Facebook ad rejected or ad account restricted? What to do

A rejected ad and a restricted ad account sound alike, but they are different problems. A rejected ad is one ad that did not pass Meta's review: you fix it, or you ask for another look, and Meta aims to decide within 48 hours. A restricted ad account means Meta has limited what the account can do, and you only get a limited number of appeals. So before you click anything, find out which one you have. Here is how, and what to do in each case.

First, find out which problem you have

Meta sends the reason for a rejection by e-mail, with a link to Business Support Home, where you can read it again. Read it before you change anything. The reason tells you which of the fixes below applies.

If one ad was rejected

Meta gives you three choices.

1. Edit the ad. Fix the image, video, text, audience or landing page that broke the rule. An edited ad goes back to review automatically.
2. Make a new ad. Useful when the ad cannot be edited. Keep the old one for now, though (see the note below).
3. Request another review. Do this only if you believe the ad was rejected by mistake.

To request a review, go to Business Support Home, select the ad account, select the rejected ad, ad set or campaign, then click Request review and Submit. According to Meta:

• It aims to decide within 48 hours, and it relies more on human reviewers for these requests than for the first review.
• If the decision is reversed and your campaign is active, the ad starts running by itself.
• If it is rejected again, it stays rejected, and you cannot ask for another review of the same ad.
• Asking for a review does not hurt your standing with Meta, and a rejection that is overturned does not count as a violation.

Do not delete a rejected ad you might want reviewed. Meta says that once it is deleted, you may lose the ability to request a review. And deleting or editing a rejected ad does not remove the violation from your account.

Most ads are reviewed within 24 hours. Changing the targeting, the creative or the optimization of a running ad sends it through review again. Changing only the budget, the bid or the schedule does not.

Two rules that catch local businesses off guard

Discriminatory practices: the ad needs a special ad category

The name sounds harsh, but this rejection does not have to mean the ad said anything offensive. Meta's discriminatory practices policy sets special requirements for some kinds of ads. If you advertise in the United States, ads about housing, employment, and financial products and services need that category, or they may be rejected. For financial products and services this has been required in the US since January 21, 2025.

What surprises owners is how wide these categories are. According to Meta's examples:

• Employment covers full-time and part-time jobs, internships, apprenticeships, job fairs, and company perks shown together with a job opening. A "We're hiring" ad from a cafe counts.
• Housing covers rental and sale listings, real estate and house hunting services, homeowners and renters insurance, and mortgage financing.
• Financial products and services covers loans and credit, insurance, and 0% APR installment payments, including buy now, pay later and in-house payment plans. A contractor or a dental office advertising "pay in monthly installments" may fall in here.
• Not included: gift cards, store rewards, and tax and accounting services.

The fix is to run the ad in a campaign with the right special ad category chosen. Meta then limits some of the audience options, as a protection against discrimination. If you hire through social media, our article on pay transparency laws for job posts covers the other rules a job ad has to follow.

Personal attributes: the ad talks about the viewer

Meta does not allow ads that assert or imply something personal about the person seeing them. Its list includes race, religion, age, sexual orientation, family status, disability, physical or mental health, financial hardship, criminal record and even a person's name. Questions count too: one of Meta's own examples of a violating ad simply asks the reader whether they are disabled and offers help. Using the word "you" is fine, as long as the ad does not mention one of those attributes.

The usual fix is to talk about your service instead of the reader. Here are a few rewrites of our own, not Meta's examples:

If your ad account is restricted

A restriction is about the account, not one ad. It can follow severe or repeated rejections, but Meta can also restrict an account when it notices unusual activity and wants to make sure nobody else got in. The way out starts in the same place:

1. On a computer, open Meta Business Support Home and go to Account status overview.
2. Click the restricted account.
3. Read the What you can do section. Meta may ask you to confirm your identity, complete a verification, secure the account with two-factor authentication, or request a review.

To confirm your identity, Meta may ask for the e-mail address on the account, your phone number for a text code, a photo of an ID such as a driver's license, or the payment method on the account. Once you start, you may have to finish within a set time, so have these ready.

If the restriction is for a policy violation and you think it is wrong, choose Request review. Meta says:

• Only an admin of the account can request it.
• The review usually takes 48 hours, sometimes longer.
• You can request this kind of review only a limited number of times, and the decision after the review is final.
• If the account is reinstated, ads that were running before do not restart by themselves. Turn them back on in Ads Manager.
• An ad account disabled for a policy violation that stays ineligible for 6 months cannot be reinstated after that, and unused prepaid funds may be lost where the law allows it.

Because appeals are limited, write yours after you have fixed the cause, not before. Remove or correct the ads that were rejected, and make sure everyone with access uses two-factor authentication. If the restriction came from someone getting into your account, start with our checklist for a hacked Facebook Page.

What not to do while you wait

• Do not resubmit the same ad again and again. Meta can restrict accounts for severe or repeated violations.
• Do not pay strangers who offer to unlock your account. Reviews go through Business Support Home, and only an admin of the account can request one.
• Do not let a helper log in with your password. Give them their own access to the Page and the ad account instead.

If you would rather hand it over

Our Facebook & Instagram Ads service starts at $99 a month. We set up the campaigns with the right category from the start, make the ads from your own photos and videos, and check them every week. We cannot overturn a restriction for you: the review is requested by the account's admin and decided by Meta, though we can help you prepare it. Your ad budget is separate and goes straight from your card to Meta. We suggest at least $150 a month. The details are on our pricing page.