More and more businesses use Facebook advertising to reach new customers online with their products and services.
But even when you pay for it, Facebook won’t accept every ad. Here, MWD shares the main types of ad that Facebook rejects.
- 1. Community standards
- 2. Illegal products or services
- 3. Discrimination
- 4. Drugs and drug-related products
- 5. Prescription and recreational drugs
- 6. Unsafe supplements
- 7. Weapons, ammunition and explosives
- 8. Adult products
- 9. Sexual content
- 10. Third-party infringement
- Why ads matter: organic reach on Facebook
1. Community standards
If you advertise on Facebook, you have to follow Facebook’s rules, and if you advertise on Instagram, you have to follow Instagram’s. If your ad breaks any of the platform’s rules, you won’t be able to boost it.
2. Illegal products or services
Ads for illegal products, services or organisations are not allowed. Neither are inappropriate ads targeting minors, or products and services that use high-pressure tactics.
3. Discrimination
Ads may not discriminate against or demean people based on age, gender, nationality, religion, ethnic or regional origin, disability, medical condition and similar attributes.
Ads that promote the sale or use of illegal drugs and drug-related products are not allowed.
5. Prescription and recreational drugs
You can’t boost ads that show the sale or use of prescription drugs without proper authorisation, or of recreational drugs.
6. Unsafe supplements
Products whose safety can’t be trusted, such as slimming pills, weight-gain pills and sexual enhancement supplements, can’t be advertised.
7. Weapons, ammunition and explosives
Ads that show the sale or use of weapons, weapon accessories, ammunition or explosives are not allowed.
8. Adult products
Adult products such as contraceptives may only be advertised with a focus on health and safety, not on sex. These ads must never target anyone under 18.
9. Sexual content
Ads can’t offer to connect people for dating with sexual intent, or use sexually suggestive text or images.
10. Third-party infringement
Ads that copy, misuse or infringe the trademarks, products or rights of legitimate businesses will be rejected.
Why ads matter: organic reach on Facebook
Facebook decides what appears in each person’s feed by predicting what they are most likely to care about, using signals such as who they interact with, how people respond to a post and how recent it is. Since 2018 Facebook has given more priority to posts from friends and family and to posts that start conversations, so posts from business pages usually reach only a small share of their followers unless they are promoted.
That is why many businesses rely on Facebook ads to reach new customers, and why it pays to know which ads Facebook will reject before you spend money on them.
We hope you now have a clear picture of these 10 types of ad that Facebook won’t accept. There are more to come in part 2, so keep an eye on the MWD website.