Facebook ads rejected. It’s common, and there could be several reasons why that happened.
I have clients who come to us repeatedly with a singular question:
“My Facebook ads were rejected. Can you help?”
Of course, we can help.
Just not in a way you’d expect.
I mean, we are not going to take the same campaign, wave our magic wand, and Facebook is like, “Oh, it’s you? Please run your campaigns, we don’t care”.
Plus, we don’t exploit, manipulate, or do anything that’s not on Facebook’s good books. we follow good marketing ethics and we’d advise you to do so.
In some cases, your business might be really genuine. Except that it falls into the thin line of contention with Facebook’s ad policies. In that case:
Know your Niche
Facebook has clear policies with respect to what kind of ads they allow, and what they don’t. Some niches are just not allowed. For instance, anything sexual, religious, and anything inflammatory.
You can read the policies page here and there are no workarounds for circumventing those policies. If you do decide to go ahead and launch, your Facebook ads will be rejected.
If your business falls into any of the listed products or services, you’d not be able to promote your business on Facebook.
A few businesses can, of course, advertise on Facebook if you can get an approval from them prior to launching your campaigns.
Note: Despite everything, your business might just not qualify to advertise on Facebook. Take heart, there are many other ways to advertise.
So What If my Facebook ads are rejected? (& Even if You Are Allowed)
It’s a blessing that you shouldn’t be advertising directly on Facebook with just an ad. It’s good if you are on the disallowed list.
You’d be better off taking the indirect route to market your products or services on Facebook.
Let’s take the example of a Tax Consulting Consulting firm or a self-employed tax consultant who wants to run Facebook Campaigns.
Instead of putting up ads directly advertising yourself as such. Do this:
1. Set up a landing page that gives away a free tax preparation checklist.
2. People who click through your Facebook ad signup for your checklist.
3. They are now a part of your list.
4. Use email marketing automation to nurture this list.
Need numbers to prove how that’s a better strategy?
Assume that you are a tax consultant.
Scenario 1: You run ads on Facebook (assuming you are allowed to). Let’s assume a simple case where people visit and they buy directly.
Your conversion rate is 3%.
Your ticket size for a comprehensive tax consulting package (one-time) is $400.
If 100 people visit your website, only 3 will buy.
Total sales = $1200.
Scenario 2: Instead of selling anything at all, you send Facebook users to a landing page and you give away something for free.
So, you are a tax consultant and you have a simple checklist for preparing for taxes. For a free tax guide download, the conversion rate could be as high as 36% (Our usual conversion rates for landing pages for free giveaways).
See, what happens now:
100 people visit your website and at least 36 people signup for your simple tax preparation checklist.
If you nurture those 36 people by first sending them the tax checklist they requested, and then sending in more exclusive information by emails such as:
3 Simple Tax Mistakes Every Employee Invariably does
How You can Save $12,354 each year with 7 simple changes
What You didn’t Know Can Bite Your Wallet Off
The fourth email could have a simple offer announcing 30% off on your usual fees.
Considering your conversion rate to be at least 40% out of the 36 subscribers you have on your list now, this is how it looks:
36 x 40% = 14 (approx) x $280 (30% off on your fees) = $3920
That’s about 226% increase in your income by deliberately slowing the process by nurturing leads with email marketing, rather than direct selling (as in scenario 1).
Now, tax consulting services or products might or might not be rejected by Facebook, and that’s not the point.
The point is that you can get creative and think of a better way to reach out to your prospective customers on Facebook, and it doesn’t have to be direct.
For instance, here are a few prohibited ads on Facebook and how you can work around this (Using similar examples above):
1. Multi-level Marketing? — A 10-Page “Why Entrepreneurship?” report.
2. Weight Loss? — A Recipe Collection with Healthy Breakfast options? A List Of Proven Everyday Exercises for Better Metabolism?
3. Loans of any kind? — A Guide to Efficient Personal Financial Management.
Get the drift?
Bonus: Content Marketing + Facebook Ads = Success
You ought to stop thinking of PPC channels as places where you run ads.
Advertisements are inefficient by themselves. This applies to Google Adwords, LinkedIn Ads, & Twitter Cards too.
You need context, relevance, and give more information for your customers to allow them to buy from you.
Consider this: your friend has a huge problem with filing and paying taxes. He knows you are the expert (because his wife told him so).
He waits for a while (maybe until the time comes for him to pay tax again) and then reaches out to you for help.
You charge $120 per hour. He happily agrees to pay. You deliver.
End of transaction.
What if you could amplify the part where “his wife told him to reach to you since she knew you were expert”?
How about changing the equation to something like a hundred people tell another 100 or so that you are the best at what you do?
People reach out to avail your services or buy your products when:
- They periodically read what you have to write or say. Or maybe they are tuned into your podcast. Or perhaps they subscribe to your video channel.
- They can see what’ve done in the past.
- They believe you are who you say you are
- They have social proof nudging them to believe that you are worth every penny you charge.
Facebook ads allow you amplify your reach to people looking for help with taxes.
But that’s all that the ads can do.
The trouble with your Facebook ads is that there’s nothing in that ad to convince people of all those points out there, except the big fat promise you are making.
You’d need more to connect the dots, to invoke trust, and to prepare them to buy from you.
Connect those ads with the Inbound marketing setup (as explained above), lead with information, give value up front, and try to help them out as well as you would if they actually paid you, and you are setting yourself up for long-term success.
How do you run your Facebook ads?
Hey Ryan,
What a pleasure to see you here. If this were a beach, I’d have sponsored a beer or something for you. Congratulations on getting featured on Sir Richard Branson’s blog 🙂
You are right. This desperation to get people to click on ads and “buy” isn’t just limited to Facebook ads though. It’s become more of a norm across the digital marketing space. “Click me, buy from me” or “Here, I showed up with a website, now give me the money already, eh?”. I was trying to throw in another angle that I believe is long-term and works much better.
Thanks for dropping by buddy 🙂
Ash
Hi Ash,
I dig the creative workaround for the tax prep firm example because the energy behind it rocks. Instead of being desperate to make money directly through the ad you take an energetic prospering space. Advertisement a freebie through a landing page. Grow your list. Go from offsite social media visitor to into your marketing funnel, right into your email list. Build bonds. Avoid FB ad rejection; largely 😉 Super post.
Ryan