That ad account was for a tiny shop. Small budget, twenty dollars a day, selling handmade stuff. The first day went okay, a few people added items to carts. The next morning I opened the dashboard and saw red text: account disabled.
My plan was simple. Appeal, or start over. The appeal took four days and came back as a template saying the decision stood. Fine. Start over.
Attempt two
New bank card, new email, new ad account. This time I was careful. No spending at first, just let it sit. Three days, nothing. On day four I started a campaign. Six hours later, disabled again.
I was genuinely annoyed. I sat there thinking, how did it recognize me? Different card, different email, even a different spelling of my name.
It was not recognizing me. It was recognizing my setup
After reading other people's stories and poking around, I got the general idea. The platform looks past the profile. Same computer, same browser, same network exit, same name on the card, same shipping address. A few overlaps and it connects the accounts.
In my case, same laptop, same browser, same proxy exit both times. I had changed the house number and stayed standing in the same doorway.
The IP lookup showed a datacenter range and a high-ish risk score. The proxy check flagged it immediately. Honestly, if I were the reviewer, I would have side-eyed me too.
What changed on attempt three
I did not rush. Separate browser, only this business logged in. Separate network exit, not the old one. My own payment method, with a name and address matching the account. No other related accounts on that machine.
Then I waited about a week, browsing normally, no ads, no mass friend requests. After a week I started at ten dollars a day. This one survived.
No secret formula. Just stop making two accounts look like one person.
Mistakes worth listing
- Do not keep multiple ad accounts open on the same machine, even to check on them.
- Do not retry with the same card. Failed attempts follow the card too.
- Do not launch a big budget on a brand-new account. Start small for a few days.
- Do not use a free proxy shared by everyone. A dirty exit makes a dirty account.
A depressing footnote
I still would not claim I understand all of it. Rules change. What passes today may fail next month. I control what I can and leave the rest to luck.
The shop never really took off. Ads stopped and started, and I sold maybe a handful of things. But those months taught me one thing: an account is not a username. It is a whole set of circumstances.