Why ad accounts get suspended, and what to do

Advertising account suspensions are far more common than most new advertisers expect, are usually applied automatically, and are sometimes simply wrong. Understanding why they happen is worth more than any promise that they will not.

The usual causes

Policy, in the ad or on the page behind it

The most common cause by a wide margin. Platforms review the destination as closely as the creative, so an ad that complies while its landing page does not is still a violation. Claims about results, health, income and eligibility are the usual triggers, and the bar is lower than most advertisers assume — implication counts, not just explicit statements.

A mismatch between the ad and the page

If the ad promises one thing and the page sells another, that reads as misleading advertising whether or not it was intended. This catches a lot of legitimate businesses running promotional creative against a generic homepage.

Restricted categories without the right licence

Financial services, health products and supplements, gambling, pharmaceuticals and several others are gated rather than banned. Running in one without the certification the platform requires reliably ends in suspension. Ours are listed in the acceptable use policy.

Billing and payment signals

Failed payments, unusual funding patterns and mismatches between the business, the payment method and the account country all trigger review. This is a more common cause of suspension on newer accounts than most people realise.

A sudden change in behaviour

A new account that jumps from modest to large daily spend overnight looks like a compromised account, because that is what compromised accounts do. Scaling in steps is not superstition; it is avoiding a signal that gets accounts flagged.

Anything that looks like circumvention

Attempting to re-enter after an enforcement decision — a new account for a banned business, a domain variant for a rejected page — is treated as a serious violation in its own right and tends to end in permanent loss rather than a suspension you can appeal.

What to do first

1. Read the actual notice. Platforms usually state a policy category. It is often vague, but it is the difference between guessing and knowing which area to fix.
2. Stop and look before changing anything. Screenshot the account state, the notice and your active campaigns. If an appeal goes anywhere, this is your evidence.
3. Check the landing page, not just the ads. This is where the problem is more often than not, and it is the thing advertisers check last.
4. Appeal once, specifically. Name what you believe triggered it and what you have changed. Repeated identical appeals are a known way to get a case closed against you.
5. If you use a provider, tell them immediately. They can raise it through the agency relationship, which is a different route from a self-serve appeal form.

The two reactions that make it worse

The second is stripping the account bare — deleting campaigns, changing the business name, swapping the domain — in the hope of looking different. Reviewers see the change history, and it reads as concealment rather than correction.

What happens to the money

This depends on who holds it. On a self-serve account, unspent balance generally stays with the platform and is subject to its own process. On an agency account, the balance sits within the provider's arrangement, and what comes back depends on what is actually recoverable from the platform and the provider.

This is why the refund position is worth establishing before you fund rather than after — it is one of the checks in how to choose an ad account provider. Ours is set out in the refund policy, including the deductions that apply.

Reducing the odds

• Get the landing page right before you build creative. It is the cheapest fix at that stage and the most expensive one later.
• Keep claims specific and supportable. Vague superlatives are safer than precise promises you cannot evidence.
• Complete every verification the platform offers, early. Verified accounts are treated more favourably in automated review.
• Scale spend in steps rather than jumps, particularly in an account's first weeks.
• Ask about your vertical before you build the campaign. If it is restricted, you want to know at the planning stage, not after the creative is shot.

The honest position

No provider can guarantee an account stays active, and any that says otherwise is describing something outside their control. What a provider can genuinely do is tell you before you start whether your business looks like a fit, raise a suspension through the agency relationship rather than a public form, and be clear about what is recoverable when it is not.

That is what we do, and how it works sets out the process — including the part where the answer is that we cannot promise you anything.