Why was my Facebook ad rejected, and what to do now

A rejection arrives as an email and a red status in Ads Manager, usually on the ad you needed live that day. The line it gives is short, and it rarely says which word or picture tripped it.

If you are asking why your Facebook ad was rejected, the answer starts with Meta's review. Every new or edited ad is checked against Meta's Advertising Standards, mostly by automated systems. An ad is rejected when that check finds it breaks the law where you advertise, discriminates, misleads people out of money or personal data, or breaks one of Meta's policies.

The reason for your ad is in Business Support Home. From there you have three moves: edit the ad, make a new one, or ask Meta to look again. Which one fits depends on whether the review was right.

Facebook ad rejection reasons Meta gives

Meta's help page on troubleshooting a rejected ad lists four situations in which it may reject an ad.

• The ad does not comply with the laws where the advertiser is.
• The ad discriminates against a group of people.
• The ad uses deceptive or misleading practices to get money or personal information from people.
• The advertiser does not follow Meta's Community Standards, Advertising Standards, Commerce Policies or other terms.

The review looks at more than the picture. Meta's page on ads in review says it may check the images, video and text, the targeting, the destination the ad sends people to, special ad categories and the advertiser's permissions. A product page that promises something the ad does not can be the problem.

Where to read why your ad was rejected

The same troubleshooting page says a rejection comes with an email notification and a link to Meta Business Support Home, where the reason is shown. The ad's status also shows in the Delivery column of Ads Manager.

Read the reason before changing anything. It names the policy the review applied, and that tells you which part of the ad to look at: the words, the picture, the targeting or the landing page.

Meta does not always say more than that. The page notes that it may not share some details of how its review systems work, so the reason can be broader than you would like.

Fix the ad or request another review

Once you have the reason, Meta's troubleshooting page gives three choices.

• Edit the ad in Ads Manager or Business Suite. An edited ad is sent for review again on its own.
• Make a new ad that complies, if the ad cannot be edited or you would rather start over.
• Request another review in Business Support Home, if you believe the ad was rejected by mistake.

Edit when the review was right. Say your skincare ad promised results in a week and the reason points at misleading claims: rewrite the line, because a second review of the same words will read them the same way. Writing ad copy from what customers say keeps claims inside what you can show.

Do not delete the rejected ad while you decide. Meta's page warns that deleting it may cost you the right to request another review, because the information the review needs may be gone.

How to request another review of a rejected ad

Meta's troubleshooting page gives the steps. Go to Business Support Home, select the account or catalogue with the rejected ads, select the ads, ad sets or campaigns you believe were rejected wrongly, then click Request review and Submit.

Meta says it aims to decide within 48 hours, and that re-reviews rely more on human reviewers than the first review does. You can follow the request in Business Support Home.

There is one request per ad. If the ad is rejected again, the page says it stays rejected and you cannot ask for another review of that same ad. Make the case once, and make it with an ad you are sure complies.

Why an approved ad gets rejected later

An approved ad can still be rejected. Meta's page on ads approved, then rejected says an ad may be reviewed again at random, after unexpectedly high engagement, or when people hide, block or report it.

Your own edits start a review too. Meta's page on ads in review lists the changes that do: targeting, creative, optimisation and billing event. Changing the bid, the budget or the ad set's schedule does not.

So the ad you switched to a new picture on Tuesday is a new review, and a store that swaps pictures to keep ads from tiring sends each swap through it. If timing matters, make edits early, since Meta says most ads are reviewed within 24 hours and some take longer.

What a rejection does to your account

One rejection is not a ban. Meta's troubleshooting page says a rejection overturned on review does not count as an ad violation.

Rejections that stand do count. Editing or deleting the ad does not remove the violation, and Meta says it can restrict an account from advertising for severe or repeated violations. A store that keeps resubmitting the same claim risks more than one ad.

The part Nomi does

When the review was right, the fix is a different ad. The useful question is what the ad can say instead that is true and still sells.

Nomi drafts your brand's voice and visual rules from your site, and you keep each rule or change it. When an ad has to be redone, the new one is made from those rules. Meta's review still decides whether it runs.