- Jordan Nabigon, CEO of content site Shared, spent nearly $ 46 million on Facebook ads between 2006 and 2020 before launching the platform without warning or explanation.
- Facebook said Nabigon’s company violated the site’s terms and conditions but did not elaborate further “due to safety and security.” Several of his company pages have been unpublished since October 26.
- “We did nothing wrong and I am confident of that,” Nabigon said in an interview with Business Insider. “There’s no way it was worth this kind of reaction from Facebook.”
- Nabigon and other small business owners say they have struggled to get in touch with Facebook customer service to correct advertising issues.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A small business owner who has spent nearly $ 46 million on Facebook ads over the years said he started off the platform without warning.
Jordan Nabigon, CEO of the Shared Content Needs website in Ottawa, Ontario, said Facebook removed its company’s main Facebook page in October without warning and without giving an explanation. He shared a medium report outlining his experience, which received more than 400 “slaps” from readers.
Nabigon spent $ 45,870,181 on Facebook ads for Shared and his other company, Freebies, between 2006 and 2020, according to spending reports reviewed by Business Insider.
Facebook has increased the use of artificial intelligence to monitor ads and other content during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Nabigon is among hundreds of business owners who have said they have suffered through Facebook’s cracking down on advertising policies.
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“We did nothing wrong and I am confident of that,” Nabigon said in an interview with Business Insider. “Even if there was something that was not on, it is by no means worth it to earn this kind of reaction from Facebook.”
According to Nabigon, Facebook told him that it had violated the terms and conditions of the platform, but did not elaborate further “due to safety and security.” The owner of the small business said Facebook gave him no warning that it could or would not publish his pages, and that Facebook informed him that the decision was final.
Facebook representatives did not respond to several requests for further comment.
Nabigon lost several company pages that garnered 21 million followers due to the erroneous violations, he said. Facebook also locked Nabigon out of his personal account.
Business Insider’s Tyler Sonnemaker spoke with seven other business owners, who advertised for companies selling things like dog products and women’s jewelry, and said they were losing revenue due to Facebook errors.
And small business owners, including Nabigon, have said they are struggling to get in touch with Facebook advertising agents to get help solving problems.
In 2010, Adweek reported that Facebook hired an account representative if an account spent more than $ 10,000 on advertising. But on Facebook’s website, it is now said that the company is “proactively” assigning advertisers to account managers.
“There is currently no process for advertisers to request a personal account manager,” reads Facebook’s website. “If it is determined that your account will benefit from additional account management resources, we will contact you directly.”
Nabigon said he worked with representatives at the Facebook office in Toronto between 2012 and 2017 to get personal assistance in reading the website’s advertising policies and to ensure that the company’s pages remain infringing. Nabigon said Facebook employees reached out directly to him and met him for hourly counseling sessions.
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But in 2017, Facebook sent an email to Nabigon saying it would have an account representative for now. Rather, he and other executives emailed customer service, which could only provide ‘canned answers’ regarding the company’s breach and offered little extra help, Nabigon said. Shared’s company pages have been unpublished since October 26.
“I think there is a lot of power in retaining the right people who are supposed to monitor the AI or the policy implementation,” Nabigon said. ‘We need someone to look at the nuances and complexities of our business, especially as we share our history with [Facebook] is long. ‘