Suspicious Payment Activity

Common reasons for this suspension include:

• Entering incorrect billing information

• Declining a charge from Facebook or issuing a chargeback

• Using a virtual address as your business address

• Using the same payment method across multiple Facebook Ads accounts

This can be one of the most frustrating suspensions to deal with because Facebook does not provide any indication of what they think is suspicious about your payments.

This suspension also often occurs prior to you making any payments in an account. We’ve seen many brand-new Facebook Ads accounts be suspended for suspicious payments out of the gate, sometimes even before a campaign has even been created in the account.

We’ve also seen instances where this policy was referenced by Facebook but the actual problem was something unrelated to billing, so watch out for this policy being a “catch-all” for Facebook concerns that don’t fit cleanly under a different policy heading.

Overturning a Suspicious Payments suspension requires clarity in your appeal to Facebook. You need to figure out what flagged the system initially and fix the issue, and then explain in clear terms to Facebook what you did and why your payment method is not suspicious.

Unacceptable Business Practices

With this suspension, Facebook is saying that they think there is something fishy about your business practices/model.

Common reasons for this suspension include:

• Facebook thinking that you are pretending to be a business other than your own

• A high volume of negative reviews about your business on third-party review websites

• False advertising

Just as with Systems, violating the Unacceptable Business Practices policy is an “egregious” violation in Facebook’s eyes.

Businesses who are using logos and brand names that are associated with other websites are in particular danger of being flagged under this policy. For example:

• Franchisees

• Resellers

• Authorized dealers

• Companies with multiple websites/ad accounts for different geographic regions

The key to getting reinstated is identifying what problem Facebook has with your business and then clearly explaining to Facebook why it’s not a problem, along with any appropriate documentation.

Business Operations Verification Failure

This has become more common as Facebook rolls out Business Operations Verification to advertisers globally.

Common reasons for this suspension include:

• Not answering questions clearly

• Not providing sufficient documentation

• Creating confusion in Facebook’s mind about your relationships with third parties

This suspension reason is tricky because Facebook continues to make changes to their appeal form and the questions they ask of businesses.

You need to be very careful when filling out this form to be accurate but also to not create confusion with how you answer the questions.

This can be particularly challenging for businesses that don’t fit cleanly into the categories Google provides (e.g. auction houses, mortgage brokers, etc.).

Counterfeit Goods

Facebook has a zero tolerance policy for the sale of counterfeit products through its ad platform. This is an “egregious” policy violation.

Common things that trigger this suspension include:

• Reselling brand items (e.g. Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton)

• Steep discounts across a website

Documentation is key when it comes to recovering from this suspension. If you’re using third-party brand names on your website, you need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to Facebook that you are authorized to do so and that the products you are selling are genuine. If you’re selling your own brand, then you need to prove to Facebook that the products are your own and that you’re not mimicking another brand.