I just wanted to send a warning out there to any application developers that may have been thinking of using Facebook’s in-house advertising to promote new applications. BEWARE, they may scam you out of your advertising money and tell you tough.

Recently I developed some very large high dollar applications for clients.  Upon completion and extensive testing of the functionality of the applications, my clients went and setup Facebook ads to promote their new applications.  These applications were very specific towards their companies.  They were mostly used for customer communications and interactions.  The apps followed Facebook’s Polices to the tee plus some by not requiring any kind of personal permissions or data from the users Facebook account.

When the advertising finally kicked in, the apps were both deleted within a few hours of the ads running.  Mind you these apps had no risky type marketing ploys or anything like that.  When it comes to contacting Facebook about these matters, they basically tell you tough, explaining that their automated audit determined the application didn’t follow their flow.  Below is the entire email sent to the developers account email.

Hi,

We’re committed to providing a positive user experience on Platform while also providing developers an ecosystem in which communication channels are open and applications may grow. To ensure a positive user experience, we run routine automated screens that take user feedback and various algorithms into account and remove spammy applications.

Your application  (ID #XXXXXXXXXXXXX) has been detected by our automated systems and permanently disabled. To prevent this from happening to future applications you may build, please monitor user reports and be sure to follow all outlined Developer Principles and Policies, found at http://developers.facebook.com/policy. Additionally, please keep the user experience at the forefront when developing and iterating on your application.

Though we are very confident in our system, if you think we have removed your application erroneously, you can read about our appeals process and complete a form to appeal at http://www.facebook.com/help?faq=17553. We will work quickly to evaluate your case and initiate the appeals process.

Thank you,
The Facebook Platform Team

My conclusion is that the apps had grown to fast from the advertising that was paid for.  There wasn’t any user reports, so their “algorithms” in the automated system is either seriously flawed or Facebook is just as much of a crook as most big companies that have come big over the years.

Please take this time to spread this word to your colleagues and clients.  It may be a crap shoot when purchasing advertising with Facebook for your applications.