How To Recover A Banned Meta Ad Account (NEW Method)

0:00If you run ads on Facebook or Instagram for long enough, at some point your Meta ad account is probably going to get disabled. And here's the really frustrating part. That can happen even if you haven't done anything wrong. It shouldn't be that way, but unfortunately, it still is. Meta's automated ad account disabling system is easily the worst part of advertising on these platforms, and it catches a lot of

0:18legitimate advertisers in the process. The good news, a disabled Meta ad account doesn't have to be the end. In this video, I'm going to show you what you could do to get your Meta ad account reinstated step by step. So, the first thing I want to very quickly say is that if you're watching this video because your Meta ad account has recently been disabled, is to not panic. This happens to everyone. This even happens to us. We have more than a thousand ad accounts in our business manager. We spent just over 97 million dollars last year on Meta ads. Because of that, we absolutely get preferential treatment. But even for us,

0:49we still have multiple ad accounts disabled every month. We nearly always get them back. There's processes that you can go through, things that could be done, stuff that I'm going to run through in this video. But that's the first thing to note, is to not panic, even if you know, your Facebook ads, Instagram ads are really important where you generate a lot of your sales, leads, etc. You can in most instances get them back. With that said, another important thing for me to quickly explain is that you will only get your disabled Meta ad account back if you haven't badly broken the rules. If you've totally violated

1:16Meta's advertising policies, for example, you've advertised something that Meta doesn't allow you to advertise, or you've included stuff in your ads that Meta deems to be discriminatory, like you're not going to get that that ad account back. A little bit of rule breaking is normally fine, particularly if you go through the steps I'm about to demonstrate and you do so in the right way that I'll I'll sort of coach you through. But if you totally broken the rules, stepped over the line, like

1:38you're not going to be able to do it. You'll have to create a new one. And it actually can be easier to violate Meta's advertiser policies than most advertisers realize. So, what I recommend you do is check through the advertiser policies, and particularly if when your Meta ad account was disabled, Meta told you which policies you violated so you can go and have a look, the ones that that particularly pertain to your business and make sure you understand them. It's much easier to break the rules than a lot of advertisers think and there are rules around things that advertisers would be surprised to see. But of course there are lots of

2:07ad accounts that get disabled because you haven't broken the rules in any way. It just happens automatically incorrectly. Those you can nearly always reverse. The ones where you break the rules a little bit, you can often reverse. The ones where you totally go over the line and break the rules massively, you're not going to get those ones back. Okay, but that said, let's dive into it. So, step one is very simple and that's when you originally get notified that your ad account has been disabled. You normally have the option to request a review and you should do so. So, you should request a review and you should provide the

2:33information that Meta ask you for when you request a review. And this is where it's really important to first go through the advertiser policies and understand whether your ad account has been disabled because you did actually break the rules without realizing it or it's been disabled totally incorrectly. If it has been disabled incorrectly and you don't think you've broken any of the rules, then you want to say that in the

2:52review when you provide the information. Say like, "I don't know why this happened. I was flagged for this. I haven't done that. Something's gone wrong." If you have broken the rules but you don't think you've done so too badly, I would change the messaging that you include in your review. So, instead you want to say, "Um I got this notification through. I have since reviewed the advertiser policies. I understand that I was breaking the rules here slightly, only by a little bit. Um I now understand the process. I won't do it again. Can I please have my ad account reinstated?" Obviously, you're more likely to get it reinstated if you not

3:21if you've not actually broken the rules but often that works even if you have um been stepping over the line a little bit uh to go through that process. Now, one of the issues with requesting a review is it often takes a few weeks to hear back. Sometimes you may never hear back um going through that process. The request a review option escalates it to a human being in most cases, not always, in most cases. So, the ad account's been disabled automatically, algorithmically, um automated systems have done that and then you request a review and it's supposedly going to be put in front of a of a person. And then most of the time

3:51it is going put in front of a person, which is exactly what you want because there may be something that triggered the ad account to be disabled that was wrong. You can have a person look at it and they'll understand, yes, okay, great. Let's reinstate the ad account. But that manual human process adds time cuz you join a queue and then you have

4:10to wait until that process goes through. So, A, that might not work. Sometimes you request a review and immediately you get notified, no, actually this is disabled. Like I said, it doesn't always get put in front of a person or that's what we're told should happen. B, it can take ages. So, either if that hasn't worked or you've requested a review and you're waiting sometimes potentially weeks, which can be disastrous for businesses if this is if your meta ads are a big source of leads, sales, etc. You need that to

4:38function business. Um if you're in either of those situations, then I'd recommend that you move on to step two. So, step number two is to come through to this page, which is facebook.com/business/help. Now, you do need to be logged into your Facebook profile on this browser in order to come through to this page. If you aren't logged in, then you'll probably be redirected, asked to log in, or sent somewhere else. Once you are logged in, then most people now will see this meta AI business assistant. If you don't see it, you should still have this get support option on the page that'll basically take you through to something

5:09similar where you can chat with Meta's AI and business assistant. And you want to start a conversation with the AI business assistant and find out what went wrong, why was your ad account disabled in the first place if you don't already know. Ask it, how can I go about getting my ad account back? What are the steps that needed to be taken, etc. etc. Now, I have seen instances where just chatting with the AI business assistant has brought back the ad account. They've been able to identify some simple red

5:36flags. Oh, you need to do this. Great. Okay, jump in and do it. It could be Sometimes you don't get notified why an ad account has been disabled, but you can go back in and ask uh you can go into the AI business assistant, ask questions, and they'll tell you things like, "Oh, you've had four failed payments you didn't realize. You actually have an outstanding balance. If you just go ahead and pay that, your ad account will be reinstated." Things along those lines can happen. Although, that's relatively rare. What you normally want to do is try and get through to a person. Now, again, not everyone in all locations is going to

6:04have the that option. So, Meta absolutely gives prioritized support to advertisers in different parts of the world, and they give prioritized support to advertisers that have spent more money, that have been advertising on the platform longer, a number of factors as to factor that in. Just like all businesses, basically, they put more time, effort, resources into the customers that are worth worth the most

6:22to them, right? Like, just about every business does. Um so, if I'm chatting with the AI business assistant, for example, I would and I want to get through to a person, as I would in this instance where I want to get a disabled ad account back, what you want to do is go through the steps

6:36that it recommends. So, normally make a recommend series of recommendations around, "Okay, do this, do that. Have you tried that?" Try those, and then if they don't work, which often they won't in terms of getting your ad account back, they might help with some other things, but it won't fully get your ad account back, then say, "I've tried those. What can I do next?" And the Meta AI business assistant will normally then say, "Oh, okay, let me put you through to a to a support agent, and someone you can actually speak with." If they don't, you can request that, like I said. Not available to everyone, but for a lot of

7:02advertisers, uh they will have that option. And then once you get through to an actual person, you are far more likely, in my experience, to be able to convince them to reinstate your ad account, which they often do have the power to do right there and then on the chat. So, instead of waiting weeks or longer in the request to review process, um you can come in and expedite that significantly by uh by going through this process that I just described and and uh and and talking with them. Again, you uh might have to do some convincing. So, if you've broken the rules a little bit,

7:33you might need to explain what you did, you didn't realize, uh won't do it again, etc., etc. If you haven't broken the rules, again, just explain it. Be like, "I was flagged for this. Uh I don't know why, I haven't violated that rule, seems like uh an issue, something went wrong. Again, you're more likely to get an immediate ad account reinstatement if you weren't actually breaking the rules and it was done accidentally. But that's one of the most common things that support agents deal with, right? Is ad accounts being disabled accidentally because I said the system does that all the time. So they're very used to going

8:01through that process and being able to to get it back. Now, like all live chat setups, it's a bit hit and miss. It does depend who you get through to. And I've done this many times where you're talking to someone you just think I'm not sure this person's going to be able to help me. They don't seem as switched on as I would like. I'm going to close this down, start again, go through the process until you get through to someone that seems a little bit more on top of it and is able to actually able to actually help you with the issue, particularly if an ad account

8:28has been disabled incorrectly. Now, when you do this, there are a few different potential outcomes. The first is that you might get your ad account back, reinstated, happy days, we can start advertising again. Um you might run into the issue where you just aren't being put through to an actual person. There's nothing you can do to to make that happen through this this chat option, in which case you're going to have to move on to step three. Or it might be that the person you speak to says, "Okay, I can't reinstate it, but um I can see that the request to review is in

8:57process. I've expedited that for you. I've added a note to it or something to try and speed up the process." I don't know whether that has much of an impact. Um very hard to say cuz it's not a fixed length around the request to review anyway. Um that seems to vary to significantly. It can hurt. Uh but if you're in either of those second or third scenarios, you haven't been put through to a person or they haven't been able to resolve it for you, uh then you want to move on to step three. Step number three is to get in touch with your Meta rep. Now, if you've ever had a

9:23call with a Meta rep, usually after that call, you'll communicate with them via email. They'll send you a list of recommendations based on what you discussed for things that they'd recommend you change via email, um and you can reach back out to them and explain what has happened, ask them for help if they can help speed up the process or look into it, etc. etc. Now, often they'll say they can't help, but

9:42they can. Um it often depends again if you get a a useful one or not, bit bit hit and miss. Uh but asking certainly can't hurt, right? And actually because of that I'd recommend that next time you are offered a call with a Meta rep. Meta regularly sends out emails to advertisers saying, you know, book in with a They change the name for reps. They're called marketing experts or pros or whatever, but the representatives from Meta that work for Meta that are going to look in your ad account and make recommendations and things um along those lines. Um good to take those calls. A lot of their advice

10:12I find quite questionable. Like, "Oh, I'm not sure that's what I would recommend in that instance." So, you want to be careful with that. But in terms of having a contact that you can escalate things to and that you can get in touch with um certainly uh useful. And actually the more you spend, the more valuable that becomes. So, you definitely get better reps uh the more you spend. Like, we're right at the top of ad spend for like independent agencies. Um so, we have like specific agency partner reps that are very, very good. We can expedite issues. They can really help out um with stuff. So, if

10:46you are a higher spender or you have lots of ad accounts, even more important that you take those calls, that you get in touch with your Meta representatives, and that you speak with them, and that you have a a person to turn to should anything go wrong, which it most likely will. Like I said, ad accounts get disabled all the time. And step number four, which I'd recommend just about all Meta advertisers do anyway, is to go

11:06through full Meta business verification. Sometimes your ad account can be disabled because Meta gets a sense of like uh the systems do that uh we're not think you are who you say you are, we're not sure you're a legitimate business providing legitimate products and services for customers, which are their users, which they really care about. Um and you can sidestep those issues in advance or help correct them in many instances if you go through the business verification process. Takes a little bit of extra time, so not all advertisers do it, but it is helpful. It acts as the first line of defense, your ad account is less likely to be disabled in the

11:40first place. It also makes it easier to get it back um and just helps out the whole whole system. There's There's very limited downside in doing so other than just a little bit of time. If you're doing it after your ad account has been disabled, hopefully you're still able to go through that process. It depends what has been taken down. Is it just the ad account? Is it your business account? Uh

11:58your business portfolio, for example? Are the profiles associated with it taken down as well? You know, that varies. Sometimes just the ad account, sometimes it's it's broader. But if you have had your ad account disabled and you can go through the process, go and do it and then try reappearing. Um and I have seen cases where an initial appeal hasn't worked, but it has worked after

12:18business has been properly um verified. So, another quick thing that's worth doing and may well work. There are a few other things I need to let you know about when it comes to disabled Meta ad accounts, but first I want to very quickly let you know about Hyros. Hyros is the best tracking and attribution software for Meta ads. It's the software all the big players in this industry use, including myself. I use it to track results for my own ads as well as all my organic results as well. So, if someone books a call for our done-for-you services, for example, I can see exactly where that person came from with a lot

12:44of accuracy. That allows me to make better decisions for my marketing and my business. Hyros has been able to track that from our ad spend in this campaign, we've generated 96,000 pounds, but 58,000 pounds of that was not reported by Meta. So, if I was just looking at my data within my Meta ad account, I might come to the conclusion that this campaign is doing okay, but in reality this campaign is doing a lot lot better. Now, this is a relatively extreme example because of the nature of our business. So, most of our products services have a recurring billing elements. Meta might be able to see what we make initially from our ad

13:17spend on that initial transaction, but not those subsequent payments. That's why it it shows the importance here of being able to accurately see what did we actually get from our ad spend in order to be able to make better decisions and optimize correctly. So, if you want to improve the performance of your ad campaigns without having to touch your

13:32ads, go ahead and sign up to Hyros. There is a link in the video description. Now, if you've been through all those steps, and Meta has reviewed your ad account, and they've come back and said their final decision is that your ad account is permanently disabled, you are very unlikely to get that ad account back from then on. Basically, the only course of action is to sue Meta to get the ad account back, which

13:51businesses do all the time, by the way. Uh but, it's obviously very difficult, very expensive, there are no guarantees. It's not normally the right option for most businesses. You want to be a very large business operating with massive um ad spend in order to uh to justify an action like that. Most advertisers are going to need to start again with a new

14:10ad account if you're in that scenario. You may also need to create things like a new business portfolio, depending on what has been taken down. Is it just the ad account, or is it um other stuff as well? If it's just the ad account, you still have your business account, your business portfolio, or your profile set up, then it's not too difficult a process to get a new ad account um set up. Uh yes, you do miss out on some learning that has taken place, and some optimization has taken place in the previous ad account, which means your results out of the new ad account might

14:37be slower, might be worse for a while, which is clearly frustrating, but that's usually better than not being able to advertise at all. And there are a couple of things I need to warn you about when it comes to disabled Meta ad accounts. And the first is be very careful with anyone that is selling a Meta ad account

14:53recovery service. In my experience, it's a great way to transfer them some money, not get your ad account back, get in even more trouble with Meta because you're violating their terms of service, so you could get your associated assets restricted or taken down, and none of that's good, right? You've got more downside, not the upside you wanted, which is getting an ad account back. So, yeah, there there are tons of people that offer that, a lot of very shady businesses. You'll see in the comments in this video there will be spam accounts like, "Use this to get your ad account recovered. The mechanisms by which they do so are very questionable,

15:25which is why the vast majority of time from what I've seen, you just send them money and nothing ever happens. Um yeah, so just be very careful with anything along those lines. When we're trying to recover a Meta ad account, we are only going to deal directly with Meta. Now, if you're working with an agency already um that has a a high-level relationship, then absolutely use them to help get an ad account recovered. Um but like specifically contracting a separate company to go and do this for you and act on your behalf,

15:53in my experience uh usually ends poorly. The other thing I'll be very careful of is buying existing agency accounts. Like if you've decided, right, that ad account's gone, I need to create a new one. Instead of creating a fresh one, I've seen offers for, you know, a seasoned agency account that I could use that's far less likely uh to be disabled than if I just create a new one from scratch. The idea makes sense and I can see the appeal, but again, in my

16:18experience, that usually ends badly. Those ad accounts are far more likely to get disabled than um is advertised because that's not what the agency infrastructure is designed for. That's not what is meant to happen. Agencies aren't supposed to season account, whatever that means, and then sell it to other people. That's absolutely violating terms of service. Meta does not like that. If they realize that's what's happened, the ad accounts will be shut down. Um and if you are thinking, I'm wanting to buy one of these accounts because my ad account is less likely to get shut down, it could easily be counterintuitive and you'd be better off

16:50just creating a new one from scratch and accepting the fact that results are going to be a bit worse and a bit slow to begin with. So hopefully this video's been useful and you can go through the steps and get your Meta ad account back up and running as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'd recommend you go through this video. In that video, I detail the latest secrets, tips, and strategies that are working really well for our clients right now. Most of this stuff advertisers are not aware of. I haven't talked about it much before. Go

17:13ahead and give it a watch.