There have been many times when I had to appeal a Facebook ad rejection. I don’t know if it is actual humans who look at an ad before it is rejected or if it is some kind of automated process that automatically rejects ads that contain certain words or themes. I suspect it is automated. So if your ad is rejected, you have to go through the process of typing out something that is (hopefully) read by actual humans so that they can determine the validity of your argument.
Sometimes it doesn’t work. In that case, all there is to do is walk away from the ad and try something else. For instance, right now I am involved in a project helping market hemp oil, which is legal if it is laboratory-tested as being non-THC, which ours is. So we set up a Facebook Page to promote and sell the products. Facebook now has full shopping cart functionality, so I think it just makes sense that if you are selling a product online, it should be made available via Facebook as well as your own website.
When we set up our products in the Facebook shop, at first, they were all automatically rejected. So the first thing we had to in that case was appeal the rejection of our products. That appeal was successful, and we were allowed to place our products for sale in our Facebook shop. However, when we tried to create ads to promote the shop…guess what happened? Rejection! As of this time, I have been unsuccessful in getting my ads approved. One of my main arguments (in addition to the fact that we are actually selling a legal product) is that it doesn’t make sense for them to approve the products for sale in our shop but then not allow us to run ads. Maybe I will eventually get the ads approved…but maybe I won’t. So the point is that even if you appeal and there really is no reason to reject your ads, Facebook may reject you anyway. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do.
When an ad is rejected, you should receive an email message from Facebook telling you that the ad is rejected and showing a link to edit the ad.
That link will take you to a page on Facebook talking about why your ad was rejected. There will be a link on that page to submit your appeal. Type out a detailed explanation for why your ad should be approved. Be very specific as to why your ad does not violate Facebook’s terms.
By the way, Facebook says that “advocacy or awareness ads are allowed.” So that may be one key to advertising a product that Facebook is worried may be illegal – make it more of a public service announcement than an actual product advertisement. I am still experimenting with this idea, so I will let you know how it goes.
After you submit your request for review, wait a day or two or three and you should get a message back from Facebook explaining that they have either approved or rejected your ad. If the ad gets rejected after a review, it is probably time to move and try something else.
If you could use some help fighting the good fight, please get in touch with Work Media today. We don’t always win, but we always go down swinging!