Digital advertising is a must-have in your business’s marketing strategy. Facebook is an excellent place for business owners to make their first attempt at paid digital marketing ads.

Facebook makes it easy with the boost button and ad campaign prompts so prominent on the platform, and of course, if that doesn’t make it worth trying, then the fact that almost 3 billion people use the platform monthly should do it for you.

But the last thing you want is for your Facebook ad account to be frozen or, worse yet, lost permanently. Here are some of the top reasons you could get locked out of your Facebook ads account.

1. Not Following Facebook Terms of Service

That’s right, the small print and terms of service that you never want to read. Getting familiar with Facebook’s ad policies will save you a ton of heartache in the future. Breaking any of the Terms of Service or posting that ad that violates Facebook’s policy will result in a frozen account.

Keeping up with changes to their policies is the best way to avoid any lockout…sorry, yes, that means you should read through the terms at least once a quarter to ensure you are not in violation.

TIP: These policy items continue to remain the same and will result in an immediate account lockout:

• Ads promoting sex, gambling or violence.

• Dating ads from non-approved pages.

• Get rich quick ads.

2. Ads Facebook Dislikes

Several types of ads could flag an account lockout, including:

• Ads including clickbait, fear-mongering, misleading information, or attempt to manipulate.
• Advertisements that are not transparent about what to expect when clicking your ad.
• Ads that make unsubstantiated claims or are misleading.
• Ads containing misleading or unrelated images.
• Ads with illegal content, including sexually suggestive content, personal user info or claims that suggest the user lacking without the advertised content.

TIP: I have found that on occasion, particular words, although not met to align with unapproved content, may flag a review automatically. Ensure that you select your wording wisely and that your content is not misconstrued for one of the above categories.

3. A History of Disapproved Ads

Posting ads repeatedly that continually get disapproved creates a negative history that Google will reference when deciding whether to approve your next ad. So, if you have an ad disapproved, pump the breaks and instead of guessing what the disapproval was about, review the policies again.

TIP: If you have a list of disapproved ads on your account, remove them! Although Facebook still knows you had disapproved ads, leaving them in your account is like highlighting your past mistakes for review – which may lead to a lockout or regular disapprovals.

4. Logging in from Different IP Addresses

We all have dreams to travel the world, or maybe you want to be a digital nomad? Be warned Facebook does flag accounts that have logins from different IP locations as potential fraud. If other IP locations get logged continually, they will tend to disable the account altogether.

TIP: Some users have had success by logging into their account from the same mobile device when travelling.

5. Spending Too Much Too Quickly

Every business owner, particularly when you first start out, wants quick and exponential growth. But spending too much too quickly on an ad campaign could lead you to a locked-out account.
I bet you are now asking yourself, why does Facebook not want my money? I am sure they do, but they also want to protect their 3 billion monthly users from spam, which is what your quick spend will flag in their system.

TIP: Keeping your budget increases under 15% a day will keep you safe.

6. Not Limiting Access to your Ad Account

Whether you hire an agency or keep your digital marketing in-house, you will want to be cautious about who receives access to your ads account.
That’s right; Facebook reviews the connections between accounts, pages and more. One user with a bad Facebook history could lead to an automatic account lockout, so be cautious.

TIP: Regularly audit who has access to your Facebook ads account.

7. Negative User Feedback

Facebook did not become the social media powerhouse it is today by ignoring its users, so yes, user feedback is a non-policy way to have your account locked out.

Negative feedback has more impact on your Facebook account than even Relevance Scores. Although the relevance score tells you how well your audience receives your ad, of course, a lower score will likely reduce engagement, negative user feedback can overrule even the best of relevance scores.

Checking your ads for negative feedback should be done monthly as it changes over time.

TIP: If you receive negative feedback on an ad, immediately hit pause and rework the content, preferably before Facebook takes note and locks out your ad account.

I do caveat all of this advice that social media platforms are ever-evolving, so please always check the rules before you launch your ad.

Want to Learn More?

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