Unlike other social media advertising platforms, Facebook requires advertisers to submit each ad for review and must be approved before it can be published and released into the wild. In fact, if you’ve ever published a Facebook ad, you’re already familiar with the process - and you may have bumped into a disapproval or two (...oh, the shame).
Which brings us to one of the most common questions we hear from digital marketers:
Facebook ad disapprovals are actually quite common and are nothing to take personally. Still, they can be disappointing, frustrating, and can easily derail your campaign timeline. Knowing the ins and outs of the Facebook ad review (and approval) process is the best way to stay on Facebook's friendly side and to fast track your ads for quick publishing.
In this article, you’ll learn the ins and outs of the Facebook ad review process, how it works, common causes for ads to be disapproved, how to handle a Facebook ad appeal, and best practices for how your business can avoid ad (heartbreak &) rejection.
Did you know?
An estimated 93% of professional marketers use Facebook advertising on a regular basis, which translates to about 3 million businesses that use Facebook to market their products and services (2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report). It’s no surprise then that the platform boasts upwards of 2 billion daily users and generates significant dinero from advertising revenue (we're talking about upwards of $7.6 billion in the first quarter of 2017).
If you want a piece of the action - getting your ad approved for publication should be one of your top priorities.
(So, it's a great idea you're here! This guide contains everything you need to get through the process like a champion).
Our Facebook Ad Builder FAQ series continues!
Missed part 1? Check out our A to your Q:
What are the most effective lead magnets for Facebook ads?
Jump to what you want to know:
> What is the Facebook ad approval process? How does it work?
> How long does Facebook ad review take?
> How can I speed up the “pending review” period?
> What factors influence my ad approval time?
> My Facebook ad was disapproved. What does that mean?
> What should I do when my Facebook ad is disapproved?
> Why does my Facebook ad get approved then disapproved?
> What are the most common reasons that Facebook ads are disapproved?
> What about the 20% text image rule?
> What can I do to improve my chances of having my Facebook ad approved?
Launching a big campaign? If you’re concerned your Facebook ad won’t be approved on time, try scheduling your post in advance. Set a future start and end date that allows plenty of time for ad approvals to run their course. We recommend at least 2 business days ahead of launch, preferably avoiding Friday and Saturday dates.
Face the truth: on Facebook, you’re #2.
Facebook advertisers would be wise to keep in mind one inconvenient truth: Facebook favors users over advertisers.
Sounds cold. But it’s true. Ensuring, maintaining, and protecting a high-quality user experience is the #1 priority of team Facebook - everything (and everyone) else is secondary.
Advertisers will come and go, but when users leave - it’s lights out, Sparky. That’s why Facebook’s Advertising Policies exist and the Facebook ad review process is in place to ensure that advertisers play by the rules (and thus protect the coolness of the Facebook community).
The Facebook ad review/approval process refers to the reviews & approvals that every single ad must obtain in order to be published for the world to see. No one is exempt from this - not even the big boy brands.
Why does the ad review process matter to you?
Thanks to Facebook’s powerful algorithm, “ads optimize as they run,” says Juan Salazar, a Facebook advertising consultant who works with Leadpages, “and they optimize over time. Essentially, anything that breaks that learning cycle is problematic - such as an ad being disapproved. When ads are paused - you stop spending, your history stops collecting, and your campaign starts underperforming.” That's why the ad approval process matters to you.
Disapproved ads can also easily derail any A/B creative testing that you’re running. Imagine you launch an ad set for a new lead magnet campaign, which contains 5 identical ads, each with a new headline. “If one of the ad versions gets disapproved right out of the gate and the rest go live, your test is compromised,” says Juan. "Or, worst case scenario: all your ads are disapproved and you’re not testing anything at all."
Most marketers wonder: how do Facebook ads get approved?
Because an estimated 3 million businesses advertise on Facebook, it’d be impossible to manually audit and oversee each and every ad as it comes down the shoot. (Can you imagine what that bay of cubicles would look like?)
While Facebook doesn’t explicitly reveal the mechanics and manpower behind how their ad review process works, most experts agree that it’s managed by a mix of automated algorithms and manual human approvers.
Most likely, the first phase of approvals is managed by automated algorithms (meaning, your ads are scanned by a computer program that determines whether to approve/ or reject them).
Based on Juan’s experience managing Facebook ads across multiple accounts, he has a pretty strong sense of what the process looks like behind the curtain: “Once you submit it, within 2-3 hours there will be an automated crawling of your text and images that will check for very basic things: image text ratio (what used to be the 20% rule), excessive or superlative language, inappropriate/ prohibited content (including guns, alcohol, drugs - and other content that is explicitly banned).”
This automated crawl is machine-driven and - quite frankly - imperfect. “Some things will initially pass through it while others will get flagged for disapproval,” Juan says.
Most ads are typically reviewed within 24 hours, although some cases may face additional delays (according to folks @ Facebook).
The ad review team (algorithm + human gatekeepers) will use this time to compare your ad to the Facebook Advertising Policies and ensure you’re in 100% compliance with the letter of the law.
Notice some inconsistency in ad review speeds?
So do we. It’s because not all ads take the same path through Facebook review:
If you’re looking for unshakeable consistency, you’re not going to find it here.
The best way to protect against ad rejection (and resulting delays) is to learn the policies and follow the rules. And while the policies are quite long, it is not as difficult as you may think. Why? Because given the nature of your business and industry, you’ll likely find that you’re bumping up against only a handful of these restrictions. Identify those frequent sticking points early on and you’ll save yourself loads of time.
Short answer: you can't.
It’s not the norm, but still, it’s not altogether uncommon for marketers to find that their Facebook ad is pending review for upwards of 15-20 hours.
“Unfortunately there’s not a way to expedite the review process,” says Juan, “other than if you’re spending enough money and you have a direct Facebook rep working with your business account - which would trigger a quicker turnaround. Most small/ medium sized advertisers without a dedicated representative just have to wait. Approximately 70-80% of advertisers get a response within 2-3 hours, but there are some cases that take almost the full 24 hours.”
This is a topic of much speculation and very little solid evidence.
Some Facebook advertisers suggest that a number of factors may contribute to fast-tracking ads for review, such as:
Despite the swirling speculation, Juan hasn’t experienced any massive differences in approval process times from one account to another.
“I can’t imagine it hurts to publish from an account that has a long history of approved ads, that’s in good standing, that doesn’t have a ton of denied credit card payments, etc. But I don’t know that there’s a direct link between those factors and approval times,” he says.
According to Juan, most ads pass through an initial algorithmic screening (within the first 2-3 hours) and of those ads, 60-70% will pass through a secondary human review (within the first 48 hours). During either of those evaluations, ads may be disapproved: blocked from publishing and sent back to the advertiser for adjustments or appeal.
If your ad is disapproved, you’ll receive an alert by email or notification and you’ll also see a notice of disapproval appear within your Facebook Ad Manager interface.
These notifications will often contain a brief description of the charges against you (aka. Offending text, image, or both) and a link to a corresponding section of the Facebook Ad Policies so you can dig a little deeper.
“My biggest advice to Facebook advertisers is not to freak out when things get disapproved. It happens a lot. It’s a very finicky thing and because Facebook has grown so big so quickly, their rules are vague so that they can apply them any which way they want. They’re not known for consistency and you may have to push back on them during your appeal and make your case for why you’re not in violation.”
Human reviewers are subjective and having that in mind at the outset should stem your frustration.
Post-disapproval, you may have to adjust your timeline (and expectations). Appeals can be won quite quickly, but you likely had to wait 24 hours to get the first rejection and the second review can take another 24 hours.
At this point, it’s up to you how to handle the status of your campaign - pause it while you appeal or let it run. If your appeal is successful and your campaign is active, your ad will start delivering.
Tweak & Try Again
Usually, the best course of action is to take a second pass at your ad and edit it so that it complies Facebook’s advertising policies. Why? Because unlike the popular dating breakup script - it’s not them, it’s you.
If your Facebook ad has been disapproved, you’ve likely received a notification/ email with some fairly vague reasons as to why. That’s great, in theory, but in practice, it can be difficult to identify exactly which part of your ad caused the problem.
“Look at the reasons they give you in the disapproval notice. It will say why the ad is being disapproved. Then, try to get in the head of the viewer and try to uncover why would this matter? Is this really egregious? After that, click on the link that takes you directly to the section of the Facebook advertising rules that you're allegedly breaking and thoroughly read the rules to understand the motivation behind why Facebook doesn’t want something like this to be published in an ad.”
At that point, if you determine, “whoopsi, I did a bad thing…” simply go back and correct your error.
Here’s a good place to start:
“Keep in mind,” Juan says, “when your ad is reviewed by a human, he or she is looking for more nuanced violations. If you’re rejected by a human reviewer, your chances of winning on appeal are pretty slim: perhaps 20-30%. Most likely, something in your ad is truly in violation of Facebook’s Ad Policies and you need to make changes.”
Tweak the copy, swap out the image, adjust the targeting - whatever it takes to get your ad back on the straight and narrow.
Can’t find fault with your ad? - It’s time to appeal.
After reading the rules more thoroughly and finding no fault in the ad itself, Juan recommends “starting to construct an argument as to why this is not truly egregious or why it’s not in violation of the rule.”
In order to present your case and (hopefully) change the status of your ad, you’ll need to appeal a disapproved ad by filling out Facebook’s appeal form. By clicking the appeal button (shown in your Ad Manager interface), you’ll be able to justify why your ad should be accepted and doing so will prompt a human review.
If your ad is disapproved within the first 2-3 hours, you can assume it was rejected by the algorithm outright. In that case, Juan says “definitely appeal and you probably don’t have to write up a massive thesis-style explanation. You usually don’t have to be too detailed because the appeal will trigger a human review” and if you’re really innocent, you’re more likely to be let off.
Writing a convincing Facebook ad appeal should include trying to:
The heart of your Facebook ad approval is simple: it’s an ‘I’m right and you’re wrong, and let me tell you why’ statement… followed by an implicit ‘pretty please let me advertise on your site.’
That being said, here are a couple sample scripts to get you started:
Write out one appeal message, then copy & paste it across the board.
“If you lose the appeal the appeal process, it means something is up with the ad…” Juan says.
Here’s what you can do:
“Unless you're a spammy advertiser or nefarious actor you’re most likely breaking a rule in a very innocent way,” Juan says. “You should first try to understand A) why it was disapproved to begin with and B) why your ad might be beneficial or of interest to the end user.”
According to Juan, most ads pass through an initial algorithmic screening (within the first 2-3 hours) and of those ads, 60-70% will pass through a secondary human review (within the first 48 hours). During either of those evaluations, ads may be disapproved: blocked from publishing and sent back to the advertiser for adjustments or appeal.
For this reason, it’s possible that your Facebook ad is initially approved and then disapproved shortly after.
According to Facebook (here), the most common reasons that Facebook ads are disapproved are:
Basically, Facebook divides delinquent content into two categories: prohibited content (29 items) and restricted content (10 items).
If you’re dealing with prohibited content - you’re likely wasting your time, as the Facebook ad gatekeepers will simply have your ad disapproved outright. However, if you’re monkeying with ‘restricted content’ - play by the rules and you’ll likely be successful!
HELLO disclaimer: This guide is designed as a high-level summary to help you navigate the Facebook ad review process. Best to go to the source (Facebook Advertising Policies) if you’ve got more detailed concerns.
Facebook has a long, long list of prohibited content that basically consists of the illegal or questionable material that wouldn’t be approved for more traditional advertising channels. Here is our summary:
Facebook ad’s restricted content generally takes into account applicable local laws (including age and country targeting criteria). Therefore, your campaigns and content may need to be adjusted to meet the requirements of each country/ geography.
Here is our summary of restricted content for Facebook ads:
Once upon a time, Facebook required that ad images contain no more than 20% text. Those days are over - kind of.
‘The 20% rule is not dead,” says Juan, "but the best practices are the same. Your image won’t be denied, but you will face consequences that you’ll want to avoid. Now, Facebook allows you to use more text within an image - but you’ll be penalized during the ad auction. That basically means that you’ll face restricted reach (fewer people will actually see your ad) and you’ll pay more for better placements (higher $$)."
Instead of rejecting 20%+ ads outright, Facebook now offers a 4-tiered rating system: OK, Low, Medium, High (as determined by the Facebook Text Overlay Tool). You should aim for an ‘OK’ rating. Anything else could result in penalizations and reduced reach.
Wondering how you rate? Use the Facebook Text Overlay Tool before submitted any image with text.
It’s simple. Just upload an image, highlight all the boxes that contain text, and if you end up with more than 5 highlighted boxes, your rank will be adjusted accordingly.
What constitutes text on images?
Pretty much, any text on an image.
That includes logos and slogans, text overlays (such as watermarks), and edited images that include text on top of a product as a ‘creative workaround.’
Juan recommends that Facebook advertisers “make the best use of the text that surrounds the ad’s image” to say what they need to say. Some Facebook ad consultants even encourage advertisers to embrace video ads, as videos tend to be more permissive and make it harder for Facebook crawlers to detect text overlays. (A word of caution here: attempts to outsmart Facebook...they usually backfire).
Now that you’re a kung-fu master at Facebook ad approvals, we’d like to encourage you to avoid using your combat skills altogether and simply learn to play by the rules. Think of it like practicing Facebook ad nonviolence… and we promise you can still flex your creative muscles, capture loads of leads, and be successful with Facebook advertising.
Here are our key takeaways:
Facebook advertising guidelines can seem freakishly overwhelming, but there are probably only a handful of regulations you’ll constantly run into, depending on the nature of your business. (And, if you’re an agency - you’ll probably run into all of them).
As his final parting word, Juan encourages small business Facebook advertisers to “take on a hacker-ish attitude and tackle ad approvals/ disapprovals from multiple angles. Test and explore different avenues and once you gather enough evidence you’ll start to understand what ad/ copy skips by the rules and what doesn’t.”
Juan Salazar
Digital Advertising Consultant
His focus is on enabling high-growth startups to leverage social platforms, primarily Facebook and Instagram, as a source of branding and user acquisition.
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