How We Got Our Shutdown Facebook Ad Account Reopened!

facebook-ad-account

Have you or anyone you know ever had a Facebook Ad Account shut down?

If you have…

This article (and the story that we’re going to share with you) is 100% meant for you!

About five days ago I got one of our Facebook Ad accounts shutdown by the Facebook advertising team.

If you’ve ever experienced getting your Facebook Ad Account shut down then you know the feeling of your heart falling into your gut when you get the notification.

Even if you haven’t had your Facebook Ad Account shut down this article will give you enough insight to make sure that you always stay in the good graces of the Facebook gods.

The reason is… anyone who is running Facebook Ads right now could be at risk of getting their ad account shutdown.

 

facebook ad account

Our Facebook Ad Account Shutdown Story

Here’s what happened….

On Monday, I logged into my Ad Espresso account like I do everyday to check on my ads.  (well okay, not on weekends)

I noticed that some of my ads were not running so I immediately thought maybe it was a budget or billing problem, so I logged out of Ad Espresso and logged into our Facebook Ad account manager.

Well to my surprise look what I saw!

facebook ad account

 

Just in case you can’t read that it says…

“Your ad account has been flagged for policy violations. Any ads you’re running have been turned off. If you believe this is a mistake, please contact us.”

UGH!!! EEK!  What?? WHY????

(Yes, that’s exactly what I said…)

That moment of “now what?!”  Game over….

Okay once I collected myself up off the ground I immediately clicked on the “contact us” blue link (see image above) and filled out the form to find out why our Facebook Ad account was shutdown.

 

 

Here’s What I Said In The Facebook Form:

Please tell me exactly why our ad account was shut down. I see it’s for violating terms but I have read the terms and need more specifics.

 

Within 24 Hours I Received A Response From Facebook That Said:

“Thanks for reaching out to us. Your account has been disabled for not following Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines.

 Ad accounts are evaluated for policy compliance and quality of ad content. When accounts have run ads that are not policy compliant, they are disabled.

 Your account was disabled for running misleading ads that resulted in high negative feedback from people on Facebook. Our goal is to provide the highest quality user experience. We reserve the right to reject any advertising that we deem contrary to these objectives. Similarly, we reserve the right to close an account creating ads contrary to these objectives.

 For this reason, if any of your ads have been removed or your ad account has been disabled, we will be unable to reactivate either. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please consider this decision final.

Thanks for your understanding.”

Amy

Facebook Ads Team

Facebook

facebook ad account

What?!! Negative feedback?  High negative feedback?

Wait a second….

I was really surprised at their response and here’s why…

We were only targeting one specific interest.  This was an interest that Facebook offers us as an option to target in the ad manager.

It’s not like I made up this group of people.  Facebook gave us this option through their fancy algorithm and provided it to us.

Is it my fault that their algorithm grouped together a segment of people that were providing negative feedback?  I was so on point with this targeting how in the world could this happen, I thought to myself.

For example….. creating a likes ad to get more likes to a CrossFit page and targeting CrossFit as the interest. On point right?

It’s not like I had a CrossFit page and was targeting people who hated Crossfit.

At this point I was extremely frustrated and angry….

 

How Do You Proceed After Something Like This Happens?

At this point I was ready to hit up our list and Fan Page and tell everyone I was “so done with Facebook!”

But instead I paused to take a few breaths and thought to myself “this can’t be right”.

My targeting was so spot on and the people I was targeting are very passionate about this topic.

In fact, I could say with almost 100% certainty they would like this Fan Page I was promoting…

… unless of course Facebook got it wrong and they were showing my ad to the wrong group of people.

facebook ad accountThis led me to go into my Facebook Ad manager and look at each ad individually.

 

The Two Types Of Ads I Had Running:

  • A Likes ad
  • An ad to a website offering a free ebook which was targeting the Fan Page’s fans

After customizing the reporting columns, I noticed something quite interesting.

None of the ads had a “high negative” feedback.  In fact they all had “high positive” and either “medium negative” feedback or “low negative” feedback.   Our relevancy score was a 9-10 which is very good.

Again…..confused and baffled by all this.  I was certain their had to be a mistake, but how the heck was I going to prove it??

I searched all over the business help section of Facebook and noticed a “Live Support” chat button.

I clicked that lovely button and TJ from Facebook Ad support politely asked me how he could help me today.

I explained the situation and proceeded to tell him I was told we were shut down because of high negative feedback but I went into each ad individually to look at the reporting and there was not even one ad with a high negative feedback rating.

After a few moments of him investigating he came back and said I was right and that he saw some negative feedback which is to be expected but nothing off the charts.

TJ offered to submit an appeal on my behalf and said he can’t promise anything but would contact me as soon as he got an answer.

Within a few hours I received an email from TJ letting me know the ad account had been reactivated and I was back in business.

Woohoo!!!

 

How You Can Benefit From This:

I share this experience with you for a few reasons:

  1. If you feel you were not violating any terms at all after your Facebook ad account gets shut down, ask Facebook why if you don’t truly understand or know why your ad account got shut down.
  2. If you have access to the “live chat” feature use it!  I truly believe this is what really helped us get past the automated canned email messages from Facebook support.
  3.  Get yourself a Facebook Ad account rep if you can. Pay attention to your emails from Facebook support and look for offers in your Facebook Ad account manager to connect with a rep if you can.  If anything like this happens to you at least you have a voice over at Facebook who can help.
  4. Don’t just stop at one response from Facebook if they tell you their decision is final.  Again if you know you did nothing wrong, fight it and do it politely.  Persistence pays off.

 

Helpful Links If You’re In The Same Situation:

1.) Make sure that you’re marketing your business correctly using Facebook.   Often times, it is easier to marketing on Facebook the wrong way than it is the right way.

To make sure you’re marketing on Facebook the right way CLICK HERE.

2.) Read the Facebook Ad guidelines before firing off an appeal…  CLICK HERE to Access Facebook’s Guidlines

(If you did indeed violate  Facebook’s guidelines then your chances of getting your account back are slim to none. However, you should still try to get your account back. It can’t hurt to use the “I’m sorry” approach and promise you’ll never do it again.)

3.) For Facebook Business and Support Resources…  CLICK HERE   Based on your specific account there may be a “Live Support” button here as well.

4.) Need to find out why your Facebook Ad account was shutdown??   CLICK HERE to message Facebook Ad support.

 

I Hope This Article Helps You Now And In The Future. Feel Free To Leave A Comment Below And If You Got Value Please Share This Post.

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