A TV station/TV production firm owner tells RBR-TVBR that Facebook is refusing some “pay boost” video ads being sold by TV stations that extend the reach of a local campaign onto the internet. Facebook apparently puts the ads submitted through a filter and if more than 20% of the ad is text (including car dealer disclaimers, pharma disclaimers, etc), it will be rejected.
He tells us: “I don’t know of anybody doing good commercials that are not going to be at the 20% or above. Are they telling GM and Geico they won’t take their video commercials because there is too much text as well? I don’t think so. I don’t know what they’re trying to do with this but it’s really stupid. I was getting ready to do a one-sheet that said, ‘Add 10% to your TV buy and we’ll put you on Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.’ Now I’m not putting Facebook on that sheet.”
Here are excerpts from an email exchange with Facebook:
“The ad is not spam. It is tasteful & it was nixed by an algorithm not a person. I was going to start recommending you to all my clients. But if an ad with $800 of production value doesn’t cut it then I will skip you in my buys. We have won 3 national awards, including a Telly. We use graphics for reinforcement & flow. We do not yell in our ads. You guys need to get with the industry & get ad pros in there & send the geeks to retraining room, seriously. I have 40 plus years in the biz, I had 25 years in before Zuckerberg dreamed Facebook up.”
Facebook’s first response: “Thanks for writing in. I’m here to help. Your ad was rejected because it violates our text in image policy. Ads and Sponsored Stories in News Feed may not include images with more than 20% text in them. If you want to change your ad, stop the promoted post and create a new one. Although your ad was initially approved to appear on Facebook, it was reviewed again when it appeared in News Feed for our 20% text policy for ads. I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have created. If your ad isn’t approved, it will stop running and be tagged as “disabled” in your ads manager. If your ad was active and ran on the site for a period of time before it was reviewed for News Feed placement, and not approved, it may have already accrued charges. You’ll only pay for the clicks or impressions you receive. You are only charged for impressions served not the whole budget set for the campaign. You can resubmit your ad by uploading a new image and creating a new Page post. To see if your image works with our policy, upload your image to this tool to calculate the percentage of text your image has: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay”
The response: “Text ad disclaimers should not be counted. Also the delay in being rejected is a huge inconvenience. I own a TV facility. We will stick with what works. I am starting to see that digital has huge negatives. It has the fad effect, fake clicks and a screen that does not do justice to a clients’ video image, etc.”
Facebook’s response: “Thanks for writing back. I understand your concern and appreciate your feedback but unfortunately, we cannot make an exception to this rule. Our policy is uniform and same for all. I apologize for any inconvenience or discrepancy you would have faced earlier.”
RBR-TVBR observation: We doubt as well these restrictions are placed on ads placed via GroupM or big budget clients. Facebook has the right, like anyone else, to refuse an ad, but it does seem stupid if the ad is presentable and not in bad taste. Could FB be discriminating against TV broadcasters and smaller producers here?
