make sure you are logged into the Facebook account you want to review and go to Facebook's Account Quality overview page. This is where you'll be able to review past infractions, see current ad statuses, and request appeals.
Common Reasons That Facebook Ads Are Rejected
There are a few common reasons that many businesses find their Facebook ads are rejected, including:
- The landing page they point to isn't functional, doesn't align with the ad content, or contains content that goes against Facebook Advertising Policies and Standards.
- The image is too packed with text. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the text doesn't cover more than 20% of the image.
- The ad is too personal or makes assumptions about Facebook users. Ads are not the time to use a lot of personalization. Instead, target the demographic you want to reach behind the scenes in your ad setup and then design your ad strategically in a way that resonates with them but doesn't call them out in a personal way that they wouldn't expect or would make them uncomfortable.
Facebook Advertising Requires Strategy
Facebook advertising requires a decent amount of strategy and knowledge around policies, meaning it shouldn't be done on a whim. If you're an experienced social media marketer and advertiser, you can usually trust your instincts. However, if you're new to the whole social media advertising game, it's best to take things a bit slower so you can think them through and ensure that you understand the rules.
Need help with your social media ad campaigns? Reach out to us and we'll discuss options!
Written by Sarah Wai
Former Content, Email, and Social Media Marketing Specialist of Tribute Media. Bachelor of Science in Digital Communication Arts and Master in Business Administration.
