Facebook Ads Blocked? It Could Be Because of the RBI’s New Guidelines

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Have your Facebook Ad campaigns been suspended? Don’t panic, you’re not the only one facing this issue. In the past few weeks, several Facebook advertisers have reached out to us for help regarding this. Here’s what we know about the issue so far.

Why is it happening?

It could be because of the Reserve Bank of India’s revised guidelines on automatic recurring payments. Starting 1st April 2021, the RBI has mandated Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for all such payments. This means these payments are no longer automatic and require the customer’s consent. But here’s the problem – banks and merchants don’t have the infrastructure to facilitate AFA. So, your automatic payments – including the payments for your Facebook ad campaigns – might not go through. As a result, your ad campaigns may have been suspended temporarily. You can read more about this here.

What are the RBI’s new guidelines?

Banks will have to inform their customers about such auto-debit payments at least 24 hours in advance. The transaction will be processed only after the customer’s approval. This process is called AFA. If the transaction amount is less than 5,000 rupees, a one-time password (OTP) will be required for the first transaction only. All successive transactions will be automatic. But for transactions above the 5,000-rupee limit, an OTP will be required each time.

Currently, banks are not equipped to facilitate AFA. So, you might have to make these payments manually until banks and merchants like Facebook are ready with the changes. The deadline to do so has been extended till 30th September 2021.

How does this affect credit card users?

Our customers have encountered 2 types of issues so far. Other credit card users might also face the same problems.

Case 1: Your credit card may not be accepted as a payment method by Facebook.

Case 2: Your marketing campaigns may be paused by Facebook for 48 hours or more.  

What’s the solution?

Facebook is still working on a concrete solution. Until then, we’ve found a few workarounds that have helped our customers. These could also work for other credit card users.

1. If your credit card gets declined:

Use Chat Support to request Facebook to enable transactions on your credit card. It may take a good deal of persuasion, persistence and patience. But this approach has helped many of our customers.

Here is an alternate way you could use to add your credit card as a payment method:

In Ad Centre, go to Payment Settings → Payment Methods → Add Payment Method

Enter the details of your credit card there. If you have multiple cards saved and want to change the default payment method, you might have to request the Support Team to do so.

2. If your ad campaigns are paused:

Again, Chat Support to the rescue. Facebook might be migrating your account to a prepaid payment method. Hence, your campaigns might be paused temporarily. You could get in touch with the Support team and request them to restart your campaigns.

Note: Avoid raising a ticket through the Support Inbox, it might be auto-closed without intimation. Instead, use Chat Support to get in touch with the Facebook team

We hope you found this article useful. If you have any questions, drop a comment and we’ll be happy to answer them.

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Recommended Reads:

  1. Building A Winning Instagram Ads Strategy
  2. Advertising on Amazon: A Complete Guide For D2C Brands

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