Facebook Ad Approval Followed by Disapproval

[physics]

I've tried Facebook ads a few times and am always frustrated at how difficult it is to get ads approved. I understand they want control over ads so that people don't get offended by what ads they're shown on their profiles (I guess) but the dis-approval process is just ridiculous. For the past couple of days I've been revising and re-revising an ad to try to get it approved. Each time it gets disapproved so I water it down some more. Finally I found a Facebook ad for the exact same product I want to promote and nearly copied the ad verbatim. Lo and behold the ad was APPROVED! Only, by the time I logged into my Facebook ads manager it was disapproved. There was no note as to why it was approved and then later disapproved. I could see no impressions showing for the ad so for all I know it was never shown.
I've read the terms and the ad does not clearly violate any of them - as evidenced by the fact that it was actually approved once and is being used by another advertiser.
What exactly is an advertiser like myself to do in this circumstance? I can't reply to the 'disapproval' email and I can't find the right feedback form to request re-review or ask a question about what's wrong with the ad. And all I'm trying to do is give them my money to post an ad that clearly is OK. The inefficiency of it boggles the mind. Anyone have a similar experience? Insight? Thanks!

[physics]

So, to add insult to injury I saw a 'sponsored' ad/app on my Facebook home page today. It has a poll that says:

Are you in good shape?
[ ] Yeah for a sumo wrestler
[ ] I am in excellent shape
[ ] Is a pear a good shape?
95,739 people voted.

If I had tried to post an ad with anything even remotely like that it would have gotten denied because it seemed to "indicate that one body type is more favorable than another". The ads I was trying to place were much more benign. Yet this one has been around long enough to be voted on by over 95k people - so clearly Facebookers don't seem to have much of a problem with it. So what gives Facebook?
Maybe the answer is that you need to have tons of cash and then they'll let you post whatever ads you want?

[physics]

It gets better -- another one that I'm sure I could never get away with posting but there it is on my profile

Lose Fat, Build Muscle
<pic>
Discover how <edited> has already helped thousands of men to get six pack abs!

There has to be a secret here to getting an ad approved. Is it such black magic that no one wants to share?

p.s.
Yes, I am capable of talking to myself for days :p

[ergophobe]

I've had the same experience. Try to get an ad for some sports product approved and it's denied presumably for someone wearing shorts or who knows what, then next thing you see a diet ad with a woman in a bikini. Terrible process.

[ergophobe]

So I finally got an ad approved on Facebook and started running it in the suggested CPC range (about $0.75). No clicks in 6500 impressions. I decided to edit and try better targeting (narrower age range etc).

When I looked, it now has suggested bids of $2.30-$2.70. Since I would have to convert at 8% to break even on that, I left it.

Is it because of my terrible CTR, like getting a bad Quality Score in Google?

With MySpace I got cheap clicks, but no conversions, so I guess that's worse from a cost perspective. I know I pretty much never click on an ad in FB.

Any ideas on CTR for FB?

[Mixxer]

The only way to get a better CTR is to create super targeted ads.

[edited by: engine at 11:11 am (utc) on Sep. 21, 2009]
[edit reason] See WebmasterWorld TOS [/edit]

[creative craig]

I am putting some ads up on Facebook next week, I hope! Will post how it goes for me later in the week.

[ekimmerce]

I wouldn't say that it is black magic - my experiences of ads on FB has been 'inconsistent' particularly where editorial reviews are concerned.

Fingers crossed it will improve this side of Christmas!

[aspdaddy]

Strange things are happening on facebook ppc right now. I am getting ads approved at the momment that would never have gotten approved six months ago. I have even seen ads approved Sunday night that were purposely designd not to be clicked (they are ppc not per impression)

Any ideas on CTR for FB?

No complaints at the momment, although completely ignore the suggested bid increases IMO. Try changing your bid just before 17:00 and check the stats

[physics]

The only way to get a better CTR is to create super targeted ads.

The problem is that I can't really experiment with creating better ads because they don't approve them.

Interesting aspdaddy ... wonder if it has anything to do with Facebook going "cash flow positive" and looking towards profitability some day. Maybe they realized that advertising could ... you know, maybe... be an important part of that ;)