Did Facebook suspend your Facebook ads account? Wondering how to appeal the decision and get your ads up and running again?
In this post, you’ll find out how to submit an appeal to get your Facebook advertising account reactivated.
The behaviors that typically trigger these red flags fall into two categories:
- High negative feedback percentages
- Not following Facebook’s Advertising Policies
Red Flag: Your Ads Generate High Negative Feedback
Facebook users you target with ads can share their feedback with the platform. They can choose to:
- Hide the single ad.
- Hide all posts from your Facebook page.
- Unlike your Facebook page.
- Report the ad content as spam.
When a Facebook user reports your ad for any of the issues listed above, it’s marked as negative feedback.
If one or two people report an ad, unlike your page, or hide your content, it’s not the end of the world. The challenge is when the percentage of negative feedback in comparison to the overall number of ad impressions starts to rise.
To find the negative feedback score for each ad, navigate to the ad level in Facebook Ads Manager. Select the individual ad and click Preview. From the pop-up, choose Facebook Post with Comments.
Scroll to the bottom of your ad post and click in the Performance Results section. This will launch a pop-up window.
In the Post Details window, look at the Negative Feedback section.
Although we don’t know the exact percentage that triggers a red flag, in my experience, if you’re getting more than one spam report for every 5,000 impressions (or 0.02%), you should shut off that specific ad as a preventive measure.
To calculate your negative feedback rate, you use the same formula you would to calculate the engagement rate of a Facebook post (i.e., amount of activity divided by impressions).
Add the totals in all four categories under Negative Feedback:
- Hide Post
- Hide All Posts
- Report as Spam
- Unlike Page
Then divide that number by the total number of People Reached.
Once you calculate your negative feedback percentage, you can see if there are specific ads that triggered your account shutdown. If no ads have high negative feedback, the reason your account was shut down is likely your failure to comply with Facebook’s Advertising Policies.
Red Flag: You Violated Facebook Advertising Policies
According to Facebook, “our Advertising Policies provide guidance on what types of ad content are allowed. When advertisers place an order, each ad is reviewed against these policies.”
If you’re not familiar with Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines, start getting up to speed now. It’s the entire rulebook of Facebook advertising in one spot. Everything that is or isn’t allowed. Everything that’s a gray area or a big ol’ red flag.
Most people think they can dance around the policies and then they get upset when they’re in direct violation and lose their account. Remember, it’s not Facebook, it’s you. Very rarely do ad accounts get disabled for no good reason.
How to Reinstate Your Facebook Advertising Account
Now that you know what happened, it’s time to learn how to reinstate your account. This one’s easy! Here’s a walkthrough of the entire process: https://youtu.be/6wTeB9pZ0Lo
If you don’t see the red bar, perhaps you’ve gotten an email that told you your account has been disabled. Follow the instructions in the email to submit your appeal.
Additional Support Options
Once you’ve submitted your appeal in Ads Manager, there are additional ways you can reach out to Facebook support to increase your chances of getting your ad account reinstated.
To do that, click the question mark icon at the top-right corner of your ad account. Then scroll all the way to the bottom to the blue link that says, “Still need help?” or “Help Center.”
The beauty of clicking this link is that the page it launches occasionally has instant chat available with the Facebook support team. When instant chat is available, you can speak directly with a Facebook representative, which can help make the appeal process quicker.
If instant chat isn’t available, you can submit a form to file a complaint about your account closure. On this form, tell Facebook about the situation and make your case.
If the banned advertising account doesn’t show up in the drop-down menu under Advertising Account ID, add your ID to the description box below along with other pertinent details to help Facebook investigate.
To find your advertising account ID, head back into Ads Manager. Go to the URL in the address bar at the top of the page and copy your account number. It’s the long string of numbers after “act=”.
Give Facebook this account number, not your Business Manager ID.
From here, all you have to do is provide Facebook with the details they’ll need to confirm your ad account compliance, if you believe you weren’t at fault for the account being disabled.
Note: Once you submit your appeal, it may feel like it takes forever for Facebook to get back to you. You can track the status of your appeal at facebook.com/support.
In the support inbox, view the case status (i.e., open or closed) and the results of each unique case. If the appeal comes back and it isn’t in your favor, this is where you can respond if you disagree with Facebook’s decision.
Best-case scenario: Facebook reinstates your ad account. This would be a huge win because you save all of your hard work inside of the account, like the previous custom audiences you’ve created with your Facebook pixel and all of your advertising campaigns and results.
I hope this helps you! The real credit for this information goes to The Social Examiner.