Real Estate Facebook Ads Rejected? Here’s How to Fix It

Do you run Facebook ads for your real estate business? Raise your hand if this has ever happened:

You’re eager to drive traffic to your new real estate listing. A Facebook ad seems like a great way to do it. 

You design something that people are bound to notice. You write something that people are sure to click on.

You submit your Facebook ad for review. You wait. And then you see it…

Rejected.

What gives?!

Rejected Facebook ads happen to the best of us. It’s frustrating, it eats up precious time and sometimes it feels impossible to figure out what went wrong.

Which is what we’re talking about today: how to figure out why your real estate Facebook ads were rejected and how to fix it.

How Facebook Reviews Ads

Let’s start by looking at what Facebook says about its review process:

The Facebook ad review system relies primarily on automated tools to check ads against our Advertising Policies. This happens automatically before ads begin running, and is typically completed within 24 hours, although it may take longer in some cases. During this review, the status of the ad will be “In Review.” Additionally, ads may be reviewed again, including after they are live. You can find more information in our Business Help Center.

What is reviewed

The ad review system reviews ads for violations of our Advertising Policies. This review process may include the specific components of an ad, such as images, video, text, and targeting information, as well as an ad’s associated landing page or other destinations, among other information.

Outcome of review

If a violation is found at any point in the review process, the ad will be rejected.

Pretty straightforward. But what exactly constitutes a “violation?” Well, Facebook is pretty clear about that. There are a lot of violations, so we’ll sum them up here.

The ad is discriminatory or makes assumptions about someone

A Facebook ad will be rejected if it discriminates or encourages discrimination against people based on things like race, religion, gender identity disability and so on. 

The ad can also be rejected if Facebook thinks it’s assuming or asserting that a viewer has certain characteristics or attributes (e.g., “Meet other Christian runners like you!”).

The ad promotes restricted products or services

There’s a long list of what you can’t advertise on Facebook. It includes: tobacco products; illicit drugs; weapons; payday loans; products that enable someone to engage in shady practices (such as spying or counterfeiting), bidding fee auctions; and products focused on sexual pleasure.

The ad contains contentious or controversial material

This means content that’s sexually explicit or suggestive, violent, or sensational. It also includes debunked claims and misinformation, content that exploits political or social issues, dehumanizing speech, and support of violence-inducing conspiracy networks.

The ad is misleading, disruptive or low-quality

Facebook will reject an ad if it leads to error pages, under-construction sites, landing pages that don’t match what was promoted in the ad, or pages that automatically download files to the visitor’s computer. Facebook will also reject an ad if it leads to a closed or secret Facebook group, or directly to Facebook.com.

An ad will also be rejected if it: 

• Makes a false or misleading claim (e.g., promotes unrealistic results)
• Uses images that are too cropped
• Has profanity or very poor grammar and spelling
• Uses clickbait 
• Contains malware or spyware
• Links to a landing page that features shocking content, has a high ratio of ads to content, and/or uses popups or other disruptive ads

The ad encroaches on Facebook branding

Facebook doesn’t love when ads misuse or take advantage of its branding. Using its logos (or Instagram’s) is a no-no, as is making it sound as though Facebook or Instagram endorses the product or service being promoted.

Why Facebook Rejected Your Real Estate Ad

Looking at the above list of reasons why Facebook rejects ads, you might be wondering why your real estate Facebook ads are being turned down.

In our experience, real estate Facebook ads get rejected for three main reasons:

Your ad may unintentionally promote adult content

You’re probably shaking your head as you read this. But unintentionally is the operative word here. 

If your Facebook ad is promoting a listing with a built-in cigar cabinet, mentioning the built-in cigar cabinet could get your ad rejected.

If your Facebook ad is calling all those looking for a “sexy condo” or a home in “wine lover’s country,” it could very well be rejected, too.

Your ad is asserting something about the audience

This is a tricky one. Facebook doesn’t want ads that assume something about the viewer, such as their race, income, medical history and so on.

It doesn’t seem like that would be an issue for real estate agents, but it can be when you’re trying to promote a listing or your services to a particular type of client. An ad that uses “you” and “your” language is a target for rejection.

Here are the types of phrases that could get your ad rejected:

• “Pay your mortgage debt off sooner with a live-in income property”
• “Meet young families like yours”
• “Perfect for commuters like you”

The quality of the image or text is just not up to stuff

If your writing is full of mistakes, it probably won’t meet Facebook’s standards. The same goes for writing containing profanity. 

Image quality can be an issue, too. Images that are misleading (such as deceptive home before-and-afters, or blatantly altered listing photos) will likely be rejected, as will images that are so low-resolution or cropped that viewers can’t make them out. 

If you’ve been running Facebook ads for a while now, you’re probably familiar with the text-to-image ratio rule — no ad can contain more than 20% text. Facebook has actually done away with that rule so if your ad gets rejected for text, it’s probably the subject matter and not the quantity that’s the issue.

Psst: the rule may be gone but images with minimal text typically get more reach and perform better, so consider sticking with the old 20% maximum.

There’s an issue with your landing page

If none of the aforementioned issues are relevant to your ad, then there could very well be something wrong with your landing page or website. Like…

• There’s a typo in the URL and the URL doesn’t lead to anything
• The page is down
• There’s an immediate pop-up on the page that asks for the visitor’s personal information
• Your landing page or website has malware or spyware
• You’re linking to a PDF or JPG
• You’re linking to a closed or secret Facebook group
• Whatever you’re linking to doesn’t quite match what your ad is promoting

How to Fix Rejected Real Estate Facebook Ads

Don’t worry — your work isn’t lost! Here’s what to do after you’ve been notified that your real estate Facebook ad was rejected.

Analyze your ad while consulting the list above

Carefully examine all elements of your ad — the text, the image and the URL. Read it aloud, look at it closely and test the link. Could any of the flags and reasons mentioned above apply to your ad?

Check your landing page

If none of the above flags seem to be an issue for your ad, it could be a hard-to-spot issue with your URL. Maybe there’s an extra letter. Maybe your site is addled with spyware or malware that you didn’t know about. Or maybe there are too many mentions of “mortgage” or “income”, and Facebook thinks your ad is trying to push to a suspicious site.

Make an edit 

Facebook will automatically re-review an ad that’s been edited. If you have an idea of which ad element led to the rejection, change it. If you’re not sure, try editing one element rather than every element in effort to isolate the issue. 

If you’re convinced there’s no problem with your ad, then…

Try resubmitting

Create a duplicate of your rejected ad, and submit it for approval. It may have been a fluke that your ad was rejected the first time.

If that doesn’t work and you’re still convinced there’s no problem with your ad, then…

Appeal the decision

If you think your ad was incorrectly rejected, you can file an appeal with Facebook through your Account Quality page. Filing an appeal will not hurt your real estate business’ standing with Facebook.

How large a role do Facebook ads play in your real estate marketing strategy?