What I Learned getting BANNED From Facebook Advertising (And How You Can Avoid These Simple Mistakes)
I was BANNED from Facebook! Banned from Facebook Advertising that is.
Now, the question is…WHY?
Well, I’ll tell you exactly why because my mistake can help you in the future.
Even if you know nothing about Facebook advertising and don’t ever plan on using it, I promise I’ll have a little bit of insight that you can take away from my misfortune.
First, some background.
My name is Zach Perrego and a while back I had decided I wanted to write a short book to help people lose weight with the ketosis diet.
I’m what you might call a “gym-rat”. I hit the weights all the way in the back corner of my gym nearly every single day of the week. It’s a way for me to relax and meditate and it keeps me in good shape too.
Now, being a gym-rat, I had tried just about every diet out there to cut away my extra fat. So when I tried this diet and it worked amazingly, I wanted to share it with others so they could lose weight as well.
So, with this goal in mind, I wanted to use Facebook advertising to figure out what title I should use for my new project. Along the way, I learned a TON about Facebook advertising that I won’t have time to share here today. But for now, let’s get into just WHY I was banned.
Reading the Fine Print
Now this might be obvious to the outside observer, but I was in a rush. I always get excited about a new project and just rush right into it.
Facebook has a list of what you CAN and CANNOT say or offer in your advertisements. You can find that list here: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/
There is a LOT of stuff in there I had no idea about!
For example, you cannot use peoples’ names in your advertisements! I had done an interview with a friend of mine who used my diet plan and so I used his name in the advertisement.
WRONG!
“Can’t do that!” says Facebook.
They even have rules for how you even use the word “Facebook”! Here it is, right from that webpage:
Can you imagine that?
I digress, let’s get back to why I was banned from advertising and what YOU can learn from it.
We already learned I had used someone’s personal name in an advertisement, which is a no-no.
Essentially, here are some general guidelines you can use to make sure that your ads are approved by Facebook:
* Do NOT reference that you know who the viewer is (i.e. what his/her name is, what his/her gender is, what his/her race or religion is)
* Do NOT use “scary” or “sexually suggestive” pictures
* Do NOT use Before and After photos
* Do NOT use pictures that could mislead the viewer
For the unaware, Facebook has some pretty intensive targeting capabilities. What this means is that Facebook will allow you to target just about any tiny demographic of people with your advertisements.
This is a good thing for the small business owner, but Facebook doesn’t want to creep out their users. So you cannot use people’s names or suggest you might know who they are or what their interests are.
The other guidelines I listed there are pretty basic for advertising on the internet in general (except for using Before/After photos as those can be VERY effective).
Nitty Gritty
Now lets get right down to the meat of exactly why I was banned (on my personal account anyway) from Facebook advertising.
Because I was in a rush and wanted to get started on the whole “writing-a-book” thing, I made some errors that you should know about.
First of all, I figured that while I was testing book titles I may as well gather people’s email addresses as well so I wouldn’t be wasting my money on advertising dollars. But I didn’t know much about Facebook advertising at the time, so I simply use a “Click-to-Website” style advertising campaign.
This is where you tell Facebook that your only goal is to get people to click in to your website. That’s it.
Problem is, I was running a “Lead-Generation” style advertising campaign. Facebook has this as a specific option through the Facebook Advertising Power Editor. Had I used this, I never would have been banned.
The thing was, I was making a very bold claim about what people could expect on this diet. That was strike #1.
Facebook can and will disable your account for “running misleading ads that result in a high negative feedback from people on Facebook”.
You simply cannot make bold or extravagant claims on your Facebook ads. If you know your product is good and can deliver, then simply make these claims on your website or after they’ve signed up for your email list.
What’s more, if you’re selling a diet product, you CANNOT make specific claims with regards to how much weight or fat your viewers might lose. That is a BIG red-flag for Facebook and you WILL get penalized for it.
What Have We Learned?
In summation, here is what YOU should know before advertising with Facebook.
1. READ the Facebook Advertising Policies BEFORE setting up your first ads.
2. Use Lead Generation campaigns when gathering emails.
3. Do NOT make specific claims about what your product can do for the viewer.
4. If you get a warning from Facebook, then treat it as your final warning. If you mess up again after that, you’re done. No do-overs and no take-backsies.
5. Open up a Facebook business account instead of using your personal account. Facebook will be more likely to work with you on issues if you’re on a business account.
Well that’s all I have for you today. I’m sure you’ve been able to learn from some of my mistakes because I certainly have.
Best regards,
Zach Perrego
P.S. If you have been thinking about using Facebook advertising to grow your business and would like someone with the experience and know-how to get it done for you, then go ahead and follow this link to learn more because it’s better that I made those mistakes so that you don’t have to.
