Has your personal or business Facebook account been restricted from advertising on Facebook and Instagram? Don’t worry, this guide will help you resolve the issue and start running ads again!
In this guide we will discuss 3 simple steps you need to take to run ads on Facebook and Instagram:
- Identify which Facebook asset has been restricted.
- Submit an appeal and verify your personal identity and/or business ownership.
- Make sure to follow simple rules to minimize your chances of being restricted from advertising again.
Step 1. Identify which Facebook asset has been restricted.
Go to Account Overview, that’s the place where you will find out which asset has been restricted from advertising. It can be all or just one of the following Facebook assets:
- your personal Facebook page
- your Business Manager account
- your Business Facebook Page
- one of your ad accounts.
If your personal Facebook page has been restricted from advertising, then you will not be able to run any ads.
If your Business Manager account has been restricted from running ads on Facebook or Instagram, then you won’t be able to run any campaigns in the ad manager associated with that Business Manager.
If your Business Facebook Page has been restricted from advertising, then you can’t launch any ads linked to that Business Page.
If your ad account has been restricted from advertising, then you can’t run any ads in that particular ad account.
Why has your Facebook asset been restricted from advertising?
There are so many potential reasons and Facebook does not explain them. It could be for security reasons, too many complaints, or just that Facebook tracked some suspicious activity on your account.
No matter what, there is usually a way to submit an appeal – and that’s the second step.
Step 2. Submit an appeal and verify your personal identity and/or business ownership.
Before you submit an appeal, please make sure that:
Your name on your personal Facebook page appears EXACTLY as on your legal documents. In most cases when submitting an appeal, you will be asked to verify your identity by providing a driver’s license or another government issued document. Before sharing that information you need to make sure that your name on Facebook appears exactly as on your legal documents.
- No shortened versions of your name like Ted instead of Edward.
- No fake names like your nickname.
- No words irrelevant to your actual name like designer, artist, or musician.
Need to adjust your name on your personal Facebook page? Follow Facebook-provided instructions.
Now let’s come back to the Account Overview page where you should see “what you can do” box. It should appear on the upper right-hand side of the page.
Click “request review” and follow the instructions provided by Facebook.
From our experience, it usually takes between 24 to 48 hours for Facebook to review your appeal and make the final decision.
3.Make sure to follow these simple rules to minimize your chances of being restricted from advertising again.
Once you get your account back, it’s so easy to lose it again if you don’t follow simple steps to avoid advertising restrictions.
- Make sure you select a special category ad if you run any educational or self-development courses, talk about employment opportunities, or promote property. Detailed targeting is restricted in that case. This is extremely important and unfortunately this rule is violated way too often because lots of advertisers don’t realize they should turn on the special ad category. Learn more about Special Ad Category.
- Set up a 2-factor verification on your Facebook and Instagram accounts to avoid losing your accounts to hackers who might run ads on your behalf. Read our instructions on how to do that.
- Make sure to add a Meta (formerly Facebook) pixel to your website to let the platform know that you really own it. Refer to our blog post on the topic.
