What you can and cannot advertise on social platforms?
While working with the advertisement, you need to take into account a lot of things. One of them and quite significant is restriction rules. We bet you’ve faced it, at least, once in your lifetime. You have an offer, you’ve made creatives, but traffic source hasn’t approved your ad campaign. Why? What have you done wrong? How to avoid it, and is it even possible to do so? Let’s try to learn more about it today.
Well, the flow of information which is not somehow restricted can be very harmful, that is why every well-respected platforms or social networks have certain restrictions rules for the posted content. We’d like to help you and enumerate the dos and don’ts that are common for almost every platform, you’ll be able to post your ad without getting into trouble. Of course, there are some themes that are illegal to advertise in general, and there are other topics that can be prohibited only in specific countries or regions, mostly it’s referred to political, sexual, or financial content.
Let’s enumerate some of the biggest stop-lists for advertising on the Internet in general. That is Drugs, Explosives, Goods and Services without necessary certificates, Tobacco, Weapons, Alcohol. Some categories are possible to advertise if you maintain certain rules. For example, Lottery, Medicine, Nutritional Supplements, Finance.
So, there is a content that is strictly prohibited, which means it will be blocked automatically and with no exceptions. Then there is a content that is restricted, which has certain limitations in its distribution. We’d like to mention it’s not only that whole topics are prohibited and it totally makes sense for the big and respected companies but there are also some phrases or word combinations that cannot be mentioned and it definitely makes the work with the content much harder. Yes, some platforms can be more specific and strict in their requirements and others have clear and easy guidelines to follow.
Overall, it would be very helpful for you to know and understand what and how to engage it in your ad campaigns. However, each platform has particular rules, that is why the more you understand this, the better you can manage later.
Then let’s look through the biggest and famous social networks and see what we can find out about the overall restrictions on ad content.
Google is one of the oldest and biggest search engines in the world. It’s definitely a leader in this area and provides clear guidelines and regulations. And sure they have and continue to state their strictly prohibited, restricted, and allowed content for advertisers.
For instance, things such as Adult content, Alcohol, Copyrights, Political, Gambling, Healthcare. This means that they keep a tight leash on these topics and hold control over what may or may not be published.
What does it actually mean? You should pay the maximum attention to your ad content (the landing page, creatives). You simply might skip the fact or be unaware that your ad has some references to the products or services that are prohibited by the policy. For example, you’ve mentioned the medication which requires an online pharmacy certification in order to promote it.
Also, to give advertisers more freedom and variety, Google allows them to choose which level of strictness could be in their search results, that is why there are two options either strict or adult searches. Mostly this applies to sexual materials.
However, it’s notable there are ads that are completely prohibited, in Google’s Strictly Prohibited policy as well. For example, dangerous material or products, violent and abusive ads, counterfeit and illegal goods are all prohibited.
In most cases, ads are rejected at first, the next step may be a rule violation warning, and the last step is an account blockage. It’s significant to note that if your account was blocked because of the prohibited subject’s ads, your other accounts will be blocked also, and all new accounts will be blocked immediately.
YouTube
Being a subsidiary of Google, Youtube is inclined to stick to the same guidelines. The policies adopted by YouTube are similar to the ones mentioned about Google. For example, violent and abusive, counterfeit and illegal content types are strictly prohibited. Meantime such content as adult content, political, and others are restricted strictly.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a visual platform used mostly by young people, thus they have added their specifics, along with the usual common restriction. For example, there are rules against content that shocks the users, and content that invades other people’s privacy. Nevertheless, there are standard guidelines, such as no violent or abusive content, counterfeit products or illegal ads, and no discriminatory content.
Such platforms as Snapchat, which are mainly social, have more common ads that are restricted. For instance, because it is a global one, there are many different countries with their own standards, cultures, etc.,and Snapchat has to set rules based on each country. Policies that are referred to things such as politics, gambling, or drinking ads are restricted in more conservative places or countries that have rules against it. These are some of the examples amongst many, but it is valuable to note that if you’re going to use Snapchat and advertise internationally, you should check their ad restriction page at the very beginning.
For example, if the alcohol is not prohibited to advertise in the country, the ad campaign should have a reminder ‘Please, drink responsibly’, also it shouldn’t glamorize the alcohol, or ‘Otherwise, it misrepresents the effects of consuming alcohol’. Sure, this ad is shown only to users who have reached the legal drinking age. The same applies to gambling and lottery related ads.
Facebook also prohibits and restricts the standard types of ad content. Let’s have a glance at some special restrictions that Facebook introduces, and actually, most people overlook them.
Facebook also implements restrictions based on country and age. For instance, things such as alcohol and gambling ads. However, the list is slightly more specific and requires people to seek approval on certain topics, including things like political ads, some financial ads and dating services ads. In some cases, such as healthcare, Facebook requires special certificates proving qualifications.
Below you can find the list of themes that you shouldn’t promote on Facebook. Illegal products or services, the ad shouldn’t include any materials of illegal activity. Additional moderation may be involved if the targeted age is below 18 years old.
Discrimination based on skin colour, religion, race, age, gender, health condition, or marital status leads to the rejection of the advertising campaigns. It’s not possible to use the word ‘other’ to refer to people’s characteristics.
Weapons and ammunition, you should avoid using images with ammunition, knives and fireworks, as well as such words as explosive, shot, kill. Even if they are synonyms for "cool", "power". Also never use photos of car accidents, disasters, fights, war, or any violence that might shock the users or look disrespectful.
Tobacco and anything related to it, medications and food supplements, goods and services 18+, loans, and any information that misleads people. The latter even relates to any before/after comparisons that demonstrates incredible results or if you advertise any sports equipment or beauty product, it’s absolutely inappropriate to emphasize the unattractiveness of the user to make him/her buy the goods.
This social network has the same moderation policy as Facebook, so pay your attention to all the points mentioned above.
Tik Tok
This traffic source is pretty new and unknown for most of the people, we’ll mention some points which you should avoid using while creating your ad campaigns. All in all, the main idea of Tik Tok is to post neutral videos which should be entertaining and educational. Kids younger than 13 years old cannot register on the platform and, besides it, Tik Tok pays the biggest attention to the published content, it shouldn’t incorporate scenes where a child is exposed to danger or sexual exploitation. Sure, that any shocking, dangerous, harmful videos are prohibited. Also, Tik-Tok is a platform for self-expression in its own unique manner, that is why it is forbidden to publish videos that violate someone's copyright, as well as the rights to any own brand. Another important and obvious thing is that you can not deceive users to increase the number of likes, views, and comments. It is forbidden to create an artificial activity (hire users to promote videos and write comments, etc.). It’s prohibited to sail under false colours by creating a fake page.
Let’s add some remarks about why the account may be blocked if it’s not related to the posted content. Spreading the technologically harmful and malicious files, usage of automatic scripts to collect data from a social network, or any attempts to interfere in the work of the social network, for example, hacking a site or trying to circumvent access restrictions for certain users.
Also, it’d be helpful for you to know what cannot be launched at popunder, push, etc. traffic sources. UngAds also has some restrictions on launching ad campaigns, let’s take some closer look at it. On the whole, on top of the points we were talking above and the ones we’re going to mention, they are pretty much the same on every platform. Pay your attention to materials you submit, it shouldn’t have malware, phishing, ransomware and browser lockers, don’t use any malicious links and files. Also, don’t put any logos of famous companies or images of celebrities. Be careful and aware of the fact that such accounts can be blocked without a refund.
To sum up, looking at the examples of these social networks and platforms, you should notice that it’s usually standard common prohibitions and restrictions. The exceptions are just a few adjustments that each platform adds to the policy. So, if you are planning to place ads on these platforms and maybe many others not mentioned here, you should read their advertising policy page, and do the job accordingly. However, if you are short of time, and cannot check the policies, then simply use our article as a brief guide!