Facebook ads account dilemma (10)
Hi there!
I’d like to know what exactly happens if my Facebook ads account gets banned?
I don’t plan to promote anything inappropriate but from what I hear, getting banned from FB unfortunately is always a possibility no matter how well you behave.
Will the general user account still be accessible or the whole FB account gets instantly banned?
If only the advertiser account gets banned and you can still use FB as a normal user, then what’s the benefit of using a different account for advertising as many suggest?
I have 2 Facebook accounts but I have no idea which one to use due to a weird situation. I created my first account in 2008 at the boom of Facebook as a new social network and my second one in 2010. My personal account for my RL since its creation is the latter because the original one was messed up with too many random people as friends and I wasn’t even using my real name on it.
Things start to get very complicated from here...
In the one and only gaming campaign I ever run about 2 months ago (Then after 1 day, I got too scared of getting banned and ran away from Facebook..
), I went to use my old 2008 account and while I was filling in my personal details I noticed that I could change the currency from USD to Euros. I live in Europe so it made sense to have the same currency when advertising on Facebook. I thought it would be simple but doing so, resulted in having my initial advertising account disabled and being given a new ads account with € as currency. The problem was that immediately after that, I couldn't upload my ads to the new account from the Power Editor as It probably needed more time to work after the creation of that brand new ads account. At the time, I was extremely impatient so I used my primary RL account for this campaign instead.
Now, I’m very confused about which one I should use for advertising. They say it’s better to use a separate account but since I have already advertised with my main account, I fear it might trigger some kind of alarm on Facebook and make me look suspicious. If Facebook has automated ways to connect every possible clue between different ads accounts in order to exterminate previously banned advertisers, then they won’t have any difficulty noticing the similarities between my 2 accounts. Having said all that, keep in mind also that I only have 1 cc so it’s even harder for me to hide myself (Reason: 22yo, student, broke..). I almost forgot, I don't care about the currency anymore... I just want to get out there and launch campaigns every day!
I hope I didn't confuse you too much with my story. Everyone's opinion is welcomed!
Your personal user account is still OK. Go create a business manager account here, this will be your separate account: https://business.facebook.com
Your account probably got disabled because you "went to use your old 2008 account". With facebook right now, everything draws a red flag unless you are using business manager/your personal account. Even then, they would still rather disappoint investors than give you free spending reign.
Tip: preferably use a different credit card than the one you had flagged in your 2008 account.
Hey there wanderer,
Regarding the credit card, I didn't merge it with my 2008 account. I only used it with my 2010 personal account which is in good condition after having all the ads of my 1st campaign approved. I never used my old account for advertising.
As for why my account got disabled, I forgot to mention that Facebook did warn me that this change would happen if I chose to change the currency. The only unexpected problem about this was that I couldn't upload any ads right after the creation of this new account and instead of waiting I preferred to go ahead and launch the campaign with my personal FB account.
Also, I just did a quick check to the business account link you gave me and I see that it requires me to have my own Facebook Page but I do not have one, neither I want one because I’m only interested in RHS ads and not in building a fan base and getting likes. Of course, I can always make one FB page just to proceed with the creation of my business account.
Just make an arbitrary page for your business.
You don't need to have anything in particular on the page, just fill it out with business info and a logo.
Then, attach other pages you have to the business manger (take ownership) or make a new generic one for your campaigns (e.g. T-shirt that Rock!).
Don't rely on the RHS ads. Right now, they just really are not the best ad formats on Facebook. Not using page posts because you don't want likes is nonsensical. Test multiple ad types and go with the ones that perform better (I'd bet money your RHS ads are going to perform terribly compared to similar page link posts in the NF).
To summarise: make a business manager account. Add a page for your business. Add other page(s) that you will run campaigns through. Make a new advertising account through the business manager and go for gold. If you are running compliant campaigns and don't dick up your tracking (i.e. send reviewers to aff links), then you will be fine. Don't worry about your CC if it has been used on your clean personal account. I've attached and removed the same CC's and payment methods to several clean accounts and have never had a problem.
Hey Zeno, I have a similar question.
I received a notification in the Power Editor: "1. You do not have permission to create ads for this Page." I'm crossing my fingers that this isn't a ban, as it shows other ads in the account still as Active. Do you have any advice? Should I just create a new campaign in the PE?
Also, what is the best way to mitigate against this? Do you need to have several credit cards associated with different accounts and different business pages within each account?
I've been banned before and my cc wouldn't work on other accounts.
Thanks in advance for your insights.
With that permissions error, does the ad account actually have page access? You will need to add the ad account as an advertiser in the page settings.
It's likely unrelated to any billing or ban issues.
Regarding bans though, if you did get your CC banned on another account then don't try to use it again. Use a new CC and make accounts through the Business Manager. If you're going to do dodgy/non-compliant things it will only be a matter of time before all the accounts get linked and banned.
If you play it safe and compliant you should be fine, even if using the same CC on multiple grey accounts - these are made to separate clients, not to separate billing sources.
Regarding the notification it could be as simple as you... well... don't have permission to create ads for that page 
Just make the Ads account an advertiser or admin of that page and that should work. And no, it's not a ban. When you get banned you'll know.
For reference here's what a banned message looks like:
And you won't be able to do anything with that account. Just for general culture, before, when FB banned you, you could not log in to your account ever again so if you had unclaimed invoices you were fucked. Now you can still log in but the account won't let you do much.
As to what's the way to mitigate it? Adhere to the Content Guidelines basically and don't get banned.
If you're going down the route of several credit cards, etc. it get's messy, really messy.
Hope this helps.
Fabian and Zeno, thank you this sounds like good news. I am the owner/admin of the facebook account and page I am advertising through. Switching the role to "advertiser" you think may deem positive results?
Can you expand on making accounts through the 'business manager"? I've always just opted to promote my page at the start of a new campaign and input my credit card there.
@zeno and @fabian what do you mean by "ad account"?
If you are logged into the account that owns the page then the advertising account will have access automatically.
Note that your personal account is a normal user account, and an advertising account is a separate entity attached to that.
If you register with the Business Manager it is a place to cosolidate accounts and pages for management. In the settings you can make new ad accounts. These are called grey accounts and have no attached personal account or profile. Ads only.
What advertising account are you trying to make ads through? If it is not your personal account then you will need to add it in the users section of your page admin, usually by adding it's account email address.
It should be pretty obvious if you're using an ads account that is not your personal account, since you would have made it and it will have a different login.
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