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Meta Business Help Centre
About advertising restrictions
In addition to reviewing ads, we monitor and investigate the behaviour of advertisers on Meta technologies. In some cases, we may apply restrictions on advertisers that limit their ability to advertise. These restrictions are meant to help protect people from poor experiences and support meaningful connections across Meta technologies.
We may apply advertising restrictions when an advertiser doesn't follow our Meta Advertising Standards or other policies and terms.
Watch the video below to learn more:
Note: Account Quality is now Business Support Home.
We may also apply advertising restrictions in the following scenarios:
- We suspect an advertiser's business portfolio or business assets have been compromised or hacked. Learn more about how to secure a hacked account.
- An advertiser doesn't meet our two-factor authentication requirements for account security.
- An advertiser is new, in which case we may apply limits on how much they can spend each day or which features they can access until we can be sure that they're consistently following our policies.
Advertising restrictions may include limits on the amount that an advertiser can spend per day, loss of access to some advertising features or loss of the ability to advertise with Meta technologies.
Advertising restrictions for policy violations
If we find that an advertiser doesn't follow the Advertising Standards or other policies and terms, they may face advertising restrictions.
The restrictions may be applied on an advertiser's Meta business account, ad account, Page or user account:
- Business portfolio: An organisational structure that centralises business assets, such as Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts and product catalogues across Meta technologies so that people can manage these assets together as a unified online business.
- Ad account: An account used for managing ads across Meta technologies, which allows advertisers to create ads and advertising campaigns, pay for ads, and see insights and analytics.
- Page: A product that lets people and businesses create a presence on Facebook and connect with the Facebook community. Every advertiser will need to have a Facebook Page created before they can advertise.
- User account: A user account, or personal account such as a Facebook account or Instagram account, is the account of the specific person who is advertising using an ad account. Enforcements on a user account affect whether the person can use business assets.
When a business portfolio, ad account, Page or user account is restricted, an advertiser won't be able to use it to advertise across Meta technologies. For example, if an advertiser has a restricted Page, they won't be able to run ads associated with that Page. Remember that if a user account is restricted from advertising using a business portfolio or ad account, other members of those accounts may still be able to advertise.
Below are some common examples of policy violations that may result in advertising restrictions.
Violating content
Ads must go through our ad review process and comply with our Advertising Standards. If we find that an advertiser runs ad content that severely or repeatedly violates our policies, we may apply advertising restrictions on their business portfolio, ad account, Page or user account.
Remember that our ad review process may extend to the destination of an ad, such as its landing page.
Read our Violating Content policy.
Evading enforcement
Any attempt to evade our review process or other enforcement actions is not allowed. If we find that an advertiser engages in this behaviour, we may apply advertising restrictions on their business portfolio, ad account, Page or user account.
Examples of attempts to circumvent our review processes include:
- Attempting to create new ad accounts or other business assets after we've disabled existing accounts for violation of our policies.
- Running the same or similar policy-violating ad across multiple business assets.
- Running ads that have no clear business goals across multiple business assets.
Sometimes advertisers will run ads that have no clear business goals in the attempt to work around our ad review process and appear to be policy compliant. Take the example below, which wasn't run by a meditation, life coach or stress management business.
Example ad text: "Remember to breathe today."
Example ad image:
While this ad doesn't violate any specific content policy, it doesn't have any clear business goal and isn't clearly connected to the business of the Page. Therefore, we may consider it suspicious behaviour, and if we see this repeatedly, we may apply advertising restrictions.
Read our Evading Enforcement policy.
Account authenticity
Accountability and transparency into who is running an ad is critical to the integrity of our ads ecosystem, and we want to support authentic connections between people and businesses. If we find that an inauthentic user account set up an ad account, Page or business account to run ads, an advertiser may face advertising restrictions.
Examples of violations of our account authenticity policy include:
- Use of inauthentic user accounts to set up a Page, ad account or business portfolio to run ads on Meta technologies.
- Managing business assets that are associated with or connected to inauthentic user accounts, such as a business account with multiple linked ad accounts that were set up by inauthentic users.
Read our Account Authenticity policy.
Violating networks or associations
Advertisers must not manage business assets that are connected to other abusive business assets or display behaviour like business assets that we've already taken down. If we find that an advertiser engages in this behaviour, we may apply advertising restrictions on their business portfolio, ad account, Page or user account.
Read our Violating Networks or Associations policy.
Advertising restrictions for unusual activity
When we notice unusual activity in your business portfolio, ad account, Page or user account, we may temporarily restrict certain features while we investigate the issue. These restrictions can include limited advertising spending, loss of the ability to add admins, partners or users, or loss of the ability to create new ad accounts. There may be actions for you to take to try to resolve any restrictions, and you can review those actions in Business Support Home.
Note: If you suspect that your business asset has been hacked, learn more about how to secure a hacked account.
How to appeal advertising restrictions
If you believe that your business portfolio, ad account, Page or user account was incorrectly restricted, you may be able to request a review of the decision in Business Support Home.
Remember that requesting another review of our decision will not hurt your standing with our company in any way.
