Solved: Facebook Ads Stuck in Account Restriction Limbo

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

I can totally understand the frustration you described. Getting stuck in Facebook's "Account Restriction" hell is a rite of passage for a lot of new advertisers, so you're not alone. It's usually just their automated systems being overly cautious with a new account.

I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance. While we'll touch on getting the account sorted, the bigger and more important question is what you do *after* it's running. A lot of new businesses waste a ton of money because they focus on the wrong things from the start. Let's make sure you're not one of them.

We'll need to look at that account restriction issue first...

Alright, let's get the boring bit out of the way. This holding pattern you're in, where it says "Account Restriction" but gives you no reason, is maddeningly common. Tbh, it's almost always down to Facebook's algorithm flagging your brand-new account for a manual review or because some piece of verification is missing. It's not that you've done anything wrong, it's just a machine being a machine.

Here's what you should do before panicking:

Go through your Business Settings with a fine-tooth comb. Make sure of the following:

-> Your payment method is fully verified and the name on the card matches the name on the account or business.

-> Your business information (address, phone number, website) is filled out completely and accurately in the Business Info section.

-> You've gone through the Business Verification process if it's available to you. Sometimes this unlocks things.

-> Your Facebook Page itself is in good standing, with all sections filled out and looking legitimate.

If you've checked all of that and you're still stuck after a few more days, you'll have to brave their support channels. It can be a slow process, but sometimes it's the only way to get a real human to press the magic button. But let's be honest, fixing this is just the first, tiny step. The real work begins once you can actually spend money, and that's where most new businesses go wrong.

I'd say you're asking the wrong question...

You asked for resources on "best practice". The problem is, most of the "best practice" advice online is rubbish. It'll tell you to start with "awareness" campaigns to "build your brand". This is probably the single fastest way for a new business to set fire to its cash.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: when you set your campaign objective in Facebook to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very specific command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, being a very literal and efficient machine, does exactly what you asked. It seeks out the users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever buy anything from you. Why? Because those users are not in demand by other advertisers. Their attention is cheap. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product.

For a new business, awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem and making sales. It is not a prerequisite for making a sale. You need customers, not eyeballs. From day one, every penny you spend should be on a campaign with a 'Conversion' objective, optimised for a specific action like a lead, a purchase, or a booking. This tells Facebook to hunt for people who actually do things, not just scroll past.

You probably should focus on your offer before you spend a single pound...

I've audited hundreds of ad accounts. The number one reason they fail isn't the creative, the targeting, or the budget. It's the offer. If your offer isn't compelling, or if it doesn't solve a real problem for a specific group of people, you can have the best ads in the world and they will still fail. There is simply a lack of demand.

I see founders chase what they think are great ideas, building loads of features, spending months on the perfect product, only to launch and find nobody cares. You need to avoid that. A successful offer has three parts, and they are non-negotiable:

1. A specific audience: You cannot sell to "everyone". You need to be laser-focused. Who, exactly, are you for? "Small business owners" isn't specific enough. Is it "UK-based artisan bakeries with fewer than 5 employees"? That's getting warmer. The more specific you are, the more your message will resonate.

2. An urgent problem: What is the painful, frustrating, expensive problem this specific audience has? People don't buy products; they buy solutions to their problems. I remember one client who sold "brand films". Nobody was buying. We repositioned. They didn't sell films anymore. They sold a solution to a deep frustration: "We help talented architectural firms who are sick of losing big contracts to larger, more established competitors." This emotional connection is what drives action.

3. A clear offer: How, exactly, do you solve this problem? Vague services don't sell. The client from before turned their service into the "1-Day Filming Process." It had a name, clear deliverables, and a defined timeline. This makes a complex service feel simple, tangible, and less risky for a buyer to invest in.

Before you even think about writing an ad, you need to be able to answer those three questions with absolute clarity. If you can't, any money you spend on ads is just guesswork.

You'll need to find your Ideal Customer's Nightmare...

Once you know your offer, you need to find the people who need it. This brings us to targeting. And again, the common advice is wrong. Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile like "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees". This tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one.

You must define your customer by their pain. You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your customer isn't a job title; she's a leader terrified of her best developers quitting out of frustration with a broken workflow. Your customer isn't 'someone who needs document management'; it's 'a lawyer terrified of missing a critical filing deadline and exposing his firm to a malpractice suit.' Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, the targeting becomes obvious. Where do these people hang out online when they are trying to solve their problems?

-> What niche podcasts do they listen to? (e.g., 'Acquired' for tech founders)

-> What industry newsletters do they actually open? (e.g., 'Stratechery' for tech execs)

-> What SaaS tools do they already pay for? (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, Xero)

-> What influencers or experts do they follow on Twitter or LinkedIn? (e.g., Jason Lemkin for SaaS)

This intelligence is the blueprint for your targeting strategy. On Facebook, you can target people who have interests in these specific podcasts, newsletters, and tools. This is how you pre-qualify your audience. You're not just finding people in a demographic bucket; you're finding people who are already actively engaged in the world where your solution lives. This is infinitely more powerful.

I'd say you need to understand your numbers to grow...

This might seem advanced for someone just starting out, but its the most important concept you will learn in business. The real question isn't "How low can my cost per lead go?" but "How high a cost per lead can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Lifetime Value (LTV).

Knowing this number changes everything. It tells you how much you can really afford to spend to get a new customer. Let's break it down simply:

-> Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make per customer, per month/year?

-> Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue after costs of goods sold?

-> Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month?

The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

For example, if a customer pays you £100/month, your margin is 80%, and you lose 5% of your customers each month, your LTV is (£100 * 0.80) / 0.05 = £1,600. Each customer is worth £1,600 in gross margin to you.

A healthy business aims for at least a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. So, in this example, you could afford to spend up to £533 to acquire a single customer. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a customer, you can afford to pay up to £53.30 per qualified lead. Suddenly, paying £20 for a lead doesn't seem so bad, does it? It looks like a bargain.

This is the math that unlocks intelligent growth. I've built a simple calculator for you below to play with your own numbers.

You'll need a solid plan for targeting on Meta...

Ok, so once you have a killer offer, you understand your customer's nightmare, and you know your numbers, *then* you can start thinking about building campaigns. When you're new and don't have any data, the structure is quite simple.

I usually prioritize audiences in a specific order. The idea is to start broad to gather data, then use that data to find better and better audiences. For a brand new account, your journey will look like this:

Phase 1: Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Finding New People

This is where you'll start. Your goal is to drive traffic to your website to 'season' your Meta Pixel with data about who is interested in your offer.

-> Audience Type: Detailed Targeting. This is where your "nightmare" research comes in. You'll create ad sets based on the interests, behaviours, and demographics you uncovered. Don't target "business". Target "people interested in Xero" AND "Shopify" if you sell an accounting integration for e-commerce stores. Get specific. Group related interests into themed ad sets and test them against each other.

Phase 2: Middle/Bottom of Funnel (MoFu/BoFu) - Retargeting

Once you have at least a few hundred website visitors, you can start retargeting. These are your warmest audiences and will almost always give you the best return.

-> Audience Type: Custom Audiences. You'll create audiences of people who have visited your website in the last 30-90 days, people who have engaged with your Facebook or Instagram page, or people who have watched a percentage of your video ads. You show these people different ads, maybe with a testimonial or a special offer, to bring them back to convert.

Phase 3: Scaling - Lookalikes

This comes later, once you have at least 100 conversions (e.g., 100 leads or 100 purchases). This is where things get powerful.

-> Audience Type: Lookalike Audiences. You tell Facebook, "Here is a list of my 100 best customers. Go and find me millions of other people in the UK who look and behave just like them." This is often the key to scaling your campaigns profitably. You can create Lookalikes of website visitors, leads, and purchasers. Always start with a Lookalike of your highest-value audience first (purchasers).

For a new account on a small budget, you will live in Phase 1 for a while, testing different interest-based audiences. As soon as you have enough data, you add a simple retargeting campaign (Phase 2). Don't even think about Lookalikes until you have a good volume of conversions.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know that's a lot to take in, especially when you're just trying to get your first ad to run. But getting these strategic foundations right from the start will save you thousands of pounds and months of frustration. Here are the main recommendations I'd make for you, summarised.

Getting these things in place is a huge part of the battle. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's about building a proper system for acquiring customers predictably.

That's where expert help can make a huge difference. While these principles are straightforward, executing them effectively—choosing the right interests to test, writing copy that resonates with the 'nightmare', optimising campaigns based on data, and scaling budgets without breaking profitability—takes experience. We've managed campaigns for dozens of businesses, from software startups seeing a $7 cost per trial to eCommerce brands achieving a 1000% Return On Ad Spend.

We can help you navigate this process far more quickly and avoid the common costly mistakes that most new businesses make.

If you'd like to chat further, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can look at your specific business and help you map out a clear plan. It's a great way to get some expert eyes on your strategy.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh