How Long Can a Facebook Ad Be in Review

Running Facebook ads ways at some point you'll take ads that are non approved for ane reason or another.

It's non the end of the world, just sometimes it can be disruptive for those of us who are genuinely trying to do the right thing.

If you've ever had an ad rejected with a adequately vague reason as to why, yous know it tin can be difficult to figure out exactly which office of your ad acquired the problem.

Even worse, it tin can sometimes take longer than 24 hours to become the ad reviewed in the first place. Get rejected and you might be waiting another 24 hours.

In this article yous'll acquire most some of the common causes for ad rejections that a lot of people aren't aware of, and how to avoid them. The goal is to help you become more than ads canonical and stay on Facebook's good side.

Showtime, allow'southward talk near the Facebook ad review process.

The ad review process (how it works)

Before we get into what not to practice with your ads, let'due south take a quick look at how the Facebook advert approval procedure works.

Commencement, you need to realise that the size of the bodily ads team at Facebook is extremely small compared to the number of advertisers they accept using the platform. In their Q4 2015 earnings report, Facebook announced that they accept over 2.5 million advertisers using the platform.

Imaging how many private ads are created each 24-hour interval by two.5 meg advertisers!

Assuming that in that location are but a few hundred people in the advertising squad, that's a tiny number of people to handle then many new ads each day.

Facebook don't publicly discuss how the approval works behind the scenes, only based on my experience and the experiences of others, I believe information technology'southward a mix of automatic processes and humans checking our ads.

Here's why I believe there's some automation backside the process (algorithms scanning over ads and approving / rejecting them).

• I regularly see ads get canonical in nether 10 minutes. That'due south fast for a transmission review!

• I've also seen my own ads go approved in under x minutes and then change to 'rejected' 24 hours afterwards. That gives me the impression that information technology was automatically approved the first time, and someone manually reviewed my advertizement later and rejected it.

• Some ads take upward to 24 hours to go approved. That makes me think that they went straight to the queue for manual review rather than being motorcar-canonical kickoff.

And so how long should you expect to wait for your ad to go approved?

The answer from Facebook is: "Typically most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, although in some cases information technology may take longer."

The ads squad will review your advertizing against the Facebook Advertising Policies to make sure your ads are 100% compliant. The all-time way to avoid getting your ads rejected is to understand these policies well and stick to them.

If your ad is still pending review later on 24 hours, just be patient. Sometimes information technology does accept longer. You just accept to wait it out.

Now permit'due south talk about how you lot can avert that waiting by getting more of your ads approved. We'll start with a quick look at the mindset needed to create Facebook compliant ads on a consistent ground.

How to Stay on Facebook'due south Practiced Side

If you empathize Facebook'due south intentions backside their rules it will assistance salvage yous from about of your ad approval bug.

The first affair yous need to realise is that Facebook'due south users are more than important than the states equally advertisers.

If y'all and I both stopped advertizing on Facebook tomorrow it wouldn't matter because another 2 advertisers will fill that gap pretty quickly. As long as there are over i billion monthly active users, in that location will ever be new advertisers.

But if the users went away there would be nobody to advertise to, meaning no one would continue running ads. That means a big hit to Facebook'southward bottom line.

So it makes sense that Facebook's priority is to protect the experience of their users. At that place needs to be a remainder of advertisers existence able to sell on the platform without ruining the feel for Facebook's users.

That'southward why there are ad policies. Without them, it's most guaranteed advertisers would but ruin the platform completely.

Next time you're creating a Facebook advertising campaign, go along in heed that the user experience is priority #1. Getting into this mindset will not just help you get more Facebook ads approved, it will increase your conversion charge per unit as well.

Put simply – annoying, deceitful ads might go people to click, but it's a curt game and will cost you in the long run.

For every person that clicks, you're probably annoying ten others. And for those 10 others you've damaged your brand, some to a signal where they won't e'er become a customer.

And for every person that clicks and doesn't become what they expect or feels like you duped them into clicking, you've definitely turned them off your brand for life.

Yous'll run into some more than specific examples of the blazon of user experience Facebook wants to create & how that affects you as an advertiser after in this postal service.

For now, let'due south talk about some common reasons why your Facebook ad might not get approved and what yous should do instead.

Best Practices For Facebook Ad Images

Images used to exist a very common reason for rejection because Facebook had a very strict rule that images had to incorporate less than 20% text.
That's no longer the example , merely you should still exist aware of how text on images is currently treated by Facebook.

Ads With Lots of Text Won't be Rejected, But They Will Cost More

If an ad contains too much text, Facebook will penalize y'all past restricting its reach. That means fewer people will actually come across your ad.

There are now 4 different 'levels' of text in a Facebook ad

1. OK
2. Depression
3. Medium
4. High

You want all of your images to fall into the 'OK' category.

That'south the merely way to avoid being penalized with reduced achieve.

We used to exist able to split an image into an even v ten 5 grid, and simply five of the squares could incorporate text . If more than 5 of those squares contain any text at all, even part of a alphabetic character, your advertisement would have been rejected.

Now yous need to use the Facebook Text Overlay Tool to bank check all of your images.

It's the only reliable style to know if Facebook will consider your image to contain too much text or not.

Text on images includes:

• Logos and slogans.
  • Images with text overlay (ex: watermarks).
  • Images that are conspicuously edited to include text on the production every bit a loophole to policy.

Merely upload an epitome to the grid tool, highlight all boxes with text in them and if you end up with more 5 highlighted squares it means you lot have likewise much text.

An example of an image that has a suitable amount of text

Don't Include Prohibited Content

Prohibited content is defined clearly in the Facebook Advertising Policies .

My advice: Bank check the policies regularly (at to the lowest degree weekly if you're running ads all the time).

I won't re-write the unabridged list of things that are prohibited by Facebook and waste both of our time because past the fourth dimension you read this it would be out of appointment anyway.

Instead, I'll comprehend a few of the more mutual ones that people miss completely or just misunderstand (the policies can be a bit generic/vague, and I'k sure that'south by pattern).

No before & later on shots

Facebook are really strict on this one. You but tin can't utilize before & after shots in your ad images.

Y'all also tin't bear witness "ideal body" or body part images. Meaning showing a person with a half-dozen-pack to promote your weight-loss supplement is a non allowed.

Images can't be 'overly sexual'

That ways you can't do things similar imply nudity, testify likewise much pare or cleavage, or focus on unnecessary body parts. And yeah, that counts fifty-fifty if it's creative or educational.

No content that infringes upon or violates rights

That includes copyrights, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights. In curt, you tin can but use content in your ads that you take the correct to use.

This is a big ane. Lots of people are surprised when they utilise a make'southward logo, characters etc. in an ad and it subsequently gets rejected.

Violent or scary images

That ways no car wrecks, confronting images like someone pointing a gun at another person, or anything else that is fierce, scary or disturbing.

Fake Buttons

Running a static paradigm advertising that takes people to a video after they click the ad? Just make sure you don't have a play push button on your Facebook prototype ad.

You aren't immune to use images that 'portray not-real functionality'. That means yous can't make a withal image look like a video by calculation a play push to it.

Why?

Because it deceives users. They click the image thinking it will play a video in Facebook, when information technology in fact takes them to your website.

Play buttons are ok on videos, but not on static image ads

Showing Historic period-Restricted Material to an Audience That's As well Young

Advertizing alcohol or other age restricted material is ok, with a few conditions.

1. It can't be on the list of prohibited content
2. You need to respect the historic period restrictions in the countries you are advertisement.

For instance, in Australia the legal drinking age is xviii. So you lot can run ads for alcohol to an audience aged 18+ in Australia. However to run those same ads in the US yous will demand to heighten the minimum historic period of your ad set to 21.

Facebook Advertisement Copy

Re-create is the text you employ in your headline and body of your ad, and your ads won't go approved if your copy isn't compliant.

Let'south get-go past talking about what Facebook says are the most mutual copy-related reasons for ads existence rejected by Facebook.

Mentioning Facebook in Your Ads

Yes, y'all can mention Facebook in your ads, but there are strict rules for doing so.

Here are the do's and don'ts, directly from Facebook'due south advertisement policies:

Do:

• Write "Facebook" with a majuscule "F"

• Brandish the give-and-take "Facebook" in the same font size and mode as the content surrounding it

Don't:

• Employ the Facebook logo in identify of the give-and-take "Facebook"

• Make Facebook plural, use it every bit a verb or abridge information technology

• Employ an altered version of the Facebook logo in the image for your ad

You can't assert or imply personal attributes in your ads

This applies to both your re-create and your images, but it's more mutual for people to get ads rejected for the copy.

What this means is you tin can't say things similar: "You're an 18 year one-time male and then you will desire to check out our product".

Recollect dorsum to what I said about the user experience earlier and it volition help y'all sympathize why Facebook doesn't desire y'all doing this.

Facebook has a TON of information about its users. That'southward what makes it so effective as an advertising platform.

But by pointing out personal attributes it does a couple of things. Offset, it freaks people out. By pointing out but how much Facebook knows about you and how advertisers can utilise that data you make users uncomfortable.

2d, y'all risk breaking Facebook'southward rule that says: "You must not utilize targeting options to discriminate against, harass, provoke, or disparage users or to engage in predatory advert practices."

Avert using the words "your" and "other" equally a general rule to go along out of trouble.

Here are some examples of what you tin can and tin can't say:

At present information technology'due south of import to note that this isn't about individual words. Information technology'due south virtually the context in which you use them.

For example, using the give-and-take "your" doesn't mean your ad won't get approved.

You could say "New automobile wash makes is easier to clean your auto", and that fine because y'all aren't pointing out any personal attributes.

This is why you need to focus on the context and non merely individual words.

Detect the example "Check out our product designed for men like you lot" doesn't use the word "your" or "other" but it does imply personal attributes then you won't get approved if you employ that text.

Don't make users feel bad well-nigh themselves

Your ads should not make users feel bad about themselves or their electric current situation. Making users sad and depressed isn't a good user experience, so if yous do that, your ads volition be rejected.

If people are fabricated to feel similar crap every fourth dimension they check the news feed because ads talk nearly how their weight is affecting their family, or how their life is bad because…. Then they won't go on using Facebook for long.

Make sure your re-create uses a positive tone wherever possible. Saying things similar "Tired of beingness overweight?" Will be rejected as quickly as you tin can press the submit button.

You can change that message into a positive 1 past saying something similar "Experience neat by starting your twenty-four hours with a morning time conditioning" instead (let'southward presume this is an advertising for a personal trainer).

Over again, information technology's all about context, but as a full general dominion effort to use a positive tone in your advertizement copy.

Don't Brand Unrealistic Claims

Writing ad re-create that says "how to lose 50lbs in ane calendar week without exercising or eating less" is a great way to get your ad rejected.

It will probably go your ad business relationship close downwards as well.

I'yard sure you'll agree this claim is just a lilliputian bit unrealistic… and Facebook specifically states in its ad policies that y'all can't make unrealistic claims.

Information technology doesn't accept to be related to weight loss either. Crazy, outlandish claims, no matter what industry you lot're in will become your Facebook ad rejected.

The best fashion to avert this is to look at what you lot're claiming and inquire if what you're claiming is achievable for 99% of people who see the advertising.

If and so, you're likely to be ok.

If non, information technology's fourth dimension to rethink your copy.

Another fashion to avoid this is to avoid promising specific results in specific time frames.

For instance:

"Get three new clients in 30 minutes" is an unrealistic result for about of your audition. Sure, it may be possible,  merely not for the boilerplate Joe.

Merely if you change that to "Get 3 new clients, even if you're just starting out", it removes the specified time frame and is much more than realistic.

Display URL

1 of the most common reasons for ads beingness rejected today is because the brandish URL doesn't match the domain that the ad is sending people to.

The 'display URL' is the URL that is displayed at the bottom of the advertizing.

The reason Facebook will reject your advertizement if the link text doesn't friction match where you're sending people when they click the ad is simple. Facebook wants to protect the user experience. They don't want us deceiving users.

If a user sees a URL on an ad, simply is sent to a different URL when they click, and so they are probable to feel deceived.

The solution is to either leave the link text blank when you create your ad, or make sure your link text matches your domain.

Example where the Display URL does non match the linked domain

Example where the Display URL does match the linked domain

Be Clear On What You're Selling

According to this presentation , if you're selling a product or service, y'all need to be articulate about that in your ad.

For example, your advertising should not give users the impression that they will be getting free information, only for them to be sent to a production sales page when they click the ad.

If you are describing a production or a solution/fix in your ad, you should include an image of the product in your ad.

What to exercise if an advertizing is incorrectly rejected

As I mentioned before, sometimes ads get rejected when they should actually be approved.

If that happens to you, the good news is it's adequately simple to entreatment the rejection. If & when it happens, the kickoff thing yous demand to exercise is be 100% certain that it is a fault and your ad is actually compliant.

If that's the case, yous volition see a link to entreatment the decision in the rejection notice in your ad manager.

These are existent people y'all are writing to. I shouldn't accept to say this, but always exist polite, courteous and explain why you think your ad should have been approved clearly and succinctly.

Every fourth dimension I take washed this the ads team have been extremely helpful and canonical my ads actually chop-chop.

Summary

Avoid these common mistakes when you're creating your Facebook ads from now on and I'yard sure y'all'll start seeing more of your ads get approved.

Every bit I mentioned, these are a combination of the most common mistakes and things that I oft encounter at the crusade of rejections that aren't specifically mentioned in ad policy.

Always proceed a close eye on the Facebook ad policies . They change as often every bit a few times per calendar week, so it's not something yous can check in one case and never look at over again.

Remember, this is just for the advert creatives. Your landing page that you send users to also needs to exist compliant with Facebook's policies. Brand sure you likewise read this post on how to create a Facebook landing folio that won't go your advertising account close downwardly .

In case yous would like a quick reference to keep nearby that you can check every time you prepare new ads, I've put one together for you. Information technology'due south a condensed version of what we talked about in this post so you can go through it like a checklist earlier yous submit new ads. Grab a copy using the link beneath.

Over to y'all. Have you had ads rejected in the by? And was it for any of the reasons I've only mentioned? Tell me about it in the comments below!

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Source: https://andrewhubbard.co/facebook-ad-not-approved/