3 Things to Do If Your Instagram Promotion or Ad Wasn't Approved

February 23, 2019

72% of users have bought a product they discovered on Instagram. Add that to Instagram’s 1 billion active users (more than double the number of active users on Twitter) and 75% of its users who are ready to take action. 

 

With all of these opportunities to connect with prospective customers, gain new followers, build a strong brand authority and reputation, promote your products and services, and track customer satisfaction in real time, it only gets better when Instagram promotions are thrown into the mix.

 

There is one challenge, however: Getting your Instagram promotion to be approved. 

 

And you want to believe us when we say this is a challenge because, for one, Instagram has not come out to address this issue—thereby leaving room for speculative information which, honestly, can be misleading and frustrating.

 

So we thought you will be interested in knowing what a promotion on Instagram mean, the cost of running an Instagram promotion, how to pay for a promotion, how long it takes to get your ads approved, why your ads are being disapproved, and the next steps to take when your ads are not approved.

 

 

Why your Instagram promotion was not approved

There are a number of reasons that may have caused your Instagram promotion to be disapproved. Tobacco, drugs, drug-related products, unsafe supplements, weapons, ammunition, and explosives are some of the products Facebook listed under Prohibited Content on their Advertising Policies page.

 

But why Facebook when we're talking about Instagram advertising? Well, Instagram is now Facebook’s property. This means you can cross-advertise from the two platforms and must adhere to a set of ad guidelines to successfully advertise on either.

 

If your ad was disapproved for no reason or for all the reasons in the world, you might want to spend time on Instagram’s Terms of Use page. Reason for the disapproval might jump right at you.

 

It’s worth mentioning that the likes of Google, Twitter, and even Reddit all offer paid advertising and their ads go through approval. They disapprove ads as well, so it's safe to say Instagram is not acting in isolation.

 

 

3 ways to get your Instagram promotion approved

Was your ad not approved? Here are 3 methods to get your Instagram promotion approved:

  1. File an appeal.
  2. Fix and resubmit your ad.
  3. Bin the ad and create a new one.

 

Below are details of how each of these methods works with actionable points.

 

Method 1: Filing an appeal for a rejected Instagram ad

By filing an appeal, you are essentially telling Facebook you think their automated ad review process had judged you wrongly and therefore want your ad to be manually reviewed.  Just be sure you haven't violated any Facebook advertising policies as there is no second chance for appeal. 

 

If your appeal gets approved, your ads will start running immediately and you will be charged accordingly. If otherwise, then you want to try the other two options listed in this section.

 

To file an appeal for your rejected Instagram ads:

  • Follow this link to fill the 'appeal a disapproved ad' form. You will be asked a few questions regarding your ad. Answer and submit. And since your submission will be manually processed, the waiting time will vary from several hours to a day—depending on the nature of the suspected issue and the amount of investigation required.

 

 

Method 2: Fixing and resubmitting rejected Instagram ads

Your decision to fix and resubmit your rejected ads shows your full understanding of Instagram rules and community standard and your commitment to the content of your ads. Luckily, this option allows multiple resubmission, which gives room for some serious testing.

 

In trying to fix your rejected ads, you certainly want to test one variable at a time.

  • Change the landing page URL to another URL, preferably your homepage. Not recommended but it is one step toward identifying issues with your landing page. Assuming all other elements of your ad are retained and your ad gets accepted, you know there’s something wrong with your landing page and can act accordingly. 
     
  • Make incremental changes to your ad text or change it all at once and see if the text was the problem. If the landing page and the image are the same and by changing the text your ad was approved, you know some element of that text was triggering a rejection. This also applies to changing the image without changing the text.
     
  • Check your targeting options and be sure you aren’t targeting an audience that has been flagged in both of Instagram’s ad rules and Facebook’s ad policies.
     
  • Also, check your payment options and ensure all information are correct.

 

 

Method 3: Creating and submitting new Instagram ads 

With more than three manual ad disapprovals, you will want to review your approach.

  • Re-read (this time more carefully) Facebook’s ad guidelines and Instagram’s rules and community standard.
     
  • Come up with a new content and landing page.
     
  • Change the URL of your existing landing page.
     
  • Ensure full compliance with the ad guidelines.
     
  • Submit your ad(s) and wait for approval.

 

 

Bonus nuggets

  • Review your ad for compliance with Instagram’s Music Guidelines, Platform Policy, Community Payment Terms, and Community Guidelines. (If you don’t have time to check those links individually, Instagram has summarised those pieces of information in their Terms of Use. Go over and check it out.)
     
  • Once you are sure your ads complied with Instagram ad guidelines, proceed to submit your ads for approval and don’t forget to track performance using Instagram in-built insights and analytics once your ad is approved.

 

 

Frequently-asked questions about Instagram promotions

  • What does a promotion on Instagram mean?

Promotion on Instagram is a partnership between Instagram and you the advertiser (an Instagram user who has switched to Instagram Business account) where you pay Instagram to allow you turn your photos, videos, carousel, stories, or collections into ads. The platform will then display the ads in strategic places within the app for increased reach, visibility, and engagement.

 

Through this partnership and depending on goals/objectives you set, you can expect to drive targeted traffic, expand your customer base, upsurge app installs or video views, generate leads, or promote your brand while selling your products and/or services. The effectiveness of your ads also depends on your promotion budget, ad types (photo, video, collection, Stories, or carousel), and the length of time you have chosen to run the promotion. 

 

Pro-Tip: There are 10 Instagram ad objectives as stated by Facebook.

 

 

  • How much does it cost to promote on Instagram?

According to ThriveHive, the average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for an IG promotion is $6.70. They projected that the cost will likely go down as more companies utilize the platform...and it looks like they were spot-on with their February 2017 prediction.

 

As of October 2018, both Wordstream and Influencer Marketing Hub confirm that you could be paying just above $5 CPM on Instagram, and that's for highly targeted ads. The latter added that you can expect to pay anything between $0.2 and $2 per click.

 

 

  • How do I pay for promotions from the Instagram app?

Simply link your Instagram account to your Facebook ad account. From within your Facebook ad account, you can use the payment method from that account to pay for your Instagram promotions. If, however, you don’t have a Facebook ad account, you’d be required to create one and then create a promotion. You must add a payment method (credit and debit cards, PayPal, Facebook Gift Cards, Boleto, etc.) to submit your promotion for approval.

 

 

  • How long does Instagram take to approve a promotion?

Updates on approval for your Instagram promotion typically come in in a few hours or a whole day. But, it can also take a little more time.

 

 

  • Why opt for Instagram ads?

As you know, Instagram is one of the largest social networks today thanks to its massive 1+ billion active users (38% of which are checking Instagram multiple times a day and liking up to 4.2 billion posts). Not only that, 80% of users follow at least one business account—driving interaction rate up 2.2% in comparison with Facebook’s 0.2%. Amid others, these are pointers that show why brands are putting a ton of efforts into running Instagram ads.

 

 

Conclusion

Regardless of your niche or industry, Instagram offers a highly-engaged audience for your brand, business, or agency to speak to. Instagram promotions can further help you to target age, gender, and location; reach customers or clients that are likely interested in your products and/or services; and meet your business goals.

 

But when your ad gets disapproved, you can file an appeal, fix and resubmit your ad, or bin the ad and create a new one. Hopefully, you'll find one of these techniques helpful in getting your rejected or future ads approved. Cheers!

 

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