1. You’re promoting an illegal product.

What may and cannot be advertised on Facebook is spelled out clearly in the company’s ad regulations. No sex, drugs, or rock ‘n’ roll, for instance (okay, rock is fine, but no sex or drugs).

Listed below are categories of goods and services that will never be promoted on Facebook. There are, however, a few caveats that you should be aware of.

Explosives, ammunition, and weapons

There is a strict prohibition on the use of any firearms, ammunition, or explosives. Any product that might cause harm to others is prohibited from sale. Nonetheless, you may promote sites that discuss guns but are not engaged in the direct sale of firearms.

Badly tested vitamins and minerals

How Facebook defines a dangerous supplement is entirely up to the social media platform. Anabolic steroids, chitosan, comfrey, dehydroepiandrosterone, ephedra, and human growth hormones are all banned in their advertisements.

Services and goods aimed squarely towards adults

There are to be no sex toys, pornographic publications, or “adult dating services” allowed. Unless it’s an ad for birth control, sexual references are generally off limits.

When promoting any method of birth control, it is imperative that only adults over the age of 18 be targeted and that the advertisment solely feature the contraceptive benefits of the product.

Cryptocurrency

In January of 2018, Facebook added a new category of advertisements to its list of forbidden content. In his role as Facebook’s director of product management, Rob Leathern has warned that bitcoin advertising “are typically connected with misleading or deceptive promotional techniques.”

2. You’re promoting a limited-edition product, thus

The agreement is that advertising aiming to sell banned items won’t always be rejected. But, only approved marketers can promote their content, and even then, only in select geographies and only to customers over the age of 18.

In order to advertise on Facebook, companies must first fulfil certain criteria, and this list is final (and what those requirements are).

Alcohol

It’s hard to overstate how significant this is. As much as we appreciate a good beer commercial as much as the next guy, if you’re selling alcohol, your advertising must adhere to the regulations of each nation you intend to reach.

Your digital advertisement will be deleted immediately upon arrival at its destination if the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in any of the countries you’ve promoted as potential customers. Similarly, all intended users must be over the age of 18. The equivalent age in Canada is 19. A minimum age of 20 applies in Japan. Moreover, in the United States of America, the minimum age is 21.

This is Facebook’s full policy on alcoholic beverage advertisements if you’re interested in learning more.

Gambling with actual money

Want to use Facebook to become a casino mogul? For starters, you need Facebook’s ad review team’s formal approval, and second, you may only advertise to those who are 18 or older in states where online gambling is legal.

Bingo games run by the states

In order to run ads for a state lottery without breaking the law, you must restrict your audience to residents of that state.

Internet drugstores

Advertisements for pharmacies are permitted, but only with the express written consent of Zuck and company.

3. Third, you’re not adhering to accepted norms

So you’re trying to promote an innocuous subject that wasn’t even mentioned above, but Facebook’s ad review staff isn’t having it. I don’t know where you went wrong.

To begin, let’s go through Facebook’s rules for participation in the site’s various groups. We suggest reading them again if you haven’t done so already.

Below is a condensed version of Facebook’s guidelines for determining what kind of material, sponsored or organic, is permitted on the platform.

Aggression and criminal activity

Ads that make actual, serious threats will be removed. We will kick you off the network if your content promotes violence, racism, bigotry, terrorism, human trafficking, or any other form of criminality. If it glorifies criminal violence, you won’t be allowed to post it. In the event that it is used to plan actual acts of violence, your participation will be terminated.

Safety

We do not allow advertisements that promote or glorify acts of self-harm or suicide, sexual exploitation, bullying, harassment, or the unauthorised dissemination of private or personal information.

Disputed material

Ads that advocate bigotry or prejudice, that depict gory violence, that show naked people or sexual activities, or that specifically target victims of significant bodily or mental injury will be rejected (of course).

Honesty and sincerity

If the Facebook ad review team determines that your material is spammy in any way—for example, because it contains inaccurate or misleading information or provides a poor user experience—it will be removed. Any content, sponsored or organic, that promotes false news will be removed.

Conceptual Property

Your advertisement will not be accepted if it infringes on any existing copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights. Find out what exactly constitutes an intellectual property infraction below.

Your ad won’t get very far if you break even one of these unspoken rules. If you’ve read them thoroughly and your advertisements are still being rejected, it’s probably because…