Facebook Ads Review: 14 Reasons Why Your Ads Get Disapproved

What happens during your Facebook ads review? What might be the reasons behind your creatives’ rejection? Let’s learn from a digital marketer’s practical experience!

Hi, my dropshipping friend!

You prepared cool advertising creatives, gave a proper thought to targeting options, put your effort into brushing up the product page, and… nothing. Your Facebook ad is not approved – an error by the heartless Facebook system appears in your Ads Manager. Been there?

In order to not waste time creating ads that don’t get accepted by FB, make things right from the beginning! Knowing how the process of Facebook ads review works, you’ll be able to save time and nerves for more pleasant things – e.g. calculating the profit you got this month or spending time with your family.

We’ll show you how to avoid the disapproved ads situation. Read on!

How long does Facebook ads review take?

Sometimes it seems like forever! But in fact, an average Facebook ads review usually takes from 5 minutes to 2 days. So you might need to reserve some patience, especially if those are your first ads.

Some factors that can significantly influence your ad approval time:

• Facebook Ad account history

Every advertising account has a “trust score.” The longer advertising history you have, the fewer ads of yours are rejected, and the more you’ve spent, the faster you’ll get your ads approved.

By the way, if you advertise a lot, your ads can be approved almost instantly. It proves the fact that not all ads are reviewed by people, so if you have a good trust score, it’s more likely your ad will be approved by the system.

• Keywords

Some keywords in the ad text will likely trigger the system. So if you have any keywords related to religion, ethnicity, and any prohibited for advertising items and services, it might prolong the ad review time.

• Domain

If it’s a new domain that was never advertised before, ad review can take longer than usual. If a domain has been heavily advertised before without any problems, the pending review period could be shorter.

• Image

Despite the fact that analyzing images is a pretty tough task, FB is quite good when it comes to detecting nudity, copyrighted logos, and other bad bad stuff you shouldn’t advertise.

Who works on your Facebook ads review?

There’s no way to know who or what exactly checks your ads before releasing them into the big Internet world. However, we can say for sure that the process is not fully manual as a huge number of new ads appears every day and there’s no way only people could process all that. Unless Zuckerberg hired some Oompa-Loompas, of course 😀

So, let’s finally get to the main topic of this article!

14 reasons why your Facebook ads review may end up in the campaign rejection

Some of them can sound familiar, and some of them can be pretty new for you. It’s good to know them all!

#1 Obviously prohibited content

Facebook provides a pretty detailed list of the “prohibited content”. So, what you can’t advertise on Facebook at all?

❌Adult products – unless they’re about family planning and contraception. Surprise-surprise for those who want (or already built) a dropshipping shop related to adult items. Don’t worry, though: there’s plenty of ways to advertise an adult store safely!

❌Weapons, ammunition, explosives – please, no guns, bullets, or bombs! Basically, you can’t sell anything that can hurt other people.

You should even avoid advertising kitchen or camping knives! Despite the fact that Facebook says you can’t advertise “weapons of any kind, including … non-culinary knives” it doesn’t imply that you can advertise culinary knives themselves! 🙂 Actually, we’ve seen many cases when such ads were rejected as well.

❌Tobacco and related products – say no to the advertising of vapes, vape liquids, tobacco pipes, etc.

❌Spyware or surveillance equipment – for example, spy cams, cell phone trackers, sunglasses with a built-in video camera, pens with a mini camera.

#2 Discrimination

Your ads shouldn’t encourage any kind of discrimination against people based on their personal attributes.

According to Facebook, personal attributes include “race, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, age, sexual orientation or practices, gender identity, disability, medical condition (including physical or mental health), financial status, membership in a trade union, criminal record, or name,”.

In other words, Facebook doesn’t want you to let users know you have any info about them.

A simple example: if your ad copy says “Manage your diabetes, use this super-duper blood sugar meter”, there’s a high chance this ad will be rejected.

By using such wording, you imply that the person has diabetes. So, an improved wording should be “This super-duper blood sugar meter helps to manage diabetes”.

You can compare Facebook to an online cafe where everyone should feel welcome. You would not come across strangers in a public place and tell them they should lose weight, improve their financial situation or do something with their health, right? This would sound very rude and would leave people offended.

Similarly, Facebook doesn’t want you to reference or allude to personal attributes of a person you’re targeting ads at.

#3 Shocking content, nudity, bad language

All ads should comply with the Community Standards (please note that Instagram has its own Community Standards). These platforms position themselves as a safe place for everyone, where people are treated with respect, and there’s no violence or spam.

So some shocking content, nudity or abusive language decrease the chance your ad will be approved.

Want examples? Here they are!

• If you sell underwear, I have bad news for you – it’s very unlikely you will be able to use photos of models in bras and lacy-panty-things as Facebook won’t “like” the amount of skin revealed. Try photos of underwear on some simple background.
• “Tired of being a loser? Put on this awesome suit and some cool sunglasses from our store and get all the ladies” – big no-no of an ad.
• I remember an ad about a dog safety leash I saw a couple of years ago – you buckle the dog up in the car and it won’t mess around the car distracting you from driving.

That ad I saw showed some incidents when dogs jump out of the car windows at full speed, and the safety leash was presented as a solution to end this. The videos of the incidents were truly shocking. It’s good that such ads won’t be approved nowadays.

#4 Copyright

You obviously already knew that selling copyrighted stuff is not legal. But did you know Facebook also doesn’t approve it?

“Facebook is committed to helping people and organizations protect their intellectual property rights. The Facebook Terms of Service do not allow posting content that violates someone else’s intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark.”

#5 Too Much Capitalisation

It is not a good idea to use too many words written in “CAPS LOCK”.

Yes, you can try using capital letters can as an advantage because they make your ad copy stand out and make people focus on certain parts of your advertising message. However, such words and even whole sentences can be perceived as spam.

So, instead of “ONLY TODAY – 24-HOUR SALE! GET 15% OFF + FREE SHIPPING”, use these words and a regular sentence case.

#6 Using fake call to action buttons

Facebook provides different button options with CTAs like “Learn More” or “Shop Now” and gets angry when people try placing fake buttons directly into the ad images.

Such ads are misleading as these fake buttons with non-working functionality make people click on the ad.

Do you remember the scandal with an ad with a fake hair? People tried to sweep it from the screen and kept getting to the store’s landing page.

I think such ads can be of the same fake button ads type.

#7 Using Facebook brand in ads

Even though you can use the word “Facebook” in your creative, and you can even use the FB logo, using Facebook brand in advertising is not the best idea.

You need to capitalize the “Facebook” word and write out the full name in the ad copy. Make it the same font size and style as the text around it.

You can use the standard Facebook logo, but please don’t use their corporate logo under any circumstances. Plus, don’t change any Facebook brand assets you’re using from their original design.

And last but not least, don’t use the Facebook brand as the central focus of your ad. Feel free to promote a Facebook Page, group, or event with your ad, but you can’t advertise when Facebook becomes the most noticeable and significant part of your ad creative.

#8 Age restricted topics

Always pay attention to the age you set in your targeting when you advertise certain types of products, such as alcohol and bar-related items. Don’t accidentally include underage groups!

There are certain age limitations from the law and they are country-dependent. In the US, the minimum age level for alcohol consumption is 21 years, while for many European countries it is 18.

So, before advertising cocktail shakers or wine aerators, consult legal papers Google what the drinking age in this or that country is. Or just look at the pic below 🙂

Always make sure that you’re aiming your content at an audience Facebook won’t flag as inappropriate.

#9 Incorrect destination URL

That’s one more reason for your ad to face rejection. The landing page you’re getting people to when they click on your ad should be functional. So beware of mistyping the URL.

Also, no malware or undesired pop up windows should be present on the landing page.

#10 Irrelevant content

These days, Facebook pays lots of attention to show only relevant contact to the users. So if you accidentally put the link to a bathing suit page as a landing page while there are ceramic dishes on the picture, your ad will be disapproved.

#11 Spelling, grammar

Check everything in advance! Poor grammar falls under the “prohibited content” category, so make sure the text of your ad is okay. Don’t use any weird symbols and “creative” writing (replacing some letters with letter-looking symbols, etc).

If you’re not a native speaker and doubt your language skills, it’s better to make use of the services of English-speaking copywriters. Or at least let your friend who knows the language better than you check your texts. Or try a copyediting service like Grammarly.

#12 Personal health

Facebook does not allow “before and after” photos. The system also doesn’t allow ads with unrealistic results and imagery that attempts to “generate negative self-perception.”

So, if you sell fitness products, just stick to the photos of healthy looking people. If you’re in an extreme need for a toned body in the visuals, avoid it being zoomed on specific parts.

If you sell supplements, Facebook may determine them to be unsafe. It is in your best interest to avoid mentioning any supplements in your advertisements or on the landing page.

Note: we saw some cases when FB rejected ads for first aid kits containing medical supplies! Keep this in mind.

#13 Too much text

GOTCHA! It’s not a problem anymore 🙂

Facebook used to have a 20% text rule for ads. If there were more than 20% of an ad image’s area as a text, that ad would be rejected. Facebook cancelled the 20% rule recently, but it’s still a good idea to keep your text minimal.

Keep your product as a focus in the ad picture, not the text.

#14 Just because

Yeah, Facebook is not an ideal platform for advertising, and sometimes (someone would say always) there are certain system misbehavior cases, especially after the release of new features, policies, etc.

So, be ready your ads can be rejected because according to Facebook, they relate to political issues or elections, even though you advertise cute raincoats for no less cute dogs.

There’s nothing you can do about it, so just accept it and work with what you have.

Your Facebook ads review ended with the ad rejection, but you think it was a mistake. What to do?

If your ad wasn’t following the Facebook policy, you’ll get an email with an explanation of what was wrong. This can help you decide whether you want to edit the rejected ad to make it comply with Facebook policies or to request an ad review.

So, if you feel like your ad was rejected by mistake, just apply for a review right in the Ads Manager or you can request a review by visiting your Account Quality Dashboard.

It was a nice article, but to get the whole idea in teeny-tiny details, we’d recommend to thoroughly look through Facebook’s Advertising Policies.

The best way to learn is to do stuff, so go ahead — start your campaigns! Hope I didn’t scare you too much 😉 Now you have all the info you need to launch ads which will easily pass Facebook ads review and which will help you boost traffic and your profit at your dropshipping store! And should you need expert assistance with your powerful Facebook campaigns, my team is always here to help you out!