9. Click Bait. We've all seen it, and most of us hate it. "You'll never guess what this celebrity did", "Click now to find out what new law is making O'Fallon, MO residents mad", "How I made $100,000 every month last year"  are all examples of "Click Bait". Many times they direct users to articles or links that have little to do with the title, simply to get a click. For this reason, Facebook is not a big fan of Click bait and will dis approve ads that contain it. 

8. Broken Links. Ok, this may seem like an obvious one, but many times, Facebook will dis approve an ad simply because the link goes to a non functional page on your website or a page that does not relate to the ad itself. For example, if you ad says click here to contact us, and directs the user to your shopping cart, Facebook will disapprove your ad. If it happens often enough, or you are sending users to a site or video that doesn't load, or to a page that loads slowly, this provides a poor user experience, and Facebook may decide to put your business into the ad additional review cycle moving forward. 

7.  Sexually Explicit Materials.  Facebook has users of all ages, including children. So using images in ads that may show nudity or imply sexual behavior means that your ad will likely be disapproved, since Facebook deems this type of content as inappropriate for all audiences. If you had an ad that was disapproved, consider changing the image to one that is more appropriate for any audience. 

6 .  Making assumptions about your target audience.  This is huge for Facebook, because making assumptions about your target audience could create discrimination, and potentially cause distress by outing someone who wasn't ready yet. This actually happened to a woman in Tampa. Based on her search history, she was shown an ad for "Gay Cruises". A co-worker saw this ad, unintentionally "outing" her at work. For this reason, Facebook will disapprove ads that make assumptions about target audiences. 

5. Political.  After negative press in the 2016 political race in regards to fake Russian sites creating political ads encouraging the direction of the election, Facebook tries to avoid politically hot topics through ads.  They provide a lengthy list of sensitive headings and topics in their guidelines, that your business should review prior to posting an ad. A few examples are ads that contain material about guns, abortion, religion, or other topics that could be deemed as potentially divisive ads that promote a political agenda. 

4. Your image contains too much text.  Like many social media platforms, Facebook limits the number of characters that you can use within your ad copy. Some advertisers have attempted to get around the character limit by adding text within their image. Facebook not approve an ad that includes more that 20% text within the image. So if your ad includes an image that contains more than 20% text, you will want to change the image. 

3. Your ad copy mimics Facebook. Similar to number 10 on our list, Facebook will not endorse your company because you are using their ads. Mimicking Facebook in your ad copy means you are trying to imply that you are either a part of Facebook, or that they are endorsing your ad.  Either way, this will cause your ad to become disapproved and may even put you on a list for all ads to go through a more stringent approval process. 

2. Your Ad includes "Before & After Shots".  Facebook is really strict on this one. You can not include before and after shots in your ads. This also includes using "Your Ideal Body" shots within your ads or including specific body parts, such as a 6 pack promoting your weight loss solution ad these ads will be disapproved. 

Our number one pick for why your Facebook Ad is not getting approved is......

1. Your are Promising Unrealistic Results!  Obvious? It should be, but all too often business owners create ad copy that over promises their results, and Facebook is not a fan. You should always be truthful in your ads! So, if you are a weight loss company, who promises that you will "lose 20 pounds in 7 days" after using your product, Facebook will disapprove  your ad and you may be placed on the restricted ad approval list moving forward.