How to Approve My Facebook Ad

You’ve crafted the perfect copy, found a scroll-stopping image, and hit Publish on your new Facebook ad. Now comes the hard part: waiting. Watching your ad’s status sit at In Review can feel like a test of patience, and getting a rejection notice is just plain frustrating. This guide will walk you through exactly how the Facebook ad approval process works, the common roadblocks that get ads disapproved, and what to do step-by-step if you find your ad isn’t going live.

Understanding Facebook's Ad Review Process

Once you submit your ad, it doesn't just magically appear in people's feeds. It enters a review queue where Facebook's system checks it against their comprehensive Advertising Policies. Think of it as a quality control checkpoint designed to keep the user experience safe and positive.

The vast majority of this process is handled by an automated system. This system scans every component of your ad, including:

• The ad creative: Your image, video, and ad text.
• The landing page: The page people go to after clicking your ad.
• Targeting: The audience you’ve chosen to show your ad to.

The system is looking for violations ranging from obvious to incredibly subtle. In some cases, especially after an ad is flagged or you request a manual review, a human reviewer might step in. Typically, most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, but it can sometimes take 48 hours or even longer, especially during peak advertising seasons. The most important tip: avoid editing your ad while it’s in review unless absolutely necessary, as this will reset its place in the queue and start the process all over again.

Common Pitfalls: Why Facebook Ads Get Disapproved

Most ad rejections aren't due to malicious intent, they’re often simple misunderstandings of the rules. By knowing the most common red flags, you can build your ads for approval from the get-go.

Prohibited and Restricted Content

Facebook has a long list of things you can't advertise, but they generally fall into two categories: prohibited and restricted.

Prohibited content is a hard "no" under any circumstances. This includes things like illegal products, weapons, tobacco, unsafe supplements, and multilevel marketing schemes. This is usually straightforward, as most businesses aren't trying to sell these items anyway.

Restricted content is more nuanced. You can advertise these things, but you have to follow very specific rules. Common examples include:

• Alcohol: Ads must comply with all local laws and target users of legal drinking age.
• Health & Fitness: This is one of the trickiest areas. You can’t make unrealistic claims ("Lose 20 pounds in a week!") or show "before and after" images that imply an ideal body type. Focus on a healthy lifestyle rather than guaranteed results. Ads focusing on personal health conditions are also highly scrutinized.
• Dating Services: Requires prior written permission and must adhere to strict targeting and creative guidelines.

Landing Page Problems

This is one of the most overlooked reasons for ad rejection. Facebook doesn't just review your ad, it reviews the entire user journey. Your landing page is just as important as your ad creative.

Your ad may be disapproved if your landing page:

• Mismatching Content: The offer in your ad must clearly match the offer on the landing page. If your ad promises 50% off a certain product, that 50% off offer had better be front-and-center when someone clicks through.
• Is Non-Functional: All links on the page must work, the page must load properly, and it can't lead to a file download or a 404 error page.
• Has Disruptive Elements: Avoid aggressive pop-ups that are hard to close, auto-playing video/audio, or excessive ads that make the user experience difficult.
• Lacks Credibility: A landing page without a clear business name, contact information, or a privacy policy can be seen as untrustworthy and get your ad rejected.

Issues with Ad Text and Creative

The words and images you use in the ad itself are under the microscope. Meta prioritizes a positive user experience, so anything that could make someone feel bad about themselves is a major red flag.

Personal Attributes

You cannot use language that asserts or implies personal attributes about a user. This means you can’t call out someone's race, religion, age, sexual orientation, health status, or financial situation. It’s the difference between asking a question and offering a solution.

• Don't Do This: "Are you struggling with credit card debt?" (This directly implies the user has debt.)
• Do This Instead: "Our service helps people achieve financial freedom." (This offers a solution without assuming the user's situation.)

It's a subtle but important distinction. Focus on what your product or service does, not on the presumed problems of the person seeing the ad.

Misleading or Sensational Content

Your creative needs to be honest and straightforward. Things that will get you instantly rejected include:

• Fake Buttons: Adding an image of a "Play" button to a static image to trick someone into clicking.
• Sensational Language: Over-the-top, clickbait-style headlines meant to shock or scare the user are prohibited.
• Before-and-After Images: These are almost always rejected, especially in the health, wellness, and beauty space, because they set unrealistic expectations.

Your Ad is Stuck in Review. Now What?

It’s been over 24 hours and your ad is still sitting in "In Review." This can be stressful, especially when you're on a deadline. Here are a few things to consider.

First, be patient. While most reviews are quick, it's not unheard of for an ad to take up to 48 hours or even a bit longer to be approved. Constant checking won't speed it up.

Second, do not edit the ad. As mentioned before, any edit - even correcting a small typo - will pull your ad from the queue and put it at the very back of the line to start the review process over. If it's a minor change, it's almost always better to wait for the review to complete.

Third, check your Account Quality dashboard. Sometimes, an ad is held up because there's a problem with your personal ad account, Business Manager, or even your Fan Page. The Account Quality section can give you a heads-up if there are broader issues at play that you need to resolve first.

If it’s been more than 48 hours and there are no notifications in your Account Quality dashboard, your final option is to contact Facebook's support team. Just be prepared to wait, as response times can vary.

My Ad Was Rejected: A Step-by-Step Recovery Plan

Seeing that red "Rejected" notification is demoralizing, but it's not the end of the world. In almost every case, you can fix the issue and get your campaign running. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Don't Panic. Read the Rejection Notice.

Facebook will email you and provide a notice directly in Ads Manager stating why your ad was disapproved. It will usually cite the specific policy you violated. While the reason can sometimes be vague, it's your first clue to solving the puzzle.

Step 2: Review Your Ad and Landing Page Objectively.

With the violated policy in mind, go back and look at your entire ad funnel with fresh eyes. Is there a word in your copy that could be misinterpreted? Does the image imply an unsubstantiated claim? Is your landing page functioning perfectly on both desktop and mobile? Often, the problem is a subtle mistake you simply glossed over.

Step 3: Edit and Resubmit (The Easiest Route).

Unless you're 100% positive your ad was rejected by mistake, the fastest path to approval is to edit the ad.

• If the issue was the text, rewrite the headline or primary text to be more compliant.
• If it was the image, swap it out for a different one.
• If it might have been the landing page, make sure the page is in perfect working order.

Once you make the edit and save, the ad is automatically resubmitted to the review queue. Since the automated system is scanning for changes, a revised ad that’s clearly compliant often gets approved much faster than an appeal.

Step 4: Request a Manual Review (The Final Option).

If you have carefully reviewed your ad and the cited policy and you feel that the rejection was a clear mistake by the automated system, you can request a manual review. In the Account Quality dashboard, you will see your rejected ad and an option to "Request Review."

You'll get a small text box to explain your side. Be polite, professional, and specific. State why you believe your ad complies with the policy in question. A concise, respectful appeal has a much better chance of getting a human reviewer to overturn the rejection than a frustrated rant.

Final Thoughts

Navigating the Facebook ad approval process is a skill every marketer learns. It starts with understanding their policies, avoiding common triggers around health claims and landing pages, and knowing exactly what steps to follow when an ad gets stuck or rejected. With a little practice, you can get to a place where almost all your ads get approved on the first try.

We believe managing your social media marketing should feel empowering, not like you're constantly fighting against a broken system. From navigating complex ad policies to scheduling content that misfires, a marketer's time is too valuable to waste on friction. It’s why we built Postbase with a focus on rock-solid reliability, an intuitive visual calendar, and support for all the modern content formats. Our goal is to make sure your tools just work, so you can spend your time on what truly matters: creating amazing content for your brand.