Entry-level FB#1 - Platform Basics

[TheBoss]

The Mission Statement of Facebook

Before venturing into the world of advertising on Facebook you should first understand (or at least make an attempt to understand!) the priorities Facebook has.

First and foremost, they care about user experience. Not you as the advertiser - the user base that makes the platform the giant that it is. Facebook does not want to disrupt user experience or let third-parties such as you provide negative experiences.

So, they regulate the advertisement of sites and content that are deemed counter to their goals of a positive user experience.

This is why there is ad reporting.

This is why they use MyWoT, a community-based (albeit biased as fuck) site rating platform, for automated checking of advertising destination URLs. (check stmforum.com....)

This is why they favour ads to Facebook apps/pages that keep the user within the controlled ‘safe’ walls of Facebook.

This is why they prohibit automatic redirection from apps/pages to external content.

If you understand what the goals of Facebook are, a lot of your disapprovals and account bans will make sense.

Advertising Guidelines

But wait! There’s more!

Facebook has advertising guidelines that they expect all advertisers to conform to. You should read these before starting with Facebook. If you haven’t - in fact, if you haven’t brushed up on the advertising guidelines with every traffic source you use, then you’re not taking your business seriously.

You should.

Ads - https://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php
Pages - https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php
Targeting - https://www.facebook.com/help/256048321073744
Alcohol - http://www.facebook.com/help/110094445754628
Gambling - https://www.facebook.com/help/247824495237141
Use of the FB brand - https://www.facebook.com/help/261520143948073/
Community standards - https://www.facebook.com/help/436573609716865/
Copy, Image, Targeting & Destination - https://www.facebook.com/help/199766486817238/

It’s all relatively straightforward. Don’t advertise crap we don’t want.

Don’t directly call out user attributes and targeted characteristics, e.g. 25 lesbian Christian female living in NYC?

A note on intellectual property (IP). If you run an offer and you use images from another companies product or service, you may have a bad time. Especially if that other company is a direct competitor. Same with celebrities. Dangerous waters!

Facebook will pull ads when companies send in IP usage complaints. Worst case scenario, they take legal action against the advertiser > filters to the network > filters down to you.

General Account Guidelines

When starting out it is wise to make a separate personal FB account and do your advertising through that. Facebook doesn’t condone managing multiple accounts. But, they are not going to ban you outright for it when your intention is to give them money and create compliant ads!

The upside here is that if your account does get banned then it is not directly linked to your personal account.

Be aware that Facebook can and will ban the personal account attached to an advertising account at their discretion.

It doesn’t happen often but it has happened.

More important things to note:

• Don’t use Facebook coupons. They are well known to result in temporary disablement of accounts. Did you think Facebook hadn’t realised the loophole coupon spamming offers?
  
  
• If using PayPal, be aware Facebook and PayPal are best buddies. PayPal will supply contact info to Facebook to verify your address details vs those in your account. So, making multiple accounts through PayPal using the same name/credit cards/etc. is not going to work. Don’t bother.
  
  
• Don't log into your account through a VPN or proxy if you can help it. If you are overseas you should be fine logging into your personal account, but I would manage ads through the power editor exclusively.
  
  
• Once you set your account time zone it cannot be changed.