Meta ad rejections
Facebook ad rejected for a restricted or special ad category
Some verticals can advertise, but only under extra rules. Credit, housing, and employment are Special Ad Categories, which strip most targeting. Politics needs authorisation. Financial services and health carry their own restrictions. The rejection usually means you did not declare the category, not that you cannot run.
What Meta’s notice says
What triggers it
- 01Running a credit, housing, or employment offer without setting special_ad_categories on the campaign
- 02Targeting by age, gender, or postcode inside a Special Ad Category, which is not permitted
- 03Political or social-issue content without completing Meta's authorisation
- 04Crypto or financial services without the required written permission
- 05Health and supplement copy that strays into outcome claims
Before and after
A mortgage ad targeting ages 30 to 45 in three postcodes.
The same ad with special_ad_categories set to HOUSING and the geographic and demographic narrowing removed.
The copy never changes. The campaign declaration and targeting do.
"Now hiring drivers, 25 to 40."
"Now hiring drivers."
Age in employment copy is a problem on its own, separate from targeting settings.
How to fix it
- –Declare the category on the campaign. This is the fix in most cases.
- –Remove age, gender, and postcode narrowing from any Special Ad Category campaign. Meta will reject it otherwise.
- –Strip demographic language from the copy as well as the targeting.
- –For politics and crypto, complete authorisation before rebuilding the campaign. There is no wording that substitutes for it.
Partly caught before launch
Preflight detects housing, credit, employment, and political keywords and tells you which special category to declare. It does not currently flag health and supplement copy, so check that one by hand.
Scan your ad copy free →Questions
Does declaring a special category hurt performance?
It removes targeting levers, so early performance usually drops. Broad targeting with strong creative is the standard answer, and it works better than most advertisers expect.
Do I declare the category on the campaign or the ad set?
The campaign. It cannot be changed after creation, so a wrongly declared campaign has to be rebuilt.
Other rejection reasons
Personal attributes
personal attributes
Misleading claims
misleading
Prohibited content
prohibited content
Low quality or clickbait
low quality
Engagement bait
engagement bait
Landing page problem
landing page
Circumventing systems
circumventing systems
Brand usage
Facebook brand
Image text
image text
No clear reason
ad policy violation