The Facebook Disaster Chronicles

On Sunday I received an email from Facebook. Subject: ‘Ad Account Disabled for Policy Violation’.

“I wonder who that is…” I wondered.

I have access to a number of client’s Facebook accounts. None of whom do anything shady, but some are more overtly in the ‘make money online’ industry than others.

I was shocked then to find out that the disabled account was none other than… mine!

No reason why. Just a message saying, “Your ad account has been disabled for promoting ads that violate our Advertising Policies.”

Whoever has caused this must be taking crack, because I’m not violating any policies. I haven’t had any ads disapproved recently. I haven’t even run many ads for a while.

My Facebook ads strategy currently consists of a Facebook page likes campaign. I then periodically boost posts to my page subscribers. Usually my goal is engagement – there isn’t even an offer. Or at best, a soft one.

So I lodged an appeal. Yesterday, I had a message back, and an apology. ‘Ad account re-enabled. Sorry for the confusion.’

Then today – another email. Ad account disabled again. Violation of advertising policies. Again, no explanation.

To say that I’m furious is an understatement. I was speculating with a client yesterday that Facebook are basically either evil or incompetent. The exchange I’ve had with them indicates the latter, but I haven’t completely dismissed the former.

Fortunately Facebook ads aren’t a core part of my marketing right now, but they easily could have been.

“Watch yourself,” is all I’m saying. Diversify your lead generation. Facebook’s incompetence could strike at any time.