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Facebook Approval Hell (Picture Included)

by Ripped
18 replies
I find it nearly impossible to get my dating ads approved on FB. I still am shocked at how many people are getting their ads easily approved. Believe me, I'm trying very hard. Few days ago, I sat down and submitted 50 ads, some of them were written in the most polite and non-vulgar way, with a conservative picture (no cleavage or anything like that), and all of the ads, even the most conservative ads, were disapproved (all 50 of them). This didn't stop me, I kept going, but couldn't get an ad approved no matter what.

I've triple checked everything with the facebook TOS and I still cannot get dating ads to get approved. I have attached an image of 3 specific ads that were disapproved, all for different campaigns. I want you guys to take a look at it, and tell me if you see anything wrong. Maybe my ad writing style is all wrong, that's why I'm getting disapproved.

Here's the image containing excerpts from my FB ads account:

#approval #facebook #hell #included #picture
  • Profile picture of the author adsquare
    Well looking over your ads briefly I would assume they were all disproved based on your images, not ad copy. Make sure you own your own images and don't pull ones from Google, you'll have a MUCH EASIER time getting approved, but sometimes 1 or 2 may slip by.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ripped
      Originally Posted by adsquare View Post

      Well looking over your ads briefly I would assume they were all disproved based on your images, not ad copy. Make sure you own your own images and don't pull ones from Google, you'll have a MUCH EASIER time getting approved, but sometimes 1 or 2 may slip by.
      These were just some examples, I've tried using images that are not from google ads, and I've had a few ads that were as conservative as possible. I'm going to try to make own custom ad, but I see other people rolling with images from google.
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      • Profile picture of the author adsquare
        Do you have an account manager there?
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        AdSquare Network | Exclusive Affiliate Network
        We offer affiliate training, custom pay plans and over
        700+ campaigns, many of them being exclusive deals!
        AIM: ad2jared | Email: jared@adsquarenetwork.com
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        • Profile picture of the author Ripped
          Originally Posted by adsquare View Post

          Do you have an account manager there?
          No, I didn't even know that there were account managers at FB.
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          • Profile picture of the author Freeman77
            You just have to keep trying. Facebook Ads is terribly inconsistent, and you probably just had a string of bad luck.

            The other day I submitted three ads (all very similar to each other), and they were all approved. I then had to widen the target audience for each of them. Once I did so, they went back into the approval queue and were then disapproved. They do this all the time.
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            • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
              Originally Posted by Freeman77 View Post

              You just have to keep trying. Facebook Ads is terribly inconsistent, and you probably just had a string of bad luck.
              Very true.. also make sure the reviewers are getting to the page you intend them to, sometimes geo-targeting can screw you up too
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              • Profile picture of the author Ripped
                Cash37, I will try that. I'll add someting like "Sign up to the Premier Dating Site" so it's clear what it's all about. Maybe that would help

                ChrisBa and Freeman, I agree with you 100%. One example: I have one ad that is approved (that's the only one dating ad I have approved), and even when I make an identical copy of the ad and submit it, it gets disapproved. So the inconsistencies are unbelievable.

                I keep trying, I submitted 50 ads a few days ago, all ads written in a different styles and with different kinds of pictures. They all got disapproved.

                I was thinking that maybe my overall style of writing ads is not alright with facebook. So anyone that has had more luck getting dating ads approved on FB please give me your 2 cents, on whether my ad writing style (as shown in my first post) is not compliant.

                I'm not here to complain, going to submit another 50 ads tommorow, and we'll see how that goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cash37
    You have to tell the user in the ad what they are signing up for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Philam
    I wasn't able to use any tool on facebook yet. Maybe I'll try any suggestions here.
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    • Profile picture of the author Filter
      Hey Ripped

      I very nearly gave up on FB due to the ad approval joke so know how you feel. So I spent a hell of a lot of time looking at other ads, reading their TOS 100's of times and emailing the FB ads team to get feedback. So here's a couple of things for you to consider.

      1) Don't capitalize letters in your title. I know that there are a lot of ads on FB that get approved with this but everytime I try they get knocked back. Instead of Meet Hot Black Women, try "Meet hot black women". Capitalizing every word goes against their "grammatically correct" TOS (section 16). Same as capitalizing words like "FREE!"

      2) Technically, every sentence, including the title, should finish with a punctuation mark (section 17). However, never use an exclamation mark in the title.

      3) The reason they give you in the rejection letter may not be the actual reason. I know, makes it dam hard doesn't it! But I found out when I email them back, they give me the actual, totally different reason. That's why it's important to know the TOS backwards.

      4) When promoting a dating offer, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS put in the URL in the body. You just have to put in something like "Meet singles in your area free on Match.com". Just put it in somewhere. Trust me, your approval rate will increase on that one tip alone. (I believe that's the section 4b you got rejected on)

      5) While the ad is getting approved, link DIRECTLY to the domain, no affiliate link. This ensures that the approver won't be geo re-directed to an unrelated offer. If they are, BAM your ad is in the bin. To do this, simply setup the URL to point to a php re-direct and change it once the ad is approved. DON"T edit the ad, it will get rejected.

      6) Pause the ad as soon as you submit it. This will not slow down the approval process but will ensure that it won't start running before you have time to change the redirect

      7) Never submit more than 10-20 ads to the same campaign at a time. The ads all get clumped together and if the reviwer rejects the 1st couple of ads, they're not going to spend the time looking at your other 50, they will simple bulk reject them. Makes it a slow process but it does increase the % that get through. Just open another tab and work on a different campaign, then go back to the 1st after 20-30 mins.

      8) Using words like "hot", "sexy", "sizzling", "steaming" etc etc is very bordlerline and will usually get rejected.

      9) Can't remember where I read it but I don't think they will approve any ad for Zoosk? Maybe someone else can confirm?

      10) Even doing everything by the book, the results are VERY random and a crap shoot. But going by the letter of their TOS you should swing the odds in your favor.

      The last tip I can give you: If you really believe 110% that your ads are compliant, email FB and ask them for exact reasons why your ad was not approved, as you believe they are within the terms. As I said, be 110% sure you are OK before trying this otherwise you will p**s them off. If you are correct, your ads should get approved fairly quickly.

      Hope that helps mate, let us know how you go.

      Cheers
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      • Profile picture of the author Ripped
        Originally Posted by Filter View Post

        Hey Ripped

        I very nearly gave up on FB due to the ad approval joke so know how you feel. So I spent a hell of a lot of time looking at other ads, reading their TOS 100's of times and emailing the FB ads team to get feedback. So here's a couple of things for you to consider.

        1) Don't capitalize letters in your title. I know that there are a lot of ads on FB that get approved with this but everytime I try they get knocked back. Instead of Meet Hot Black Women, try "Meet hot black women". Capitalizing every word goes against their "grammatically correct" TOS. Same as capitalizing words like "FREE!"

        2) The reason they give you in the rejection letter may not be the actual reason. I know, makes it dam hard doesn't it! But I found out when I email them back, they give me the actual, totally different reason. That's why it's important to know the TOS backwards.

        3) When promoting a dating offer, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS put in the URL in the body. You just have to put in something like "Meet singles in your area free on Match.com". Just put it in somewhere. Trust me, your approval rate will increase on that one tip alone.

        4) While the ad is getting approved, link DIRECTLY to the domain, no affiliate link. This ensures that the approver won't be geo re-directed to an unrelated offer. If they are, BAM your ad is in the bin. To do this, simply setup the URL to point to a php re-direct and change it once the ad is approved. DON"T edit the ad, it will get rejected.

        5) Pause the ad as soon as you submit it. This will not slow down the approval process but will ensure that it won't start running before you have time to change the redirect

        6) Never submit more than 10-20 ads to the same campaign at a time. The ads all get clumped together and if the reviwer rejects the 1st couple of ads, they're not going to spend the time looking at your other 50, they will simple bulk reject them. Makes it a slow process but it does increase the % that get through.

        7) Using words like "hot", "sexy", "sizzling", "steaming" etc etc is very bordlerline and will usually get rejected.

        8) Can't remember where I read it but I don't think they will not approve any ad for Zoosk? Maybe someone else can confirm?

        9) Even doing everything by the book, the results are VERY random and a crap shoot. But going by the letter of their TOS you should swing the odds in your favor.

        The last tip I can give you: If you really believe 110% that your ads are compliant, email FB and ask them for exact reasons why your ad was not approved, as you believe they are within the terms. As I said, be 110% sure you are OK before trying this otherwise you will p**s them off. If you are correct, your ads should get approved fairly quickly.

        Hope that helps mate, let us know how you go.

        Cheers
        Filter, thanks a lot.This is some truly golden info on your post, exactly what I was looking for. Will put it to use and let everyone know how it goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukinara
    I agree that you dont submit more than 10 ads in 1 campaign, because they will just get disapproved all together, make it slow
    also see another thread I just opened, and I hope we can do something about this
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  • Profile picture of the author Ripped
    An Update.

    I put some of the advice to work.

    Main things I changed about my overall writing style:

    -Removed capitalization of the first letter in each word of the headline, now I don't have any kind of excessive capitalization
    -Included the specific action that needs to be done (i.e sign up here)
    -Included the domain name in the ad copy
    -Wrote everything as conservative as possible. Didn't use words such as Hot, sexy etc...
    -Used very conservative images, no cleavage or anything inappropriate

    Another change I did, I made a simple squeeze page, and instead of the direct linking to the dating site, I targeted the ad to my squeeze page, hoping it would make approval easier.

    I submitted only two ads. Here they are:



    Both were disapproved. One was disapproved for the reason specified in ad #3, and the other one for the reason specified in ad#2 ( I'm talking about the ads shown in the picture in my first post in this thread).

    I know 2 ads are not much. I'll write up 10 ads, and try again, I'm still dazzled as to why they were disapproved.

    Seeing my new 2 ads that were disapproved, what are your thoughts so far?
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    • Profile picture of the author jeffrey73
      I can already see why both of your ads were not approved.

      You can't use words like "available". You also need to capitalize all the words in the Title, and you can't capitalize two words in a row like you did in Ad #1 Body copy. Also, you have to use complete sentences and perfect grammar in your copy. You can't say "Takes less than a minute to get started", you have to say "It takes less than one minute to get started". In addition, you have to use proper punctuation. In Ad #2 you didn't end with a period, and I also believe you can't just say "Sign up here".

      They are very, very, VERY anal. Some reviewers aren't, but most of them are this bad.



      Originally Posted by Ripped View Post

      An Update.

      I put some of the advice to work.

      Main things I changed about my overall writing style:

      -Removed capitalization of the first letter in each word of the headline, now I don't have any kind of excessive capitalization
      -Included the specific action that needs to be done (i.e sign up here)
      -Included the domain name in the ad copy
      -Wrote everything as conservative as possible. Didn't use words such as Hot, sexy etc...
      -Used very conservative images, no cleavage or anything inappropriate

      Another change I did, I made a simple squeeze page, and instead of the direct linking to the dating site, I targeted the ad to my squeeze page, hoping it would make approval easier.

      I submitted only two ads. Here they are:



      Both were disapproved. One was disapproved for the reason specified in ad #3, and the other one for the reason specified in ad#2 ( I'm talking about the ads shown in the picture in my first post in this thread).

      I know 2 ads are not much. I'll write up 10 ads, and try again, I'm still dazzled as to why they were disapproved.

      Seeing my new 2 ads that were disapproved, what are your thoughts so far?
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  • Profile picture of the author Filter
    Hey mate

    As you say, 2 ads aren't much but bummer you got another knock back.

    As Jeffery said, there are still some errors that need fixing as far as grammar/punctuation goes.

    Personally I've never marketed to "black ladies" so can't say for sure, but could that possibly be the reason? I mean, could the reviewer find that offensive? Maybe try something more politically correct? Or maybe don't even call it out in the headline and let the picture and URL speak for itself?

    And again, I've never used a squeeze with FB so maybe someone else can jump in here. I know a lot say they use them but I just think a squeeze runs too close to breaking rule 2f unless done 100% by the book:

    Ads cannot require viewers to click on the ad to submit Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone numbers, social security number, physical addresses, or email addresses) on the landing page or in the ad, except to enable an ecommerce transaction and where the ad and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold.
    At the very least I would probably put in something like "email signup required" - but that's just me. Maybe that would satisfy FB. Would probably cut down on your CTR but maybe increase conversions as the user knows what to expect.

    Anyway, keep trying, mix and match as many variations as you can until you find the ones that slip through
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