If you’re at the point where you’re thinking about running Facebook ads or already running Facebook ads for your boudoir business, then listen up. In this article I’m going to reveal some super important requirements that your ad, landing page, Thank You page, and even website must meet before Facebook will approve your ad.
Facebook’s Standards
Running a boudoir ad on Facebook can be like walking through a minefield. You can’t just throw up a sexy image, come up with a headline, write some copy, and think your ad is going to get approved.
Oh no…
Facebook has a strict policy when it comes to what they want to show to their users with regard to sexually suggestive images, and since Facebook owns Instagram, it applies to both platforms.
So first, I want to show you what Facebook has to say about all this in their own words. You can read it yourself by going to:
Then click on the category heading “Prohibited Content” and on the right, scroll down to #8 to…
8. Adult Content
“Ads must not contain adult content. This includes nudity, depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.”
(Facebook is always changing things. For example, the heading below “Sexually Suggestive Content” used to be a category but no longer. I thought it would be helpful though to leave it here so you can understand how Facebook thinks when creating your ads and landing pages.)
Sexually Suggestive Content
Examples
Nudity or implied nudity
Excessive visible skin or cleavage, even if not explicitly sexual in nature
Images focused on individual body parts, such as abs, buttocks or chest, even if not explicitly sexual in nature
My Three Day Saga With Facebook Trying To Get My Ad Approved
I wanted to run a special for Valentine’s Day and I was following the course of action outlined in “The Art of Six Figures — The Ultimate Facebook Ads Course!” just to give you some context.
I say this because a lot of prep work goes into one of these campaigns with regard to building a landing page, a Thank You page, writing an email follow-up sequence, and so on and so forth.
If you’ve never done one before, it can take a couple of weeks to get everything written and in place with your website, auto-responder, opt-in form and everything else that goes with it.
This was my first one, so it was all relatively new to me and coming up with a headline, some copy, and an image is kind of the easy part… or so I thought.
Denied… Denied… Denied…
This was the first image I submitted on Sunday late afternoon, and I kind of knew it would get rejected but I wanted to test it anyway since I’d seen some other boudoir images in ads from other photographers that were not far from what I had just submitted.
So, I wanted to test the waters first.
And an hour or so later a message came back informing me that the ad was rejected due to “Adult Content” or it didn’t meet Facebook’s standards or something like that. I can’t quite recall.
Okay, no biggie. I gave it a shot and chose this next image and re-submitted. A picture that was mostly of someone’s face was a safe bet… so, I’d read somewhere.
Later that evening, that one came back rejected as well.
Hmm… that was unexpected. Facebook was telling me that it was “Adult Content”, which didn’t seem right. After all, it was just a picture of a woman with a bare shoulder… seemed decent enough.
I then changed the image on my landing page from the first one to match this second close-up image because I’d heard that Facebook even checks out your landing page as well.
So, now I didn’t have that first image anywhere in my funnel.
Still later that night I re-submitted… and still later that night it came back rejected… again for “Adult Content”.
Monday
The next day I had a brilliant idea. I’d use an image I used just the previous month for a boudoir ad that did get approved. That will surely do the trick.
This was the image I submitted… but then that too came back denied for the same reason. It didn’t meet Facebooks standards.
Okay, something is definitely up at this point. This is not making sense. How could they reject an image they had just approved the month before?
I decided to post my two ads on the private Facebook page for the course I’d bought (Art of Six Figures) to try and get some feedback.
People had some good comments and one of them suggested the gallery on my landing page had some rather risqué images on it and that was what Facebook was actually objecting to.
You see, Facebook doesn’t tell you where the problem is — just what the problem is. In fact, this whole time I thought they were referring to the images I was submitting for the ad but in fact, they were most likely referring to the images in a small gallery I had included on my landing page.
Tuesday
Bright and early Tuesday morning I wanted to be extra sure my ad would get approved, after all, I’d already lost a day and a half of my week long window I wanted to run the ad for.
So, I deleted the gallery from my landing page, and replaced the image of the young woman with a black and white image of an empty unmade bed — no people whatsoever. I also used that same image on my landing page.
So, no people in my ad’s image, and no people anywhere on the landing page.
I submitted the ad mid-morning… and it took about two hours or so before I got a reply back…
REJECTED!
Ugh!!!
Are you kidding me?!
What up Facebook?!
By the way, with each previous rejection I had re-submitted the ad for further review. That’s why it took all day and so much time between submissions.
Keeping a Level Head (despite me freaking out inside)
Okay, even though I was getting quite frustrated and annoyed, I now knew that something wasn’t right at their end. They had to be reviewing older versions of my ads. We weren’t even on the same page here.
What I was seeing in my ad’s editor and submitting as re-edited ads was clearly not what they were reviewing.
Tuesday Afternoon — Further Review
I clicked the further review button and this time a different option popped up. It gave me a choice of ads I could choose from for them to review.
Okay, I’d never seen this before.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
The only reason they would offer me a choice was because the order in which I was submitting ads for review was getting out of whack or something was off.
I clicked my most recent ad (the one with the empty bed) and they offered me a text box to send them a message.
I calmly explained to them that there was no way this most recent ad could be considered “Adult Content” because there were no people in it… nor any people in the exact same image on my landing page… nor any gallery of images of any people — and that they had to be reviewing older previously rejected ads.
Well… I got a response back in like two minutes, literally.
My ad got approved.
Hallelujah!
So, also in my message to them I asked if they indeed go and check out landing pages.
They didn’t respond to that inquiry.
Back To the Facebook Group
Returning back to the private Facebook group, I wrote a lengthy post for all that had been following my saga for the past couple of days, explaining to them what finally happened.
It’s my belief that my ads were rejected for two reasons that overlapped one another.
At first, it was because my original image was too risqué (and also the images in my gallery on the landing page), then it was because of the images on the landing page (unbeknownst to me at the time), then it was because Facebook was apparently reviewing older versions of my ads when I was sending them fully approvable current re-edits with no gallery on my landing page.
What I was sending them for further review was not (were not) the ad(s) they were receiving.
Ugh!
More Valuable Feedback
A few more comments came in from the group, some even saying that Facebook will not only look at your landing page, but also your Thank You page and your website’s home page.
Now, my landing page was not connected to my boudoir homepage, at least in a way anyone who landed on my landing page could get to… but, it was part of my website as a stand-alone page, make sense?
So, now I’m thinking, “Does Facebook count a stand-alone landing page built from your site as being part of your site even though any potential lead can’t actually click to it?”
Who can say for sure?
I can’t.
Let This Be A Lesson
What can we gather from all this?
It’s apparent that Facebook doesn’t have all the wrinkles ironed out when reviewing ads that have been re-submitted for approval. You could submit one thing — and FB could be looking at and making a judgement call on something else :(… (that’s me crying digital tears of frustration). But I think with time, this will improve.
It’s also clear that FB has a strict policy when it comes to keeping images non-sexual… or do they?
Apparently they’re a bit confused on this issue as well as a fellow boudoir photographer from the group told me she would send screen shots of lingerie ads that would pop up in her feed that were no more risqué than the images she would submit for her ads that would get rejected.
“Au contraire mon frere.”
It seems FB’s advertising policy is a bit more malleable than they state… or when it’s in their best self-interest. In any event, there’s a gray area here you can spar with FB in when trying to get certain images approved for your boudoir biz if you want to put the time and effort in.
My guess is that Facebook does not view lingerie ads as being sexual (hmm…) but does so if the word “boudoir” is associated with it.
In any event, it’s worth re-submitting your ad for approval.
Taking the Good With the Bad
So, right now Facebook is like that girlfriend or boyfriend you want to break up with because they’re kind of annoying and get on your nerves but the sex is so good that you’re sort of compelled to stay with ‘em.
Advertising on FB can be great when you get all the pieces to the puzzle just right… and can make you a lot of money with a flood of new clients and sessions.
However, it can also suck up your money with no return on investment faster than you can say “Damn, why’d I waste so much money on that stupid Facebook ad! I could have bought a new lens!”
Yes, been there — done that too.
Further Study
If you’re interested in learning more about running successful boudoir FB ads then I recommend:
“The Art of Six Figures — The Ultimate Facebook Ads Course”.
It goes into great detail on how to run not only a normal campaign for your boudoir business, but also model calls and free giveaway campaigns as well.
(It’s also good for wedding, portrait, high-school seniors, family, and newborn photographers too.)
Thanks for your time!
If you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone it may also benefit.
Charles Mitri
Founder / Lounge Boudoir
Bella Mitri Boudoir