An ad that was approved yesterday is rejected today, and the notification has one line about "violating Advertising Standards". To keep these situations rare you need to understand the logic of Facebook advertising policies as a whole: what is prohibited, what is allowed with conditions, and why the system looks not only at the image but also at the site behind it. Below is a breakdown without retelling individual clauses: always check the current wording in the Meta help center, because it changes.
How Facebook and Instagram advertising policies are structured
Advertising across all Meta products — Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network — follows one set of rules: the Advertising Standards. On top of them sit the general Community Standards, which cover any content on the platform, and the commerce terms for business tools.
The Advertising Standards can be roughly split into four blocks:
| Block | What it covers | What it means for the advertiser |
|---|---|---|
| Prohibited content | Products and practices that cannot be advertised under any conditions | No documents will help; the vertical is closed |
| Restricted content | Categories allowed with conditions: age, geo, license, written permission | You need documents, settings and careful wording |
| Special ad categories | Credit, employment, housing, social and political issues | Mandatory declaration in the campaign and narrower targeting |
| Quality requirements | Text, images, landing page, working links | Applies to everyone, even the "whitest" offers |
Review is automated, with humans involved in disputed cases. It checks not only the creative itself but everything connected to it: the Page the ad runs from, the ad account, the payment method, the domain and the content of the landing page.
What is prohibited in Facebook ads
Prohibited content is what cannot be advertised in principle. The wording in Meta's help center is more detailed, but the gist is:
- Illegal products or services, including anything prohibited by the law of the target country.
- Drugs and drug-related products, including recreational ones.
- Tobacco, e-cigarettes, vapes and related products.
- Weapons, ammunition and explosives.
- Adult content and sexual services.
- Fraudulent and misleading practices: get-rich-quick schemes, false promises, fake reviews and "news", using famous people without their consent.
- Unacceptable business practices — for example, trying to get money or user data through deception.
- Discrimination based on legally protected characteristics.
- Spyware and surveillance software used without a person's consent.
- Circumventing review systems — for example, showing the reviewer and the user different content. This is a separate prohibition, and it gets the whole account restricted, not just the ad.
If your product is on this list, wording is not the issue. Neither certification nor an appeal will help, and the right move is to choose another traffic source or another product.
Restricted content: what you can advertise with conditions
This is where the real work begins. A restricted category is not prohibited, but requires conditions to be met. Licenses and certification across platforms are covered in detail in restricted ad categories; for Meta, in short:
- Real-money online gambling, including betting and lotteries — only with Meta's prior written permission, with a license in the target country and age restrictions.
- Alcohol — with age targeting no lower than the legal age in the country, and only where such ads are allowed.
- Dating — with written permission, no sexual overtones in creatives, and an age restriction.
- Financial and insurance products — with transparent terms; credit also falls under special ad categories.
- Cryptocurrency and related products — some activities require a license or regulator registration provided to Meta.
- Pharmacies and prescription drugs — only for certified advertisers and in permitted countries.
- Weight loss and cosmetic procedures — 18+ only, and no images that play on people's insecurity about their appearance.
- Supplements and health products — no promises to cure, no unsafe claims.
Tip. If a category requires written permission, apply before launch, not after the first rejection. Ads rejected for missing permission still count in the account history. If enough of them pile up, Meta may restrict the whole account — what to do then is covered in Facebook ad account restricted.
The permission request is submitted through forms in the Meta Business Help Center: usually you need the company name, license details, target countries and the ad accounts the permission should cover. Permission is granted to a specific business and specific accounts, not to "the vertical in general".
Meta special ad categories
Ads about credit and financial services, employment and housing, as well as social issues, elections or politics, must be declared when creating the campaign. After declaring:
- you cannot target by age, gender and ZIP code as flexibly as usual;
- some detailed interests are unavailable;
- lookalike audiences are replaced with broader options.
This is not a punishment but protection against discrimination: you cannot, for example, show a job ad only to men or a loan only to residents of a certain area. If you do not declare the category and the system figures out what the ad is about on its own, the ad will be rejected.
Social and political ads also require advertiser authorization: identity and country verification, plus a "Paid for by" disclaimer shown next to the ad. Such ads go into the public Ad Library and stay there for a long time.
Personal attributes: the most common text trap
A separate Meta policy prohibits asserting or implying in an ad that you know something personal about a person: health, financial status, religion, sexual orientation, criminal record, name. The review looks at "you" combined with a personal attribute.
| Will not pass | Will pass |
|---|---|
| "Tired of your debts?" | "How to plan paying off loans" |
| "Do you have diabetes? Find out…" | "Eating with diabetes: doctors' tips" |
| "Over 50 and lonely?" | "Dating for people over 50" |
| "Have you gained weight?" | "A meal plan for weight loss" |
The difference is that the correct version talks about the product or topic, not about the person seeing the ad. More wording examples in compliant ad creatives.
Landing page requirements
Many rejections are really about the site. Meta checks the page the ad points to and expects it to:
- Load and work — no errors, endless redirects or blank screens.
- Match the ad — the same product, the same price and the same terms.
- Not get in the way — no intrusive pop-ups, automatic downloads or a blocked back button.
- Have enough content — not a single button or an "under construction" page.
- Be honest in the details — subscriptions show the price and billing frequency, promotions show dates and conditions.
- Be transparent — contacts, data processing rules and, if you collect leads, a clear explanation of what happens to the data.
If you collect leads with a Meta lead form, rules apply to it too: a link to a privacy policy is mandatory, and questions about sensitive data are restricted.
Why Facebook rejects ads and what to do
Typical rejection reasons and fixes:
- A broken or slow page — check the link from a mobile device in the target country.
- Ad and page mismatch — the ad promises one thing, the page offers another.
- Exaggerated claims — "guaranteed income", "results in 3 days".
- Before/after images in health and appearance topics.
- A restricted category without permission — you need an application, not a rewrite.
- Personal attributes — rephrase from "you" to the topic.
If you are sure the rejection is a mistake, request a review from Ads Manager or from Account Quality. How to do it properly and what to avoid is covered in how to appeal an ad rejection and account restriction.
Tip. Do not duplicate a rejected ad hoping it will "slip through". The system sees series of identical violations and lowers trust in the whole account.
Account standing and what affects it
Meta evaluates not only each ad separately but the advertiser's history too. Trust is affected by:
- the share of rejected ads and repeats of the same violations;
- business verification and two-factor authentication for admins;
- stable payment methods without declines;
- user complaints and negative purchase feedback;
- links to previously restricted accounts and Pages.
Hence the practical rule: watch account standing in Account Quality, fix rejections promptly, and do not keep people and accounts in Business Manager that you know nothing about. Splitting access within a team is described in detail in working as a media buying team.
Affiliate offers and Meta's rules
If you run offers from a CPA network rather than your own product, the rules are no softer: whoever places the ad is responsible for it. What to keep in mind:
- Check the offer against the rules before you launch. The offer description in the affiliate network is written for conversion, not for review. If it says "guaranteed results" or "what doctors are hiding", that wording will not pass in an ad and will get the page rejected.
- Check the network's landing page. Ready-made landers often contain countdown timers, fake reviews and promises Meta considers misleading. Choose honest page versions or agree with the network on your own.
- A restricted vertical requires the advertiser's permission. If the offer is in gambling or finance, the Meta permission must be held by whoever the ads run on behalf of, and the license by whoever provides the service. Clarify with the network how this works before launch.
- Geo decides. The same category may be allowed in one country and prohibited by law in another. How to choose geos is covered in affiliate geos: Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3, and how to choose the affiliate program itself in CPA networks: how they work and how to choose.
Checklist before launching a Meta campaign
- The product is not in the prohibited categories in the target country.
- For a restricted category, written permission is obtained or the required license is in place.
- For credit, employment, housing or social issues, the special ad category is declared.
- The text does not refer to a person's personal attributes.
- No guaranteed results, before/after or shocking images.
- The landing page loads on a phone in the target country and matches the ad.
- The page has contacts, a privacy policy and terms.
- Admins have two-factor authentication on, and the business is verified.
- The payment method is valid and belongs to you.
Nine items take ten minutes and save days of back-and-forth with support.
How ArtisanClo helps here
Passing Meta's review is a job for your creatives, page and documents, and no service will do it for you. ArtisanClo covers the neighboring questions that decide whether the campaign works after approval:
- Filtering bots and click fraud. The click log shows who came to the page, from which network, and why the visit was counted or filtered out. This helps tell real people from junk traffic — more in how to filter bots.
- Sending conversions to Meta. From the Professional plan, conversions go straight to your ad account using your pixel ID and token. The algorithm gets accurate data on leads and sales, not just clicks. How this works is covered in sending conversions to ad platforms.
- Money reports. Revenue, spend, profit and ROI by flow, geo, offer and campaign parameters.
The platform page is Facebook Ads in the traffic source catalog.
Summary
Facebook and Instagram advertising policies rest on three things: prohibited content cannot be advertised in any way, restricted content only with permission and the right settings, and everything else must be honest in the ad and on the page. Check the current version of the standards before every new launch, apply for permissions in advance, write about the product rather than the person, and watch your account standing — it is cheaper than any appeal.
