Why did my sweepstake competition get my banned from FB?

[OscarMike]

Hi guys, I ran a Iphone giveaway contest using Facebook ads. My ad account quickly got disabled. Facebook said it seemed like a scam. It was a real giveaway I was holding. They still disabled my ad account.

I've read guides on how to run giveaways on Facebook (eg what prize to pick, include official rules etc) and some of the guides said any prize is ok. A $1000 bed set, $50 gift card to your store (assuming you're a business). They even said Ipads and iphones are ok prizes too - the prize doesn't have to be related to the business.

Yet I got banned for my Iphone giveaway. My page was a fan page for smartphones. Thankfully I was able to create another ad account but I never ran another sweepstake contest on Facebook.

Is it possible for a business to run a giveaway contest where the prize is, say, a $20 Subway gift even if the business isn't Subway? Or will you get the ban-hammer for holding a sweepstake contest where the prize isn't related to the business?

Thanks

 

[Graybeard]

These iPhone giveaways are email spam traps. Sign-up for one
I did this as an experiment to my Gmail just to see.
Gmail is a spam magnet --the senders use DKIM etc so they are getting through.
This type of offer may be legal but it is parasitic.

 

[T J Tutor]

Gmail is a spam magnet

So true, anyone using GMail in their business is simply not serious about business. If a business is not using their own domain and server and using free emails (etc.) as a representation of their business then they are failing from the start.

Platforms providing ad opportunities may be acting on this sentiment.

 

[Franke]

A lot of people that ran sweepstakes on Facebook were promoting their lead-gen landing pages + affiliate offers. These are mostly marketing funnels that result in a lot of spam e-mails and phone calls for the visitor.

Facebook is quite strict nowadays with those kinds of ads. It is still possible to run a giveaway but only if you're a legitimate brand, otherwise chances are you'll get automatically flagged and your ads are disabled.

What does work:
Acer giving away 3 laptops.

What doesn't work:
Company X giving away 10 iPhones if you sign-up.

You could try running some kind of sweepstakes related blog which you'd advertise on Facebook indirectly promoting your lead-gen/giveaway?