Facebook / Instagram ad rejected or ad account restricted

Tell the four cases apart, rewrite the ad so it passes (personal attributes, before/after, health, finance), fix the landing page, appeal once without risking the account.

6 min readUpdated 17 Sep 2026

In this guide

Facebook or Instagram rejected your ad, or your ad account was restricted. Four different problems look the same from the outside — this guide tells them apart, gives compliant rewrites for the usual Indian small-business rejections, and shows the one-appeal path that does not put your account at risk.

First: which of the four cases is it?

Open Ads Manager and look at the Delivery column of the ad, then the Account Quality page (linked at the end). The wording tells you which problem you have — the fixes are different.

“Rejected” on one ad — a policy problem with THAT ad's words, image, video or landing page. Other ads keep running. Fix the ad (next section) and resubmit.
“Ad account restricted” / “disabled” — an account-level decision; every ad stops. Usually after several rejections, a payment problem, unusual login activity or a rule broken repeatedly. Handled on the Account Quality page, not by editing ads.
“Payment method issue” / ads not spending — not a policy problem at all: the card or UPI mandate failed. See Payments below.
“Non-functional landing page” / “misleading” — the ad is fine but the page it opens is not: the website is not live, opens a different product, shows an error, or hides the price. See the landing-page checklist.

The usual rejection reasons — with a wording that passes

Meta's rules are written for the whole world; these are the ones Indian shops, clinics, coaching centres and agencies hit most. The rewrite on the right says the same thing in a way the review accepts.

Personal attributes. An ad must never say or imply something about the person reading it — their weight, skin, health, age, religion, money or relationship. “Are you overweight?” → “A weight-management range for everyday routines.” “Suffering from hair fall?” → “Our hair-care range, made for Indian hair.” “Struggling with loans?” → “Compare loan options in one place.”
Before-and-after and unrealistic results. Weight-loss, skin-lightening, hair-growth and muscle before/after pictures are rejected, as are “guaranteed”, “100% cure”, “lose 10 kg in 10 days”. Show the product, the routine, real reviews — not a transformation.
Health, medicines and supplements. No claims of curing or treating a disease; prescription medicines cannot be advertised; supplements are reviewed strictly. Describe ingredients and use, never a medical outcome.
Finance and earning offers. Loans, investments, trading tips and “earn from home” ads need plain terms and no promise of returns. “Guaranteed 20% monthly” is rejected every time, and finance ads in India may need extra verification before they run.
Restricted products. Tobacco and vapes, alcohol, weapons, adult products, gambling, lotteries and real-money games are rejected or restricted — no wording fixes these.
Low quality or disruptive. ALL CAPS, !!!, “you won't believe”, blurry images, text covering most of the picture, misleading buttons drawn into the image.
Price and offer mismatch. The price in the ad must be the price on the page; “free” only when nothing is charged (delivery included); a coupon shown in the ad must work on the website.
Other brands' names and photos. “First copy” or “replica” of a branded product, another brand's logo or catalogue photos — rejected, and repeated attempts disable the account.
Trying to get around a rejection. Re-uploading the same ad again and again, making a second ad account, or changing the landing page after approval is treated as circumventing the review and is the fastest route to a restricted account.

The landing-page checklist

Reviewers open the page the ad links to. Before you resubmit, open that exact link on a phone and check:

The website is live (published) and opens without a security warning — a draft or a “not secure” page is a rejection on its own. See Publish your website.
The link opens the product in the ad, in stock, at the advertised price, with delivery charges visible before checkout.
Your business name, phone or WhatsApp number and address are visible, and the website has a Refund & Returns page and a Privacy Policy page — add them as pages if they are missing.
No pop-up covers the page on load; the page loads fast on mobile data; nothing on the page contradicts the ad.
Tracking is set up (Meta Pixel and Conversions API) — it does not affect approval, but without it Meta cannot see your sales and the ad performs worse.

Fix, then resubmit once

Read the rejection to the policy name

Open the ad in Ads Manager: the rejection note names the policy (“Personal attributes”, “Unrealistic outcomes”, “Non-functional landing page”, and so on). That name is the whole diagnosis — find it in the list above.

Change the thing it names

Edit the words, the image or the link in the same ad and save. Saving sends it for review again automatically — you do not need to create a new ad, and creating five copies of the same ad is what gets accounts restricted.

Only if you are sure it is a mistake: request a review

On the Account Quality page open the ad and choose Request review. Ask once and wait for the answer — Meta does not publish a fixed time, and many answers arrive within a few days. Do not edit the ad while the review is open (an edit restarts the process).

Nobody outside Meta can promise an approval — not an agency, not a tool. If someone offers a “guaranteed approval” or an “agency ad account” for restricted products, walk away; those accounts get disabled and the money is gone.

Ad account restricted or disabled

Open the Account Quality page — it lists every restriction with a button to request a review or to verify your identity. Complete identity verification (a government ID) and Business verification if asked; those two clear most restrictions.
Clear any outstanding balance first — an unpaid amount is one of the reasons an account stays restricted.
Switch on two-factor authentication for every person on the account; a login from a new device or country is a common trigger.
Never buy, rent or borrow another ad account — it is disabled on detection and takes your Page down with it.
Meta Business Help offers chat support on accounts that are spending; the entry is inside the Business Help Centre, not on the ad itself.

Payments: ads not spending

Indian cards need online / international transactions switched on in the bank app, and a recurring-payment (e-mandate) consent when Meta bills automatically. A declined card silently pauses every ad.
Prepaying by UPI or net banking in the Billing section avoids the mandate problem entirely — you load an amount, ads spend from it.
Keep a second payment method on the account; the first failure switches to it instead of stopping delivery.
A brand-new account has a low payment threshold that rises with successful charges — a big first-day budget is often the reason ads stop at a small spend.

Official help pages

Meta's own rules and the page where restrictions and appeals live. Names and screens change from time to time; the rules themselves are stable. Links checked on 17 September 2026.

Meta Advertising Standards — the full rule list with examples.
Account Quality — restrictions, identity and business verification, Request review.
Meta Business Help Centre — open it from Ads Manager (the ? icon) and search “ad rejected”; the chat option appears there for accounts with spend.