An Open Letter To Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,
The past several years have seen controversy and turmoil at Facebook. I'm sorry you've had to deal with that. From testifying before Congress to policing content that prevents election tampering, you've got plenty on your plate.
Marketers: The Forgotten Priority
It's no surprise you struggle to keep everyone happy. Shareholders come first, government regulators come second, users of the platform are next, and then, way down at the bottom, are the marketers who happen to make up the sales numbers that keep your stock healthy and your investors happy. Yes, marketers are the ones actually paying the bills.
I'm sure you're doing your best to make the platform experience outstanding for everyone. I'm also sure you've failed a lot of us miserably.
The Algorithm Apocalypse
Recently, your A.I. and algorithm changes have started systematically shutting down respectable ad accounts -- accounts belonging to businesses that spend hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars a year on your platform. These aren't snake-oil peddlers, MLMs, or get-rich-quick schemes. These are legitimate businesses that support hundreds of employees and, like us, have helped thousands of companies generate billions of dollars in revenue.
Yesterday, our ad account was shut down without rhyme or reason for the second time in as many months.
When we ask for answers, we get none. There is no one at Facebook who can tell us why. That begs the question: if shareholders are priority number one, where's the accountability to the marketers who are getting shut down without reason, justification, or explanation?
When we ask what policy was violated, here's the actual response we get, word for word:
"Your ad account was disabled for not complying with the following policies: Facebook Advertising Policies -- all ads promoting products and services, as well as Page post content that is boosted, are required to comply with our Policies in order to create a safe environment for people on our platform. Please read through our Policies for more details including examples of do's and don'ts."
And here's the "solution" Facebook offers:
"Take our e-learning Blueprint course, Ad Policies for Content, Creative, and Targeting, to better understand our Advertising Policies as a whole."
Nowhere is there an option to get specific information -- what policy was actually violated, what piece of creative triggered it, nothing. You just shut down the account and move on with business as usual. Allow me to share the actual impact of that.
Here's What You're Actually Breaking
As a Facebook marketing partner, Ad Zombies produces more ad copy for your platform than almost any shop in the world -- on an average day, somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 ads running on Facebook have passed through our shop for our clients. In 40+ years and 100,000+ ads written, I've learned exactly how to write TOS-compliant copy that still converts. If any company knows how to stay inside your policy lines while still selling, it's us.
Our annual spend with Facebook has its ebbs and flows, but we consistently put tens of thousands of dollars a month, hundreds of thousands a year, into your platform -- and we deliver billions in generated revenue for our clients doing it.
Now, with our account shut down again, that impact is hitting my business directly. I can only speak for my company -- I can't speak for the thousands of other marketers who've dealt with this exact same issue over the last several months -- but I know it's frustrating every one of them the same way it's frustrating me.
Because a shutdown doesn't just hit my bottom line. It hits my team's. Hundreds of people worldwide are affected -- employees, contractors, the families they support, the stores they shop in, and the wider economy that all of it feeds.
One algorithm shutting down one account, with zero human interaction and zero accountability, has a global ripple effect.
Mr. Zuckerberg, I'm glad I'm not the one who has to explain to shareholders why the platform is unstable, why advertisers are abandoning it, or why revenue is sliding.
I only have to explain to my team why we can't advertise on Facebook right now. And I can't actually explain why -- because nobody at Facebook will tell me.
You may not have personally caused this problem, but as the owner of the business, you should damn well own both the problem and the solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
That's the problem—they don't know. Facebook disabled their account twice in two months without providing any specific reason, policy violation details, or human explanation. All they received was boilerplate text directing them to review general Facebook Advertising Policies with zero specifics about what they allegedly did wrong.
On an average day, between 4,000 and 5,000 ads are running on Facebook that have come through Ad Zombies' ecosystem for their clients. They claim to produce more ads for Facebook than any company in the world as a Facebook marketing partner.
It's not just one company's revenue that gets hit. According to Ken, hundreds of people worldwide are impacted—employees, contractors, their families, the businesses they support, and the broader economy. When an algorithm makes decisions without human accountability, the ripple effects are massive.
Nope. When Ad Zombies asked for specifics, they got nothing but generic policy links and a suggestion to take a Blueprint e-learning course. There's no option to get details about what specific policy was violated or examples from their actual ads—just account shutdown and crickets.
Shareholders come first, government regulators second, regular platform users third, and marketers—the ones who actually generate the revenue that keeps Facebook's stock healthy—are "way down at the bottom." Despite marketers being the lifeblood of the platform, they get treated like an afterthought.
