Shadow Ban in Facebook Ads

A sudden drop in Facebook ad campaign performance may indicate that the account has fallen under a so-called "shadow ban" or has been deprioritized in the ranking system. This is evident when one account experiences a decline in metrics, while another account with the same settings maintains stable performance.

Signs of a Shadow Ban:

❌ A sharp drop in CTR. For example, a decline from 7.2% to 0.50%.
❌ Underutilized budget. You set a $40 daily budget, but only $24 is actually spent.
❌ A sudden increase in CPM.
❌ Unusual billing charges, such as $7.63 or $0.48.
❌ Low or no conversions.
❌ Other accounts running the same campaigns perform well.
❌ Issues with automatic payments requiring manual intervention.

Possible Causes:

➖ User complaints about your ads – If people keep reporting your ads, it gradually lowers trust, and at a certain threshold, your account gets shadowbanned. There may not be a formal violation yet, but complaints don’t come out of nowhere.

➖ Frequent ad rejections – This signals to Facebook that you are trying to bypass platform rules.

➖ Mistakes when creating the account – Suspicious activity and improper farming lower the account’s trust score.

➖ Too many duplicate campaigns – If active and disabled duplicate campaigns exceed the account's budget limit, Facebook may start flagging your activity.

➖ Complaints against your Facebook Page – Violations at the page level can also contribute to shadow banning.

➖ Competitor actions – Some competitors report your creatives found in the Facebook Ads Library, simply to disrupt your campaigns.

What to Do with Such an Account?

In practice, reviving such an account is difficult. Changing creatives, switching payment methods, or contacting support often leads nowhere. You can try deleting all campaigns except for essential ones and letting the account rest for 2-3 days, but the chances of recovery are low.

The easiest solution is to move on and launch a new account to avoid wasting time. However, if the account has a trained pixel, it may be worth trying to revive it. With no ad spend, there are no further violations, and there’s a small chance it could return to normal performance.

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