How to write Facebook ads that pass review
A pre-submission checklist for Shopify stores: what Meta's ad review looks at, the wording and pages that get ads rejected, and what to do after a rejection.
What this is for
Every Facebook and Instagram ad is checked against Meta's Advertising Standards before it runs. A rejection costs you a day or more of a launch, and repeated rejections can put the ad account itself at risk. Most rejections for small stores come from a short list of avoidable causes. source, checked 28 September 2026
This guide is the checklist to run before you publish: the page the ad points to, the words, the images and sound, and the targeting. At the end is what to do if an ad is rejected anyway.
Time needed and what you need
Time needed: about 30 minutes per batch of ads. Reading the policy for your category is a one-off; after that the checklist takes a few minutes per ad.
- The ads you plan to publish: text, headline, images or video, and destination URL
- Meta's Advertising Standards open in another tab, especially the page for your product category
- The live landing page for each ad, checked on a phone
- Proof for any claim the ad makes, such as test results or a guarantee policy
The steps
Run every ad through these in order. The first two catch the rejections that have nothing to do with the words.
1. Find the policy page for your product category
Meta keeps separate rules for restricted goods such as supplements, weight loss, cosmetics procedures, alcohol and financial products. If you sell in one of these, read that page in full before writing, because it sets limits no copywriting trick gets around. If you sell candles or t-shirts, the general rules below are what apply.
2. Make the landing page match the ad
Meta reviews the page behind the ad, not just the ad itself. The review can include every part of the ad and where it sends people. source, checked 28 September 2026
Link to the exact product or collection the ad shows, with the same price and offer. A discount in the ad that is not live on the site, a sold-out product or a password-protected store are easy rejections. Meta states the rule directly: what the ad promotes has to be what the page sells. source, checked 28 September 2026
3. Write about the product, not the person seeing it
Ads may not claim or imply that you know something personal about the viewer: their health, age, finances, religion and similar traits. "Tired of your thinning hair?" fails; "A shampoo made for fine hair" is fine. This is the most common wording rejection, and it has its own guide: avoiding the personal attributes policy.
4. Cut sensational claims and deadlines on results
Promises like "visible results in 3 days" or "the only one that works" draw attention from reviewers as well as readers. In anything health-related, Meta names this pattern specifically. source, checked 28 September 2026
Replace the promise with something you can show: what is in the product, how it is used, what customers said in their own words.
5. Clean up the text
Meta rejects profanity even when it is disguised, and its examples also rule out deliberately odd spelling, spacing and strings of symbols used to catch the eye. Write normal sentences with normal punctuation. source, checked 28 September 2026
- No words split with dots or asterisks to dodge a filter
- No rows of symbols or emoji in place of words
- No misspellings used as a hook
6. Use only images, video and music you have rights to
Other brands' logos, a celebrity photo you do not have a licence for, or a trending song in a video can all get an ad removed. Music needs its own licence, and Meta spells out which parts. source, checked 28 September 2026
7. Check the audience settings against your category
Some categories carry targeting rules as well as wording rules, such as a minimum age. Open the ad set's audience settings and confirm they meet what your category page says before you publish, not after a rejection tells you.
8. Publish, then leave the ad alone during review
Review normally finishes within a day. Resist the urge to tweak the ad while it is in review, and plan launches so the review window is not the day of the sale. source, checked 28 September 2026
9. If an ad is rejected, fix it or ask for another look
Read the reason given, fix the named problem and resubmit; an edited ad goes through review again as a new ad. If you are sure the ad follows the rules, ask for the decision to be reviewed instead. source, checked 28 September 2026
A worked example
For a soy candle store launching 12 ads for an autumn range
Worked example (an invented store, with invented numbers)
The store submits 12 ads on Tuesday morning. 10 are approved that day and 2 are rejected.
The first rejected ad opened with "Stressed after work? Light this." That implies the viewer's mental state. It is rewritten as "A lavender candle for slow evenings" and approved on resubmission.
The second pointed to a scent that had sold out overnight, so the page no longer matched the ad. The link is changed to the in-stock autumn collection. By Wednesday all 12 ads are approved, and the sale starts on Thursday as planned because the owner left two days for review.
Common mistakes
Treating approval as permanent. Approved ads can still be reviewed again and taken down later, for example when a landing page changes. Recheck live ads whenever you edit the product page they point to. source, checked 28 September 2026
Resubmitting the same ad unchanged. If the reason is right, the same wording fails again, and a history of rejections is exactly what you do not want on an ad account. Change the thing the rejection named, or request a review if you think it was wrong.
Borrowing a competitor's wording without checking it. A rival's ad being live does not mean it was approved for good, or that the same wording suits your category. Write from your own product and proof.
Quoting customer reviews that make claims you could not make yourself. A quoted result is still your ad. The guide on turning reviews into ad copy covers which lines are safe to use.
Doing this with Tilly
Tilly's ads agent writes a set of ads for 25 credits and publishes them to Meta paused. Tilly never turns spend on, and nothing publishes without your approval.
That gives you a natural checkpoint: read each ad against the steps above, check the destination link on your phone, and only then switch the ads on in Ads Manager yourself.
Questions people ask
Why was my ad rejected when a competitor's similar ad is running?
Review is partly automated and ads can be checked again at any time, so a live ad is not proof that its wording is allowed. Differences in landing page, category or targeting can also change the outcome. Fix your ad against the reason you were given.
Does Meta check my ad by hand?
Mostly not. Meta says its review relies mainly on automated tools, with people involved in some cases, which is one reason clear wording and a matching landing page matter. source, checked 28 September 2026
Can repeated rejections affect my whole account?
They can. Meta reviews advertisers' behaviour as well as single ads and can restrict an ad account, a Page or a Business Account. Fixing the cause of a rejection before resubmitting protects more than the one ad.
See this on your own store
Paste your store URL. The first pass takes about a minute and needs no account. Save a card (nothing is charged) and Tilly reads the whole store and works out who buys from you.