Facebook is all about their users – all 1.5+ Billion of them, so it’s no surprise that they look to enforce rules and regulations that preserve a high-end user experience. For Facebook Marketing Experts, that means keeping up with an ever-changing landscape of rules, guidelines, and tactics. The quickest way to stop a marketer dead in his or her tracks is the banhammer from Facebook.
Facebook accounts can be suspended for a variety of reasons, sometimes for a short period of time and other times indefinitely. Having a firm understanding of the rules and regulations that govern Facebook will ensure your account stays active.
Here’s a few tips from the community that can help you stay in the clear.
• Ads should contribute to the overall user experience. The best ads are those that are tailored to individuals based on how they and their friends interact with brands, artists, and businesses they care about.
• All components of an ad, including any text, images or other media, must be relevant and appropriate to the product or service being offered and the audience viewing the ad.
• Products and services promoted in the ad copy must be clearly represented on the landing page, and the destination site may not offer or link to any prohibited product or service. Additionally, ads may not suggest false relevancy to generic offers.
• Ads may not contain or link directly or indirectly to a site that contains spyware/malware downloads or any software that results in an unexpected, deceptive or unfair user experience
It’s right there in the first point: user experience. Plan your campaigns with user experience in mind and you’ll be fine.
In order to police these regulations, Facebook employs staff to ensure these regulations are enforced. Due to the amount of marketers on the platform on any given week, algorithms are put in place to automatically suspend an account that needs to be reviewed by the compliance team. Yes, this means your account might get suspended without a human review. Some marketers have even been told that, due to huge volume, even human reviews are just skimmed through. It’s frustrating, but it’s their playground, and their rules.
Here are some tips we recommend to try to get back on Facebook’s good side.
• Set up Business Manager to run your ads. It allows you to put all of your fan pages in one place and give employee login ability without looking like you are logging into your account from all across the world. Try to set up a business bank account and use a business e-mail account instead of your Gmail account.
• Record video responses instead of long-winded emails. One marketer reported success with this method, sharing that the Facebook employee who responded specifically called out the video for being the reason his issue was resolved.
• Try to use language they want to hear. Marketers have reported using the term “Good Advertising Citizen” in your message puts you on their good side.
Getting your Facebook Account back after suspension is definitely a challenge, so bookmark this page – you never know when you might need it. In the meantime, stay proactive, keep user experience in mind, and play by their rules.
A closing note: you are likely NOT a big spender on Facebook. Unless you’re spending $1MM+ a month on Facebook, you’re just a small fish swimming in a huge ocean. Those big spenders are typically big brands who get account reps. If you are ever given the opportunity to get a Facebook Rep, take it! Having a specific person to reach out to could be the difference between getting your account back, or not.