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5 of the Most Common Facebook & Instagram Ad Mistakes

We’ve put together a few things to look out for when designing your online campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, to make sure you avoid falling foul of the review process.
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5 of the Most Common Facebook & Instagram Ad Mistakes

We’ve put together a few things to look out for when designing your online campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, to make sure you avoid falling foul of the review process.

Can you believe it’s already been 15 years since Facebook launched and set the benchmark for modern-day social media platforms?

Next came a step that changed the way businesses reach their customers: the launch of platform-wide advertising campaign services, which harnessed targeting technology to connect SMBs, unicorns, and major companies directly with the public.

All of which explains why Facebook and Instagram ads have become some of the most important channels for marketers. According to a Social Media Marketing Industry report in 2017, more than 93 percent of marketers regularly use social media networks as campaign channels.

The growth of social media advertising has come with its own challenges: the number of businesses with campaigns that are turned down by platforms has increased as well.

When you run a campaign through Facebook or Instagram, part of the process is an automatic evaluation of the content you want to promote.

Most of the time, these reviews are completed within 24 hours and your advert is set to go. But sometimes it isn’t that simple. Occasionally the review process can take longer, leaving you with little to no option but to call Facebook’s customer center for help or to request assistance online.

Often, rejected campaigns don’t come with detailed feedback. You can either ask for an explanation or request another review. But the most efficient way to run your campaigns is to stay one step ahead of the review process and ensure your ads sail through the first time around.

We’ve put together a few things to look out for when designing your online campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, to make sure you avoid falling foul of the review process.

Reasons for Facebook & Instagram Ad Rejection

1. Use of prohibited content

This should be fairly obvious, but you’re not allowed to advertise items or services that are against the law: Illegal drugs, weapons, explosives, assassins — that kind of thing. Facebook also prohibits the promotion of adult content and banned financial products.

So don’t waste your time building a campaign around these kinds of products. They will not pass the review.

2. Your choice of image

Even if your product or service is legitimate, it could still be rejected after a review if you submit forbidden visual representations or expressions in your accompanying images.

You aren’t allowed to use images that show excessive nudity or distasteful scenes. If you want to sell swimwear or advertise sports services, you have to carefully consider the quality and tastefulness of your images.

Drug and adult content prohibited by Facebook

3. Image-Text Proportion

Facebook recommends using 1200*628 images when using a single picture and 600*600 for slide images. If your images contain text, that text must account for less than 20 percent of the picture.

This is called the “20 percent rule.” Campaigns that exceed this limit are frequently rejected.

4. Issues with your Ad copy

As we have seen, Facebook and Instagram are cautious with the content of the advertising campaigns they allow on their platforms.

This caution extends to the ad copy that accompanies your images, too.

If your campaign copy discriminates or promotes discrimination based on personal characteristics such as race, ethnicity, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, family relationships, disability, illness, genetic disorder — it will automatically be rejected.

Another issue that can arise is when including discount rates in your campaign’s ad copy. It’s a common tactic many companies use: advertising a huge discount on the product in question to attract more potential customers.

Just make sure that your discount rate is what it says it is, and that your landing page doesn’t come up with a different figure.

A final reason that your ad copy can get your campaign rejected is when making unjustified claims. For example, if you unreasonably state that your product is the“best” at what it does.

Unless you can prove the claim, you may fall foul of advertising standards and your campaign may be rejected.

5. Landing Page Issue

The vast majority of online ad campaigns encourage clicks to a landing page of some sort. It’s important to note that these landing pages will also be assessed by platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

If your landing page appears suspicious or is not functioning properly, your campaign may get rejected.

If the content of the campaign is significantly different from the landing page, in terms of price, product or offer, your campaign will also most likely be rejected.

These are just a handful of ways that you can fall foul of the social media platform review process when submitting ad campaigns.

But that doesn’t mean you should hold back from running ads online. Instead, develop an understanding of campaign policies and do everything you can to sail through the review process the first time around.

Start working with Adriel today.

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