Seems like we get more and more ads initially rejected because they have been determined incorrectly (by facebook) to be in a "Special Ad Category." Can't help but think this is turning into a money grab by facebook.
not2easy
3:09 pm on Jan 2, 2020 (gmt 0)
Do they offer you any process to have that incorrect assessment lifted or corrected? If not, I'd be concerned.
Shepherd
4:32 pm on Jan 2, 2020 (gmt 0)
Yes and we've had limited success with getting the initial assessment overturned.
Just for clarity, If we run an ad promoting an article about "how to paint a house without breaking a hip when you're 65" it will get flagged as advertising a "housing opportunity" and you will not be able to advertise to an audience based on age. It's an incorrect assessment of the ad made by facebook and it benefits facebook (financially) for us to have to show this ad to everyone aged 18 to 65+.
not2easy
4:57 pm on Jan 2, 2020 (gmt 0)
Ouch. Extra work and a delay, not the way to inspire advertisers.
engine
11:45 am on Jan 3, 2020 (gmt 0)
It's counter-intuitive for FB to have ads badly targeted. I've seen many of them over time, and i've given up reporting them to "help" Facebook. The wrong ads will lose them money. Very odd.
I'm assuming you're redirecting to a FB page. Check the profile of the page to make sure it's not categorised broadly, or even incorrectly.
Shepherd
1:49 pm on Jan 3, 2020 (gmt 0)
A little background, last year here in the US one of our government entities, HUD, went after facebook for violating fair housing (anti discrimination) laws. Seems that advertisers were advertising houses for sale, loans, and credit, on facebook and using targeting tools (age, male/female, zip coded, etc). HUD thought this might be used to facilitate discrimination and because these advertisers used facebook clearly facebook was at fault.
So understandably, facebook agreed to implement special rules for ads that advertise housing (sale/rent), loans and credit opportunities. I've dealt with the fair housing militia, I don't blame facebook for doing this. My concern is that facebook is taking this opportunity implement these special rule in an overly broad manner as to increase revenue. Or, maybe they're just being overly safe.
