Facebook has become an indispensable part of our lives, with over 57% of Vietnam's population using the platform, opening up vast opportunities for business advertising. Running Facebook ads is a mandatory component of any business's digital marketing activities, offering significant measurable results. However, many Facebook ad campaigns have been rejected by this "giant." Here are 6 reasons why Facebook might "red-light" your ad.
What are the benefits of running Facebook ads for your business strategy?
We all know that running Facebook ads occupies a significant position in a business's marketing activities thanks to Facebook's wide reach, ability to quickly connect with customers, and countless other obvious advantages. These key benefits include:
- Precise audience targeting: Regardless of which customer segment you want to reach—gender, age, location, or interests—you have full control over the target audience for your ads. The customization options for running Facebook ads will help you narrow down your audience with ease.
- Increase sales revenue by reaching thousands of new customers: With billions of users on Facebook, running ads creates favorable conditions for you to reach new customers and increase your pool of potential leads.
- Cost reduction: If you identify the right audience for your products or services, you will save a significant amount on advertising costs by avoiding those who have no interest in what you are offering.
- Diverse advertising formats: A variety of ways to promote products and services allows you to choose the ad type that best fits your marketing campaign.
- Control your daily Facebook ad spend or the total budget for your campaign: This helps you avoid exceeding your planned budget.
- Display ads appear immediately after installation: helping you reach customers faster, which is perfect for seasonal products and services.
Why Facebook might reject your ad campaign
We all know that Facebook is a "gold mine" for businesses, with Facebook ad campaigns running extensively as an essential part of any marketing strategy. However, Facebook is not lenient; it has its own set of rules, and not every post can be advertised. Let's take a look at the situations where the social media giant might turn you down.
Your ad content exceeds the text overlay guidelines
This is one of the top reasons why Facebook rejects business ads. Facebook has strict regulations regarding the amount of text in ad images and will not be happy with images containing more than 20% text. Should you include text in your Facebook adimages? You can, but make sure it doesn't take up more than 20% of the image.
In the past, your ad would definitely be rejected if the text overlay exceeded 20%. Currently, it might be approved (reluctantly), but your reach will be significantly reduced.
The four levels of reach (or approval) based on the amount of text in your ad image:
- Image text rating: OK - Your ad will run normally
- Image text rating: Low - Your ad reach may be slightly lower
- Image text rating: Medium - Your ad reach may be much lower
- Image text rating: High - Your ad may not run
If you want your ads to get the "green light," it's best to stay below the medium level. You could reduce the font size or even decrease the letter spacing to comply with that golden ratio. But then you have to ask yourself: do you really want to cram tiny, illegible text into your ad? Instead, you should just write a better headline for your Facebook ad .
Running Facebook ads targeting age-restricted topics
One of the most important principles when running Facebook ads is to avoid "forbidden zones." Be careful when selecting your target content while creating ads. Essentially, if you are "sneaking around" trying to target young people with certain ads, you are playing a risky game.
For example, ads related to alcohol—a rather sensitive product—have constraints: alcohol ads must comply with all applicable local laws, regulations, guidelines, permits, and approvals that satisfy age requirements and current legislation.
Running Facebook ads with content targeting underage users can be a fast track to getting your ads (and potentially your fanpage) banned. This specifically applies to weight loss products for minors, items or services related to alcohol, gambling, and dating services.
Facebook ad posts that touch on prohibited advertising topics
There are certain types of content that Facebook strictly prohibits when running Facebook ads, and even a slight violation will lead to an immediate ban. Some of the topics prohibited under "Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines for Prohibited Content" are listed below:
- Weapons, ammunition, and explosives
- Counterfeit documents
- Spyware or malware, including surveillance equipment (such as spy cameras and GPS trackers.)
- Adult services
- Pharmaceuticals (both legal and illicit substances)
- Unsafe supplements (as determined by Facebook)
- Tobacco products
- Adult products for sexual enhancement or otherwise
- Cash loan services
- Penny auctions
- Controversial content that exploits political or social issues for commercial purposes
- Multi-level marketing businesses
- Prohibited financial products or services (such as those related to cryptocurrency)
- Ads that discriminate against people based on personal attributes
- Infringement of third-party copyrights
- Violence and shocking imagery (such as dead bodies)
- Profanity or vulgar language
Again, this is a fairly simple rule when running Facebook ads. If your campaign is pushing content that Facebook prohibits, you should probably advertise elsewhere. And remember, things are constantly changing. The list of content that Facebook has "red-lighted" is growing. A few weeks ago, Facebook decided to ban all ads related to cryptocurrencies and ICOs.
Using incorrect destination URLs when running Facebook ads
Facebook is not naive; their team works every day to develop algorithms that optimize user experience. They do not like businesses that try to circumvent the rules. If you direct users to a landing page that is completely different from what was initially proposed, the post running Facebook ads will be rejected. Your landing page must be consistent with your ad copy and imagery. Besides ensuring the destination URL matches the advertised content, you should also check that the landing page is functional, because it would be detrimental to your business goals if users cannot load the page and have a poor experience with the ad you ran on Facebook.
Suggesting characteristics of your target audience
If you suggest characteristics or identities about your ad readers, you risk being rejected. A rule of thumb is to avoid using the word "you" in Facebook ad copy. Essentially, Facebook does not want users to feel disrespected when viewing ads. If you address users with a specific action, you may be "mocking" them, and your ad could be rejected. In short, you should not imply any personal attributes that your customers may have.
Stay away from anything "suggestive" in your Facebook ad copy:
- Age
- Criminal record
- Disability and/or medical condition (including mental health)
- Financial status
- Name
- Race and/or ethnic origin
- Religion or beliefs
- Sexual orientation and gender identity
We call this the "Don’t Be An Offensive Jerk" rule in advertising. Using "poor" grammar when running Facebook ads
Using "poor" grammar when running Facebook ads
Believe it or not, Facebook actually cares about the grammar of your posts! They will never approve ads with too many grammatical or spelling errors. Typically, using "caps lock" for the entire ad creates an ugly interface on Facebook and, of course, will not be approved. Therefore, you can be sure that your ad will be rejected if your copy has too many capital letters.
Make sure your Facebook ad copy is meaningful, concise, and free of grammatical errors. Avoid being overly cute or overly sophisticated, and avoid using too many emojis or similar symbols. These can be reasons for rejection. Furthermore, they make your brand image look unprofessional and unpolished.
These are the most common reasons why Facebook often rejects business Facebook ad campaigns. Pay attention and avoid these silly mistakes!
