How Facebook Just Drop-Kicked The Dating Industry, And Why This May Be Anti-Competitive
Over the last couple of months, Facebook has banned any new dating apps from advertising on their platform. Finally, they’re admitting in writing that they have done so. However, they are allowing some advertisers with existing contracts and partnerships with Facebook — including our direct competitors — to advertise.
We attempted to place an ad and our ad was rejected despite following all of the applicable guidelines. When we asked why, Facebook made it clear that we’re locked out of competing in this marketplace, and that they won’t be accepting our advertising.
My original letter to Facebook:
Jun 23
https://www.facebook.com/ads/manager/ad/?act=244636119047520&ids=6026377880533 was not approved. We followed all of the guidelines in https://www.facebook.com/help/143949649021372 to the best of our knowledge. Can you please let me know what we’re doing wrong so our ads can be approved?
The nearly identical ad https://www.facebook.com/ads/manager/ad/?act=244636119047520&ids=6026377780933 was also not approved.
Going forward, I know that we’ll need to get prior approval for ad placements because of the type of app we have. Please let us know the correct process to do this..
Their reply:
Jun 25
Hi Robert,
We’ve recently updated our advertising guidelines for dating sites and apps.
To make sure everyone has a positive experience on Facebook, ads for dating sites and apps are only allowed from approved advertisers through a direct sales partnership. This means that you must have prior authorization from Facebook to buy dating ads on Facebook.
We aren’t accepting new partners at this time, but will inform people once we open applications.
We hope this change will help encourage greater accountability and maintain the quality of dating-related advertising on Facebook.
Thanks,
Amy Facebook Ads Team Facebook
My reply to their response:
Jun 29
Amy,
Please do put us on the notification list. We obviously support Facebook’s objective of ad quality. However, I would like to point out that it does cause us considerable harm to allow our direct competitors to advertise on Facebook while preventing us from competing in this marketplace on the same terms.
Regards,
Robert
And finally, their reply today (1 July):
Hi Robert,
Thanks for writing back, but our say on this matter remains unchanged.
However I appreciate your feedback, and have passed it to our internal team, we will update you if i see progress on this.
We encourage you to create policy compliant ads and you can be assured of their approval.
We regret the inconvenience faced by you.
Thanks once again.
Amy Facebook Ads Team Facebook
It’s obviously risky to pick a fight with Facebook, and I’m really not trying to do so. Actually, we do support their goal of ad quality. After all, making our industry look like a trashy place for desperate people who just dragged themselves in from the Amsterdam red light district really doesn’t help us attract first-time users of dating platforms. And far too many dating apps were doing this.
At the same time, we think that it’s fundamentally unfair and potentially anti-competitive to prevent us from competing in this marketplace. Facebook isn’t locking out all industry players, just ones with whom it doesn’t have a business partnership. Microsoft was declared a monopoly and sanctioned by the US Department of Justice for behavior like this. I remember this clearly, because it happened right around the time I joined Microsoft. At Cuddli, we are exploring our options. I’d like to welcome other industry founders who are experiencing the same issue to reach out to me, because speaking with a unified industry voice — and agreeing upon a set of rules that both we and Facebook can live with — may be more effective. I’d also love to hear from folks at Facebook, the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice who’d be interested in a conversation about this issue. Our email address is legal [at] cuddli [dot] com.
