Affiliate Marketing on Facebook: What are your options?

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Lilian George
6 years ago
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Affiliate Marketing on Facebook: What are your options? Picture this: Jane posts an ad for a new moneymaking opportunity on Facebook. The ad is very vague and doesn t provide much detail.

1 Affiliate Marketing on Facebook: What are your options? Picture this: Jane posts an ad for a new moneymaking opportunity on Facebook. The ad is very vague and doesn t provide much detail. It is colorful and obnoxiously flashy; it is annoyingly tempting to say the least. On the other hand, it promises a substantial amount of monetary return with little to no investment. Jane gets people to click on it. Jane gets commission from the amount of people who viewed the ad, as well as for the people who signed up. A few days later Jane, nor her ad, is on Facebook anymore. Ladies and gents, Jane has just been banned from Facebook for engaging in a form of affiliate marketing. But isn t affiliate marketing harmless? Isn t it just another unique way to make passive, residual income through measuring clicks and generating leads? Why could Facebook consider this a bad thing? Well for one, Facebook is a free platform. So using this free platform to capitalize on monetary gain through the services provided by the Facebook company is Wrong!

2 And you re lucky you have me here today, because I ll go ahead and elaborate on another reason: Jane didn t follow the ad guidelines. Just like Meghan Trainor is all about the bass, Facebook is allllll about their guidelines. Their guidelines are sort of like the social sharing bible of the Internet. (Okay maybe just for Facebook, not the entire Internet.) Either way, they re important. Facebook Ad Policy Yes, I know. I provided the link above and you didn t even click on it because no one reads that stuff. They re jam-packed with so much information and jumbled jargon on a slew of different topics and scenarios. It s a lot to consider, which is why most people don t bother to look at them. Sometimes it s hard to tell exactly what they will allow for a specific situation. There s not an explicit policy listed anywhere. So if you re wondering what to do about a particular ad you d like to post, but aren t sure, you re probably feeling a lot like this: One could argue that Jane s ad directly defies some of Facebook s policies listed on the Do s and Don ts page. To name a few: 1. Do: Follow other Facebook terms and policies.

3 2. Don t: Use the Facebook brand in a way that implies partnership, sponsorship or endorsement. 3. Don t: Use trademarks, names, domain names, logos or other content that imitates or could be confused with Facebook. Most specifically, Jane seemed to have violated the work from home/multi-level marketing guideline. This guideline explicitly states that get rich quick schemes or other moneymaking opportunities are prohibited. Way to go, Jane. But because Jane did the wrong thing, not all hope is lost for the aspiring ad-poster. It s okay. Just breathe. So what does Facebook allow? According to their guidelines, if you re dealing with landing pages and links, here is a short snapshot into what they do and do not accept:

4 Some of these questions, answered by the Facebook Help Team give some information (although still very vague) about specific cases: For instance, this particular question didn t get answered directly because the Facebook team may have felt like it was more case specific. Approval for the advertising of his link depended on whether or not he followed the specific guidelines, unique to his ad campaign.

5 Take this scenario as well:

6 This was about a stay-at-home mom just wanting to make some extra income on the side through affiliate marketing. The Facebook Help Team referred her directly to a Help Center article that provided information on working from home through Facebook. Here s one more: Again, Facebook doesn t have any particular policies against affiliate marketing; they just make it very clear that the ads must be in line with their guidelines. In this case, the affiliate links the customer is advertising must be associated with the page he is advertising for. So, bottom line, Facebook just wants you to play by the rules their rules in particular. If you do so, you shouldn t run in to many problems. Jane may have just needed to read her guidelines more carefully before proceeding. Maybe she could ve visited the Facebook Help Center first. Who knows? But Jane can always dust herself off and try again, right?

http://giphy.com/gifs/i-give-up-koqdotb3iwehe After all, it s the Internet.

7 After all, it s the Internet. There s plenty of room to mess up. But then again there s still plenty of room start over. Just make sure you follow the rules.

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