How Facebooks Dating Ads Ban Can Make You Rich
Jan of 2014 was the beginning of a rough Q1 for those in the dating ads space.
Facebook decided it was in their best interest, and in the best interest of its users, to ban dating & matchmaking companies from being able to advertise on their platform.
If you’ve ever seen the ads, you can understand why the ban had to happen (cleavage, breasts, and the oh so seductive face!).
The ads were hurting the user experience…
Plain and simple.
What Facebook Wants Dating Advertisers to use:
What advertisers were actually using…
All advertisers were thinking about a high click-through rate and it was pretty much a race to see who could get the most scandalous ads through.
In fact, dating ads were being reported 3x more than any other niche!!
The average “dating” ad wouldn’t even send users to sites relevant to dating anyway.
The majority of them were XXX sites and sex related sites.
Here’s what Facebook said about the ban:
“Making sure ads are relevant and high quality is a top priority for us, so we updated our policy a few months ago to require manual review for ads for online dating services. We got a lot of negative feedback from people about many of these ads, and in some cases, they violated various policies. To keep the quality of ads on Facebook high, we are only allowing ads for dating sites to appear on Facebook from advertisers who have Facebook account representatives. This ensures the manual review and counsel – to show the best ads possible – is in place.”
Facebook Representative
For the average Facebook user who was sick of seeing annoying ads, this was great news.
But for legit dating and matchmaking businesses, this was a game changer…
An end to so much access.
Believe it or not, this was a blessing in disguise for those who took advantage of the circumstances.
I mean think about it…
~99% of your competition is gone!
And the 1% left have are so fat, dumb and lazy now, you should be able to blow them out of the water.
Anyone with a hot dating campaign should be excited.
Dating is one of the most competitive niches being advertised on Facebook and all of your competition has been dismantled.
No, you don’t need a ‘Cloaker‘.
That’s not what I am talking about.
There are a few different strategies you can use to start running some awesome campaigns.
The first strategy is the most obvious…
Ask Facebook for permission.
Here how to apply to advertise on Facebook as a dating partner:
- You can submit a request to become a Dating Partner through this link.
- Once you have submitted this request you should hear back from the Policy Team within 30 days. They will reach back out to you directly through your support inbox.
- This link will provide you with the steps on how to locate this inbox.
– Re: Facebook Advertising Team
Work The Angles
Another strategy is to start working different angles.
Really break down your niche, your audience.
Hell, if you’re a matchmaker you should already know who your target audience is, to the core.
Sit down with a pad of paper (white stuff you can write on) and start brainstorming.
Begin writing down every problem your target market has from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they lay their head on their pillow at night.
Go even further than that too.
What keeps them up at night?
Do they have kids?
Do they have trouble getting the kids to school on time?
Are they ambitious?
Do they want to look good in front of their boss?
Are they fitness crazy?
Do they need to find time to workout during the workday?
Do you see what I am saying?
We are trying to find other problems we can help solve.
The reason I am having you go through every single minute of their day is so that you’ll really nail down what it is to be this person.
We want you to be in their head.
You want to know their pains and pleasures.
This is how we find other angles.
And when it’s time to start advertising we want to focus on those emotions.
People buy based on emotions and they justify it with logic.
Don’t say things like, “Are you single?” “Need a date?“.
This is the quickest way to become persona non grata in Facebook’s eyes.
Find things that would relate to someone who is looking for a date or looking for a partner without flat out saying it.
You can’t be lazy and just show cleavage.
Won’t work.
There are plenty of other things that have been proven to get men or women to click. Get creative.
What’s your next best bet?
Who Are Your Audiences Gurus?
Go back to knowing your audience.
Who do they follow?
Look into those influencers your audience trusts.
Reach out to those people and negotiate a deal.
Most influencers love a chance to make some money, ESPECIALLY, if it’s relevant to their audience, they should really have no reason to turn you down.
Alright, so we’ve reached the last possible option.
And that is…
Find another channel to advertise on.
You know everything about your audience now right?
So where do they spend their time online?
What channels do they spend a lot of time on?
Is it Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, some random blog somewhere?
These are important facts to know and understand.
Find these locations and either look into their advertising platforms OR reach out to the site owners.
Like influencers, the majority of sites have real estate prepared for advertising.
If you can, find a media kit located on their site.
If not, run their site through SEMrush and look into their stats.
Then negotiate a decent rate.
There are 100s of other traffic sources out there that will be happy to take your money.
They allow you to advertise freely.
They’ll send gifts to your home to thank you for your patronage.
That’s the kind of situation to look for when seeking out a traffic source now.
Checklist for new traffic sources:
- They have lots of traffic
- They want money
- You get an intelligent rep who can help you
- If the source doesn’t fit these criteria, don’t use them
So. Reach out to Facebook directly and apply to become an advertiser.
If that doesn’t work, run campaigns with different angles in which somewhere in your funnel prospects will be introduced to a dating offer.
If you’re still not profitable, look into influencer marketing and reach out to those people your audience trusts and follow.
All else fails, find other traffic sources to get your message to appear on.
I’d love to hear your opinion on the matter?
Should the process to become a Facebook dating & advertising partner be so difficult?
Yes, FB has their own dating platform. In essence, the industry giants control the big share of the pie. Matchmakers like me would need to hire a third party company which is FB approved representative to advertise.
Very good article. I’m experiencing some of these issues as well..
I didn’t know it was possible to ask permission to Facebook to run dating ads. I will apply and cross my fingers! 🙂
Cheers
Very neat blog post.Really looking forward to read more.
Have you considered adding some relevant links to the article? I think it will really enhance everyones understanding.