How I Reactivate a Disabled Facebook Ad Account

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In 2016, I did something that flagged my Fb ad account; this leads to my Facebook ad account being disabled for policy violation.

What did I do?

I logged in to my Facebook ad account to make payments for ads while under a VPN server. The VPN server was set to the United States of America while I was here in Nigeria, and my billing address is that of Nigeria.

So on records, my Facebook ad account was accessed from a location that’s not the same as my billing address. To protect its user community, Facebook had to disable my ad account payment methods and stop all running ads.

At first, I thought no BIG deal about this. I assume it will be resolved in a matter of days, probably after a few verification processes.

But days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, and months turn into years. And after four (4) years of fighting to get back on Facebook advertising.

Finally, my disabled Facebook ad account payment options were re-enabled.

Here is the full story…

Before You Read on…

If your Facebook ads account is disabled for any listed reasons below, an appeal may not help. Submitting a Facebook ad account disabled appeal form may be a wasted effort and time.

• If you create ads for dating, relationships, or any type of singles-related website.
• You’ve been running ads for an affiliate marketing program or third-party advertising opportunity without full disclosure of terms and conditions.
• Do you try to get likes to make money online, work from home, email collection, list building, finance-related, and investment pages?
• If you promote a website with a forwarded/redirect URL.
• If you’ve used a Facebook ads coupon bought from Fiverr or another similar gig website.
• Create a new Facebook account, and Facebook page, and immediately run ads with it.
• Do you submit ads on behalf of your client for their page or website?

If you’re guilty of any of the above reasons, your chances of getting your Facebook ad account re-activated are very slim.

In this case, some of the advice I read online may be helpful in your case. Continue reading; you will find them below.

Why My Facebook Ad Account Disabled – How it All Started…

In 2016, I had a technical problem with this blog that mostly surfaced when viewing Google chrome.

After fixing the issues, I wanted to preview the page, but Google Chrome was rendering the cached version of the URL. I cleared the cache from Google Chrome, but that didn’t solve the problem. The cached URL version keeps loading.

So, I decide to use a VPN server to access the current URL version.

This works fine. I was able to view the current version of the page. And everything was fine with the blog after fixing things right.

But something unexpected happened afterward. Some stupid act on my part…

I forgot to log out of the VPN server before logging into my Facebook ads account.

And that was all…

My Facebook ad account payment options were disabled right after I logged in and tried to pay with my primary MasterCard.

As you can see in the image above, my Facebook ad account flagged for ad policy violation since October 2016

And since then, I have been trying all I could do to get my Facebook ad account payment options re-enabled. But everything I tried couldn’t just work out.

Searching for Answers…

There are lots of articles on How to get my disabled Facebook account back.

But these articles didn’t address my unique case.

Plus, they couldn’t provide an exact step guide. This is not because they don’t want to, but because there are no exact step-by-step guides to re-activate a disabled Facebook ad account.

And many of these articles were not talking from personal experience. The content was repeating what was published on the Facebook advertising guidelines page.

But individual cases are different and unique. Writing a universal step-by-step guide to get your Facebook ads accounts re-enabled for policy violation makes it very difficult.

In my case, my Facebook ad account wasn’t disabled, but the payment methods were.

This is it…

All payment methods associated with my Facebook ads accounts were disabled from making adverts payments. For both personal ad accounts and business manager accounts, Facebook disabled ad accounts payment method.

Even if I could set up ads in the Facebook ads manager, I have no means of paying for the ads billing. So technically, my Facebook ad account was deactivated.

If I logged in to the business manager ad account, I could see the ad account status as active. But I can’t add a payment method to it.

This email from one of the Facebook ads team members confirms my account is active. You can see in the underline words that the ad account appears to be active.

Let’s keep going…

What to do When Facebook ad Account is Disabled

The first thing you’d want to do is find out why your Facebook ad account is disabled.

In many cases, you won’t figure this out on your own. You’ll need to contact the Facebook ads team to learn why your ad account was deactivated for policy violations.

It is easier to detect when an ad is the cause of policy violations that lead to a Facebook ad account being disabled. But if it happens to be with the account itself, that’s not so easy to know on your own.

You’ll need to contact the ads team through the Facebook ad account disabled appeal form page.

But here is the thing…

Facebook relies mostly on AI (Artificial intelligence) to detect and flag ads for policy violations. So you will mostly be greeted by generic questions from the ads team.

Be patient and consider submitting several appeal forms until you’re certain a human takes up your case.

In this post, I shared insight into how to write a near-perfect appeal form. Read on…

As I said above, after many hours of searching through Google, I find some helpful links and options.

Lots of articles on how to reactivate a Facebook ad account.

Among all the options out there, these two look good:

Option #1

Opening a Facebook business manager account through a family friend. Create a new ad account in the business manager, and set up a new Facebook business page. Ask the Family friends to make me a page admin, etc.

Source:

I didn’t take that option. Though it looks good and is possibly an easier way to get around disabling Facebook ad account payment methods, I wouldn’t say I like it.

Option #2

Use my wife’s Facebook business page to run my ads.

This option seems the best possible one for me at the time, but I couldn’t take it either.

Why?

I’m not comfortable with getting into her privacy, such as social media activities.

Many couples share something like email addresses, social media pages, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. But I don’t feel comfortable doing these things.

Since the Facebook ads accounts promote my blog business, I prefer separating family from business.

From all the options I read online, one thing is certain:

It may be risky to promote the same domain, products, programs, etc., to those you promoted with your previously disabled Facebook ad account.

That means if you manage to set up another successful Facebook ad account through backdoor means, you must be careful not to run ads to the same domain, products, or services you’ve promoted in the past.

My primary use of Facebook ads is to promote this blog content to reach more audiences, generate leads, get more sales, etc.

So, opening another Facebook ad account and not promoting a page from this blog is just out of the question.

There is no thinking about this or bargaining.

If the options don’t allow running Facebook ads directly to this blog, it isn’t worth it. Below is one of the pieces of advice I read online.

Easy suspension, right?

If that’s something you’ll like to risk, take the option. If not, find out how I got my Facebook ad account payment methods re-enabled without having to go through the back door.

How I Got a Disabled Facebook Payment Ad Account Method Re-Enabled After 4 Years of Suspension

Persistency is the tool I leverage to get my Facebook ad account disabled payment method re-enabled.

I keep reaching out to the Facebook ads team weekly, monthly, and for years. I never mind their decision not to re-activate the payment methods on each occasion.

At one point, on December 16th, 2016, the Facebook ads team replied with a line in one of the emails that read, “

For this reason, if any of your ads are unapproved or your ad account has been disabled. We will be unable to reactivate either. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause. Please consider this decision final“.

After reading that line, I was somehow depressed and confused about what’s the next steps.

Suppose you read through the email message above. It is written that my Facebook ad account was disabled for running “get-quick-rich and other money-making opportunities.

Unfortunately, this is not so. It is not the actual reason my Fb ad account was disabled.

I later discover that I can set up ads but can’t make payments for future ads or settle the outstanding ad balance.

From the questions the Facebook ads team asks me on every occasion, my case was related to location vs. billing address.

The questions mostly go like this:

These three questions always come up each time I engage with the Facebook ads team.

But seriously, something inside of me keep telling me not to relent. Since I know I didn’t intentionally violate the Facebook advertising policy, nor do I intend to run an ad that violates Facebook ad policy.

After several appeal forms were submitted, yet no positive reply from the Facebook ads team, they sent an email that reads like the one above again.

Here is a quote from the email message below:

I’ve had another look at your ad account and unfortunately, we won’t be able to re-enable it. there’s no further action that you may take here. please consider this decision final.

How was your appeal experience? give us your feedback to help us do better.

Thanks, Facebook ads team

This time it was in 2019, February 9.

You can guess how many years from the email message above to this very one you’re reading. That’s 3 years apart.

So now, for 3 years going, I have been on it. Submitting appeal after appeal, yet the Facebook ads team never consider my account for re-activation.

Despite these emails and their so-called final decisions. I never let it stop my belief and the strong desire to get my Facebook ad account re-enabled.

Well, to cut a long story short.

On May 23rd, 2020, after submitting another appeal some days back. And providing answers to questions from the Facebook ads team.

I received a notification that the disabled Facebook ad account payment methods have been re-enabled after another review of my ad account.

Now I can add payment methods (MasterCard, PayPal, etc.) to my Facebook ad account and make payments with it.

I am happy and very grateful to the Facebook ads team for their support, for accommodating my stubbornness, and for looking at things from a different angle this time.

3 Checklist for Writing Facebook Appeal Form

From experience and things that worked in my case…

here are a few things to keep in mind when submitting your Facebook ad account appeal form:

Don’t Lie About What Happened

In my case, I never lied about what had happened. I was adamant about it. I keep writing to the Facebook ads team that I used a VPN server to log in.

And it wasn’t intentional. I even go to the extent of writing about the cache problem I had.

If you’re not honest, it won’t help you and the ads team conduct proper investigations into what happened.

Be honest, and sincere, and tell the story as it is.

Be Polite And Respectful

The people who work at Facebook are humans like you.

It is natural to get mad the moment you noticed your Facebook ad account has been disabled. The best thing to do at this time is nothing.

Let it be for some time, hours, or even days before submitting the Facebook ad account appeal form.

If you rush into emailing the Facebook ad team in a state of anger, your message might not speak well of your character.

And this may not help you in any way to reactivate a Facebook ad account that was disabled for ad policy violations.

Provide Suggestions

At one point, I write to the ads team that I’m willing to provide any form of identification documents that would assist in the investigation.

Be it my credit card, utility bills, government-issued id, etc.

I am doing this to prove that I have nothing to hide about my identity and location. And I think this helps in reactivating the disabled Facebook ad account.

Conclusion…

No matter the situation, or circumstances, always believe in yourself and never let a few people’s stands or opinions let you down.

So far, you know you’re on the right path, and you’ve done nothing wrong that infringes upon the right of others.

If I had given up after a few Facebook ad account appeals, I wouldn’t be writing this story today to inspire you never to give up.

I hope this information will help you how to reactivate your Facebook ad account.