Media agency pulls future ad spend from Facebook & Instagram

Recent system glitches have been described as the “final straw” that broke Bespoke Media’s back as the group announced its move to withdraw all corporate advertising from Facebook and Instagram.

It comes as the company’s chief executive Nic Fren detailed how the platform is “banning pages from advertising, even when no violation had occurred”.

“The latest glitch is sending warnings,” he said. “Many of which are going unnoticed due to the constant scams surrounding Facebook, and users are having their pages banned from boosting or running ad campaigns indefinitely.

“Sadly, by the time restrictions are put in place, there’s not a lot we can do to help.”

He explained that the timing of the decision is right, given the turbulent year Meta has had — which has seen the social media giant be overtaken by TikTok as the number one social media platform due to an inability to attract younger users and severe server crashes.

“It just feels like the right time to pull our spend from Facebook and put it where our audience is hanging out.

“The decision to pull advertising from a corporate level wasn’t an easy one for me,” Mr Fren claimed, especially considering the time, money, and education he had put into the platform to build his and his members profiles, while still “staying compliant within community guidelines”.

“However, these latest bugs which will simply switch off your ad accounts without warning or proper cause is the final straw for me.”

He now encourages his company’s members to divert their energy into building a presence on other platforms — including TikTok and YouTube — that have greater appeal to a wider demographic.

Mr Fren added that a further layer of confusion surrounding Facebook was identifying whether an account violation warning is legitimate or a scam, with claims that he receives dozens of messages per week from members on this topic.

“More often than not, if you are emailed it’s a scam. However, if notifications are coming from within Facebook, you must action them within the specified time,” he said.

Once an account has been restricted, the only course of action to be taken is to appeal — which can only occur during the first 24 to 48 hours after a warning notice is received.

Importantly, he advises to not open any emails and click on any links that appear suspicious, especially those sent by a personal, not professional, email as they are the most likely source of scams.

Mr Fren concluded that he “will continue to put out content that our audience wants to engage with” but relayed encouragement that Bespoke Media’s members begin to focus more on alternative platforms.

This article first appeared in REB