If Facebook has disabled your ad account, restricted your advertising access or locked your business portfolio, I find out which of those has happened and why, fix what Meta objects to, and help you make one clear, well-evidenced request for review. I work with UK businesses from London. Only Meta decides whether access comes back, so I will not promise a reinstatement. I will tell you plainly whether a review is worth requesting, and what your options are if it is refused.
Restricted, disabled or rejected: work out which one you have
Meta uses similar words for problems that sit at different levels, and the fix depends on the level. Before anyone writes an appeal, open the Account Quality page in Meta Business Suite. It lists every restriction on your profile, Pages, ad accounts and business portfolio (what used to be called Business Manager).
- A rejected ad. One ad breaks a rule. The account keeps running, and that ad can be edited or appealed on its own.
- A restricted ad account. That account can no longer run ads, often after repeated rejections or a payment problem. Other ad accounts in the same portfolio may carry on.
- A restricted business portfolio. Every ad account, Page and dataset inside it is affected, along with anyone whose access runs through it.
- Restricted advertising access on a personal profile. The person, not the business, has been restricted. They cannot advertise from any account, including ones they manage for someone else, until it is lifted.
A profile restriction usually needs the person to confirm their identity and secure their login. A portfolio restriction usually needs the business to be verified and its advertising history cleaned up.
Why UK accounts get restricted
Meta rarely explains a restriction in detail. The notice names a policy, sometimes only “circumventing systems” or “unacceptable business practices”, and leaves you to work out what triggered it. These are the causes I look for first.
- A compromised login. Someone gets into an admin’s Facebook profile, adds a card and runs scam ads. Meta then restricts the business that appears to have paid for them.
- Payment patterns. A declined card, a chargeback, one card used across several unrelated accounts, or a sudden jump in daily spend on a new account.
- The ads or the landing page. Health claims, before-and-after images, income promises, weight loss, cosmetic procedures, alcohol and gambling all sit under restricted or prohibited sections of Meta’s Advertising Standards. Meta reviews the page you send people to, not only the ad.
- Missing category declarations. Ads about credit, employment, housing, social issues, elections or politics must run under the right special ad category. Political and social issue ads in the UK also need authorisation and a “Paid for by” disclaimer.
- Looking like a workaround. Opening a fresh ad account after a restriction, or swapping domains to get past a rejected landing page, reads to Meta as circumvention. Meta treats it as one of the most serious breaches.
- A thin business identity. A website with no company details, a trading name that does not match official records, or a new Page that starts spending heavily in its first week.
Who this is for
This work suits UK businesses that advertise honestly and have been caught by an automated decision, a hacked login or a policy they did not know applied to them. It also suits businesses in regulated sectors, such as private clinics, aesthetics, financial services, alcohol and recruitment, that keep having ads rejected and want the account put right before Meta escalates.
It is not for anyone who wants a restriction lifted so they can keep running ads that mislead people. If the product or the claims break UK advertising rules, I will say so. The fix then is to change the offer, not to find a way past the review.
What the work covers
Diagnosis
I read the restriction notices, the Account Quality history, the rejected ads, the billing records and the list of people with admin access. Then I check the landing pages and the wider website as a Meta reviewer would see them. The result is a short written finding: what Meta most likely objected to, at which level, and how confident I am in that reading.
Fixing the ads and the website
Rejected ads are rewritten or switched off. On the site I look for claims that cannot be backed up, missing company and contact details, pages that say something different from the ad, and pop-ups or redirects a reviewer could take as deceptive. In the UK the same claims also have to meet the CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces, so I check against both sets of rules rather than Meta’s alone.
Identity, verification and security
Many restrictions clear only once the business proves who it is. Business verification asks for documents showing the same legal name, address and phone number that the portfolio holds. For a UK limited company that normally starts with the company’s record at Companies House, backed by something like a utility bill, bank statement or VAT certificate in the business name. I make sure the details match everywhere before anything is uploaded, because a mismatch is one of the commonest reasons verification fails. I also tidy admin access, remove people who no longer need it, turn on two-factor authentication for every admin and verify your website domain.
The request for review
Once the cause is fixed, the request for review goes in through Account Quality, from the right profile and against the right asset. I draft the wording with you: what happened, what has changed and why it will not happen again. It stays short and factual. A long complaint rarely helps, and repeated requests with nothing new in them can make things harder.
Keeping the account compliant
When access returns, I leave you with simple house rules: which claims and images to avoid in your sector, who may add payment methods, how to raise budgets without sudden jumps, and what to do the moment an ad is rejected. If you would rather someone kept watch every month, that is part of monthly Facebook ads management.
How a recovery runs
- You send the notice. A screenshot of the restriction message and of the Account Quality page is enough to start.
- Access. Where the portfolio still allows it, you add me as a partner or employee. I never ask for your Facebook password.
- Diagnosis. I send the written finding and say whether I think a review is worth requesting now, later, or not at all.
- Fixes. Ads, landing pages, verification and security are put right. Some steps only you can take, such as uploading identity documents, and I walk you through them.
- Request for review. Submitted once, with the evidence behind it.
- Decision and restart. If access returns, ads restart carefully on modest budgets. If Meta upholds the restriction, I explain what options remain and which ones are not worth trying.
Problems I see most often on UK accounts
- Clinic, aesthetics and supplement ads making claims the business could not prove to the ASA, or using before-and-after images Meta does not allow.
- Copy that speaks to the viewer’s own circumstances (“Struggling with debt?”, “Over 50 and tired?”), which breaks Meta’s personal attributes policy even when the offer itself is fine.
- A hacked admin profile that nobody noticed until the restriction, with an unknown card still attached to the account.
- Landing pages put together in a hurry: no company number, no address, a countdown timer that resets on every visit. A properly built landing page for paid ads removes most of these problems before Meta sees them.
- A second and third ad account opened after the first was restricted, which turned a fixable problem into a circumvention case.
What I will not do
- Promise reinstatement or a timescale. Meta’s reviewers make that call, not me.
- Buy, rent or borrow ad accounts or profiles to get you running again. That breaks Meta’s terms and usually ends in a wider ban.
- Use cloaking, alternative domains or disguised wording to sneak rejected ads past review.
- Pay anyone who claims to have a contact inside Meta. Restricted advertisers are a favourite target for people selling reinstatement for a fee.
What you receive
- A written diagnosis: which asset is restricted, the likely cause and my view on whether a review is worth requesting.
- A record of the changes made to ads, landing pages, verification and access, with anything still left for you to do.
- The text of the request for review, agreed with you before it is sent.
- A one-page compliance note for your sector and a restart plan if access is restored.
For a routine check before each launch, my Facebook and Instagram ads checklist covers the policy, access and tracking basics.
Cost and next step
I quote after seeing the notice, because a single rejected ad and a restricted business portfolio are very different amounts of work. The quote is in GBP and agreed in writing before any work starts.
If your ads have stopped delivering but nothing shows as restricted, the cause probably lies in the campaigns rather than a policy; my article on why Facebook ads stop working covers that. Otherwise, send me the restriction notice and a screenshot of Account Quality. I will reply with what I think has happened and what putting it right would involve, so you can decide whether to go ahead.