Facebook ad account restricted: what to do first.

What to do first

Stop, and do not create anything new. In the first hour after a restriction it is tempting to open a second ad account, ask a friend to run the ads or reply to a message from someone claiming to be Meta. Each of those can turn a fixable restriction into a permanent one.

Then work through this, in order:

• On a computer, open Meta Business Support Home and go to the account status overview.
• Find the restricted item under Outstanding. It may be the business portfolio, the ad account, the Page or your own profile.
• Read the reason, then the section called What you can do. Meta may ask you to confirm your identity, complete verification, secure your account or request a review.
• Do every step it asks for except the review first, such as paying a failed balance or securing a hacked profile.
• Request a review once, with a short explanation of what happened and what you changed.
• If the restriction is lifted, turn your ads back on in Ads Manager yourself. Meta does not restart them automatically.

Requesting a review needs an admin of the restricted account. If you are not one, find out who is before you start.

Find out what exactly is restricted

Meta can restrict four different things, and each one stops different people:

• The business portfolio, which holds your Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts and catalogues. If it is restricted, it cannot advertise.
• An ad account. Its ads and some of its advertising assets are disabled.
• A Facebook Page. That Page cannot run ads.
• A personal profile. That person cannot advertise or create ads, and ad accounts where they are the only user may be disabled. Other people in the same business portfolio, ad account or Page may still be able to advertise.

The account status overview in Business Support Home shows which one it is. Choose a date range from the calendar at the top right, then look at the Outstanding tab for current problems and Resolved for past ones. Read the exact wording of the reason, because it decides which of the next sections applies to you.

Why small advertisers get restricted

Meta's help pages list these situations as reasons for advertising restrictions:

• Ads or behaviour that break the Community Standards, the Advertising Standards, the commerce policies or other Meta terms.
• A business portfolio or other asset that Meta suspects has been hacked.
• Admins who do not meet the two-factor authentication requirement.
• Unusual payment or account activity, or a high rate of failed or disputed payments.
• Meta also limits how much some advertisers can spend each day, how often they are billed or which payment methods they can use, until it is sure they keep to its policies.

For a small business, that list can look like this in practice: an estate agent whose ads about homes were not marked as housing, a recruiter whose job ads were not marked as employment, a clinic ad that asks "Struggling with back pain?", a card declined twice, a bank dispute over an ad charge, or an admin whose Facebook profile was taken over and used to run ads for something else.

Ads about housing, employment, financial products and services, and social issues, elections or politics have to be declared as a special ad category when you create the campaign. Meta rejects ads that should have been declared, and an account that keeps breaking the Advertising Standards can be restricted. If your trade is one of these, such as real estate, mortgage brokers or recruitment, tick the category on every campaign. Health businesses have extra rules of their own: see Meta ads for clinics.

If the reason is a failed payment

When your payment method fails, Meta pauses your ads and disables the ad account until the amount due is paid. This is the most fixable restriction there is.

• Go to Billing and payments, select the ad account, click Payment methods, then Pay now.
• If the card fails again, try a different one. Check that it allows online payments and has a security code, and that you can receive any confirmation code your bank sends.
• Add a backup payment method, so one declined card does not stop the account next time.
• Do not use one card across many ad accounts. Meta limits how many ad accounts can share a payment method.

Do not dispute an ad charge with your bank while you sort this out. Meta lists disputed payments among the reasons it restricts accounts, so a chargeback can make things worse. If you think a charge is wrong, raise it with Meta through Business Support Home.

Once the balance is paid, Meta resumes your active and scheduled ads. If they are still paused, check whether you have reached the daily spending limit Meta set for the account.

If someone else got in

Signs that the restriction began with a break-in: admins or partners you do not recognise, ads you did not create, spend you cannot explain, or a password or login email that changed without you.

• Secure your personal Facebook profile first, through Meta's steps for a hacked account, because a stolen personal login can open the business assets too.
• In your business portfolio, remove people and partners you do not know, and undo changes you did not make.
• In Ads Manager, check the ad account roles, the payment history and the billing threshold for anything that changed.
• Turn on two-factor authentication for yourself and require it for everyone in the business portfolio.

Then request the review and say plainly that the account was compromised, when you noticed and what you removed. Meta needs to be able to confirm what happened, so give dates and names rather than a general complaint.

If Meta asks you to confirm your identity or verify the business

Some restrictions only lift once a real person behind the account confirms who they are, or the business completes verification. Do it from the What you can do section, not from a link in an email or a message.

Use the business's legal name and details exactly as they appear on your official documents, and make sure the person doing it is an admin who will stay with the business. Business verification status also shows in the Security Center, in the settings of Meta Business Suite.

If a freelancer or agency set up your business portfolio, check now whose name it is in. Verifying someone else's business does not help yours.

Request one review, and write it well

To request a review, go to the account status overview in Business Support Home, select the restricted account, choose Request review under What you can do and follow the steps on screen. Meta says there is a limited number of times you can request a review, and once a review is completed the decision is final. So request it after you have fixed what you can, not before.

Meta says reviews are typically completed within 48 hours, and some take longer. Requesting another review will not hurt your standing, Meta says, but a second request does not reopen a decision that has been made.

Write the explanation the way you would explain it to a stranger at a desk: what the business does, what the ads were for, what you think triggered the restriction and what you changed. For example:

"We are a two-agent real estate office in Columbus, Ohio. Our last three ads promoted homes for sale and were not marked as housing, which was our mistake. We have declared the housing category on every campaign and removed the age and ZIP code settings that category does not allow. The ad account's payment method and admins are unchanged."

Leave out anger, threats and long histories. The person or system reading it needs facts it can check.

What not to do while you wait

Meta's account integrity rules say it may restrict or disable accounts and ad accounts that are created or repurposed to get around a previous removal, owned by the same person as an account that was disabled, or otherwise used to evade its enforcement. In practice that means:

• Do not open a new ad account or business portfolio to keep the same ads running.
• Do not run the same ads through a friend's, a relative's or an agency's account.
• Do not buy an old ad account from anyone who offers one.
• Do not keep editing and resubmitting the same rejected ad.
• Do not pay or give a login to anyone who contacts you claiming to be from Meta. Business Support Home has a place to check whether a message that says it is from Meta is genuine.

The quickest way to lose an ad account for good is to try to work around a restriction on it. Wait for the review.

If the review fails

If Meta decides the restriction stays, the account stays blocked. Contact support from Business Support Home if you believe something was missed, and keep a record of every step you took.

If only one person's profile is restricted, other people in the business portfolio may still be able to advertise, as long as the business itself is in good standing. That is the honest use of a second admin. Using one to keep running ads that broke the rules is the evasion Meta warns about.

If an ad account is disabled for a policy violation and stays ineligible for reinstatement for six months, Meta says unused prepaid funds may be lost where the law allows, and the account cannot be reinstated after that. If you keep a prepaid balance, ask support about it early.

Meanwhile, the enquiries still have to come from somewhere: your Google Business Profile, search ads, your email list and the customers who already know you. If Meta ads were your only source of new work, that is worth changing whatever the review decides.

If an agency or freelancer runs your ads

When someone else runs your ads, the restriction may sit on their assets, on yours, or on the person who built the campaign. Ask them for three things the same day:

• A screenshot of the account status overview in Business Support Home, showing which item is restricted and the reason Meta gives.
• Whose business portfolio owns the ad account, the Page and the pixel. If the answer is theirs, you do not control the assets your ads depend on.
• What they changed in the days before the notice: a new card, a new admin, a new kind of ad or a much larger budget.

Then agree who requests the review, because only an admin of the restricted account can, and there is a limited number of requests. Two people sending reviews with different stories helps nobody. Once it is settled, move the assets into your own business portfolio and give the agency partner access, so the next supplier change does not leave you locked out.

Set things up so the next one is rarer and shorter

Most of the protection is in the Security Center in Meta Business Suite settings:

• Require two-factor authentication for everyone with access to the business portfolio. Meta requires it for portfolios 90 days or older and recommends it for all.
• Give at least two trusted people full control, so the business is not stuck when one person is away, leaves or is restricted.
• Check the business verification status and complete it while nothing is wrong.
• Keep the business portfolio, the Page and the ad account in the business's own name, and give agencies and freelancers partner access instead of your login.
• Add a backup payment method, and keep the billing details the same as the business's real details.

Then keep the ads themselves out of trouble. Declare a special ad category when one applies, avoid wording that tells people what condition or situation they are in, and send every ad to a page that works and matches the offer. Meta rejects ads whose page is broken or promises something different. We build landing pages for ads that match the ad and work inside the Facebook and Instagram apps, and GGSites does not run ad accounts, so we never hold yours.

If you boost posts from the Page rather than using Ads Manager, the same rules apply, with fewer settings to catch a mistake: see boost a post or use Ads Manager. Clinics and med spas, such as aesthetic clinics, should read Meta's health and wellness policy before the first ad.