The Facebook Advertising Policies (and How to Comply)

June 27, 2022
The Facebook Advertising Policies (and How to Comply)

Facebook advertising in the Philippines has become increasingly more common today—and with good reason. With nearly 3 billion active monthly users to date, Facebook is undeniably one of the best and most effective platforms for digital marketing in modern times. One of the ways businesses big and small can build their online visibility, engage with potential customers, and advertise their products and services on the platform is through Facebook Ads.

Facebook advertising is easily accessible to anyone who wants to use it, but before you go ahead and publish your ads, you should know that Facebook has implemented advertising policies that you should comply with. Otherwise, your ads will get rejected no matter how professionally crafted they are.

The Basics on Facebook’s Ad Policies

Any social media agency in the Philippines should be aware of the importance of understanding and following Facebook’s advertising policies and guidelines when helping businesses craft ads. These policies determine which types of advertisements are allowed or prohibited to be published on the social media platform. Each ad that a marketer creates will be subject to evaluation to ensure that its content will not be harmful or offensive in any way to the audience. Aside from protecting Facebook users, ads should be designed to facilitate engagement and strengthen relationships between people and businesses.

The Review Process

Every ad submitted is reviewed by Facebook within 24 hours. The review process involves evaluating all elements of the ad, including the images and texts used, the target audience, ad positioning and the contents of the landing page. Once the review process is done, Facebook will let you know if your ad is approved or rejected.

Key Points to Consider

Here are some things worth noting concerning the review process:

  • It’s possible that your ad might get rejected if the landing page is not completely functional or does not comply with Facebook’s ad policies.
  • Once the review process ends, you will receive a notification stating whether the ad is approved or not. You can view the details and manage accepted advertisements on Facebook’s Ad Manager tool.
  • Rejected advertisements can be edited and resubmitted for approval.
  • An email will be sent to mention in detail the grounds for ad rejection.
  • You always have an option to edit your advertisement and save your changes for review.

For top Facebook ad agencies in the Philippines, one of the first things they do when submitting ads is to double check whether the ad contains prohibited contents or if it violates the Community Standards. Specific types of advertisement contents that are not permitted or highly restricted on Facebook include:

  • Adult content
  • Alcohol
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Counterfeit documents
  • Dating services
  • Hate speech, bullying and harassment
  • Illegal drugs
  • Misinformation
  • Online gambling
  • Prescription and over-the-counter medications
  • Profanity or bad grammar
  • Spyware or malware
  • Suicide
  • Tobacco and related paraphernalia
  • Violence
  • Weapons, ammunition or explosives

Some of the items above may be permitted provided that the ad follows Facebook’s specific guidelines for them. Aside from these prohibited and restricted contents, every ad must also follow certain positioning rules. These include:

  • Ad relevancy - All ad media elements such as images and texts should correspond to the products, services and target audience.
  • Ad accuracy - Ads must distinctly represent the product, service and branding of the business.
  • Landing pages - Landing pages should not direct to a different website other than that containing the products and services advertised on Facebook, nor should it direct to websites containing prohibited contents.

Create Lead Ad Campaigns

Generally, Facebook policy restricts businesses from collecting private and sensitive information from users. However, there are still many ways by which you can generate leads without having to compromise users’ valuable data. On Facebook, this usually comes as a form that interested customers can fill out, allowing you to gather information about them that will be helpful in creating future ads and optimizing current ones. Lead ads work similar to a newsletter, in which customers freely sign up and give their information to better know about your products and services.

When creating lead ad campaigns, do note that there is also information that are prohibited from collecting or requires written permission from Facebook first. These data include:

  • Account numbers
  • Criminal history
  • Bank account numbers, credit or debit card numbers and income and financial reports
  • Government-issued ID numbers, passport numbers and driver’s license numbers
  • Insurance policy information
  • Username and passwords
  • Religion
  • Sexual orientation
  • Health information such as medical conditions and disabilities
  • Race
  • Political affiliation

Use of Facebook’s Brand Assets

Facebook also provides guidelines on how you can use or include Facebook assets such as logos and brand-exclusive elements like the Like button on your ad content. Please take note of the following:

  • Brand Partnerships
  • Top Facebook advertising agencies in the Philippines are not allowed to use the Facebook brand in any way that implies partnership or endorsement of any kind.
  • Facebook Brands
  • Advertisements that link to Facebook-branded content, including pages, groups, events or sites with Facebook login usage should make limited references to specify the ad’s destination.
  • Copyrights and Trademarks
  • Ads are restricted from using Facebook’s copyrights or trademarks except for those authorized by the Brand Usage Guidelines or Instagram Brand Guidelines with prior written permission.

Data Usage Restrictions

Facebook also implements how ads on their platform collect, manage and use information gathered from users:

  • Advertisers must guarantee that any data gathered from Facebook Ad is exclusively shared with a representative on their behalf or their service providers. It is also important that Facebook data is highly protected and confidential.
  • Any data obtained from Facebook should not be used for retargeting, integrating data over various advertiser’s campaigns (unless authorized by Facebook), and assessing the performance and efficiency of Facebook ad campaigns.
  • Facebook advertising data should not be used for editing, building, appending, influencing and augmenting user profiles with any mobile device identifier, which easily determines users, browsers or devices.
  • Facebook ad data are not allowed to be transferred to any ad network, ad exchange, data broker or monetized services.

Guidelines for Written Copy

The most crucial component of Facebook Ads is the copy. A compelling copy serves as the advertisement’s first impression to captivate users. In writing a copy, it should follow the restricted content guidelines of Facebook and must be relevant to the offered products or services and target market.

Aside from following Facebook’s Community Standards, your ads should also include a precise representation of the brand by creating accurate and honest content for your products or services. Advertisements need to be appropriate in terms of images used and the landing page as well.

Guidelines for Targeting

To achieve an effective ad, you must ensure that it is relevant to the interests of your target audience and that it aligns to targeting guidelines. You need to understand your target market and deliver quality content instead of misleading and false information about your offered products and services to avoid ad rejection.

Advertisements should not be predatory in the sense that they promote harassment or discrimination. Most importantly, your ads must not contain texts that imply personal attributes such as user’s religion, race, sexual orientation and other sensitive information to protect the user's privacy.

Advertisers should also consider using custom audiences and product specific targeting features. Developing custom audiences is essential for Facebook advertising, as your target audiences need to abide by Facebook’s Customer Audience Terms. If you are going to advertise prohibited products such as alcohol, make sure that your specified target country and age restrictions are correct and established.

Bottomline

Facebook advertising offers numerous benefits for businesses, especially in terms of broad online visibility, wider audience reach and more personal engagement with potential customers. In order to successfully publish your ads, it is highly important to understand and comply with Facebook's ad policies to avoid minor violations that can result in rejection of your ads. These policies ensure user’s protection and help businesses to create high-quality and relevant advertisements.

AMPH Advertising Agency Inc. is the top digital marketing agency in the Philippines that offers the latest digital marketing solutions to meet client’s goals. We provide the best Facebook ad management services in the Philippines to help businesses accelerate digitally. Aside from Facebook advertising services, our company also offers up-to-date and effective SEO and SEM services, Google Display Network, Strategic Consultation and social media advertising such as Instagram and YouTube advertising. For inquiries about Facebook ad agency pricing in the Philippines, you can call +632 8553 6002.