I got banned by Facebook Ads
I expected my first post here to be a powerful feminist article about Irish woman warriors and ladies who play Irish sports. Oh, well. Thank Facebook for this rant instead.
I am a marketer by day, mostly filling in the gaps for other marketing companies with content and social media support. On the side, I serve as the PR and Marketing Officer for a growing Irish sports community, the Nashville Gaelic Athletic Club. We exist solely on member dues and a few generous donations.
In other words, we’re a small non-profit without a big bank account to back us up.
Facebook boosts have brought us a fair number of new members. At our last Annual General Meeting, as part of my presentation, I asked all new members to stand. Then I asked anyone who didn’t find us through Facebook to please sit. No one sat. Our Facebook marketing has been a powerful tool in recruiting, you might say.
Until I got banned by Facebook.
You must think, at this point, that I did something terrible. Maybe I did, but Facebook won’t tell me. Here’s the story, as I know it. As you’ll see from Facebook’s less-than-helpful responses, I know approximately zero.
On February 15, I boosted a post offering the chance to win tickets to an Irish play in Nashville. As it’s a part of the month-long Irish festival in March, and so is the NGAC, it seemed a good connection to help raise awareness for all involved.
When I posted the offer, the image failed to populate. Here’s what it looked like, just before I panicked and tried to fix it:
As you can see, we published it through Sprout Social a few days before, but because it was automatically set, I didn’t realize the image never populated. I attempted to boost a few days later, and that was when I realized there was no image. It was too late. I’d already started the boosting process. To fix it, I’d have to delete the original post and recreate it.
That was the plan, anyway.
Before I could remedy the situation, my account was discontinued. Below, you’ll see a series of emails from Facebook. The first suspends the account, the second approves the ad, and the third announces the ad is no longer delivering. Check out those delivery times, yeah?
I didn’t see any of these because I was on Facebook, trying to fix the issue and re-post a new, pretty post with an image.
During the five seconds that the post was live — while my account was also canceled, mind you — the ad apparently reached 7 people. Remember that, because I’m going to show you what Facebook’s response for canceling the ad was.
First, I want to show you how incredibly difficult it was to even reach Facebook to remedy the situation. My first attempt showed that I didn’t have an account and therefore could not even contact Facebook regarding the issue.
I sent an email as a non-account holder and explained the problem. That email must have gotten through, because I received a response a few days later.
You can see in the response that we were accused to attempting to mislead the public. Those 7 people who saw the ad during the 5 seconds that it was live must have jumped right on that flag button, yes? Even imagining that all 7 people flagged it — doubtful — is it fair of Facebook to simply cancel the account without allowing me a chance to fix the problem?
Please consider this decision final.
Who can say? I say no. Not fair at all. But they make billions and we were just spending $20. I mean, just $20 this time. We’ve spent hundreds over the course of the four years we’ve been in existence, but we’re still not a major powerhouse, right?
I asked again for some clarification, or at least a chance to fix the problem. Again, NOPE.
At this point, I was furious, not for myself but for this club that does nothing but try to reach people interested in enjoying amateur sports and Irish culture. Oh, yes, let’s not mention the clients who might, at some point, want me to boost a post for them. I’ll have to shrug and say, “Facebook banned me.” Like I’m a criminal.
Those 7 people we reached cost $.05. You can see that in the list of ads I’ve run before here. That didn’t stop Facebook from charging me the full $20, as you can see in the next image here. I haven’t even attempted to demand a refund yet.
So far, Facebook has been the exact opposite of helpful. I may consider that $20 a lost cause, just so I don’t have to receive yet another blindingly enraging email explaining how they just can’t help me.
If you’ve dealt with this before, I’d love to hear ideas for a resolution. If you know other ways to reach a targeted audience without a huge spend, I’d love to hear it. If you still want to see a story about women playing Irish sports, that’s coming soon. It just won’t be boosted on Facebook, obviously.