Your account is blocked: what to do right now

An appeal and a compromise report travel through different channels, and that difference decides everything.

• An appeal tells the platform: your decision about my content is wrong. You get one. Once it is refused, you cannot file again.
• A compromise report tells the platform: this account was under someone else's control. It is a separate procedure and it does not spend your appeal.

The trap is that the appeal is the first thing the interface offers. The block screen leads straight to it, and someone in a panic presses that button within minutes. In my practice there was a case where an appeal was filed while the account was still under someone else's control. The platform refused it and closed the right to any further review. Access to the account was recovered later, but the blocking decision was no longer open to review: an account with years of history and a page with an established audience were lost for good.

This is not carelessness. The interface is built that way: the right button sits deeper than the wrong one.

So if you suspect a compromise, file the compromise report first and never the appeal. Platforms usually respond to a compromise report within 30 to 60 minutes, so waiting serves no purpose.

How it usually starts: an email that appears to come from platform support, often in your own language, often congratulating you on a verified status or a blue badge. The link leads to a form hosted on a legitimate domain, which is why the email clears your spam filter. Whatever you enter, including your two-factor code, is used by an operator on the other side immediately, while the code is still valid. Less than an hour passes between the click and the loss of the account.

Takeover without losing the password

An account can be lost without you losing access to it. The most common pattern works like this: the attacker adds their own profile as an administrator and downgrades the real owner's role. The password still works, the login goes through, the interface is where it always was. You can see everything and change nothing.

That is exactly why these cases are found late. There is no sense of theft, the ads keep running for a while, and nothing raises an alarm.

Check immediately if anything looks off:

• The option to add or remove people has disappeared.
• Your role has changed from administrator to employee or analyst.
• An unfamiliar profile has appeared in the administrator list.
• The linked payment method has been changed.
• Emails from the platform have stopped arriving at the usual address.

Any one of these is enough to treat the situation as an emergency, even if the ads are still running.

More on the procedure: Hacked account recovery

People with blocked accounts get direct messages by the dozen: unblocked within the hour, I have a contact inside Meta, payment upfront. There are no contacts inside Meta or Google, and all legitimate work goes through official channels.

What you should never be asked for

• Your password. Under no circumstances.
• A code from SMS or from an authenticator app. That is a direct attempt to take the account.
• Access to the email address linked to the account.
• A guaranteed outcome promised before anyone has looked at your situation.
• Full payment upfront in exchange for a guarantee.

What I need instead

• Screenshots of the notifications and of the stated reason.
• A role in your Business Manager, granted through the platform's own tools, which you revoke with one click at any time.
• Company documents, if the case reaches verification, in the format the platform asks for.

I do not need your passwords, your codes or access to your email, and I will never ask for them.

Meta and Google almost never tell you what you actually did wrong. But the wording of the notification determines which appeal route is the correct one. Find yours below.

Meta

• “Your ad account has been disabled”, referencing the advertising policies. The most common case. The decision is almost always made by an algorithm, with no human involved. Route: a request for review through Business Support Home.
• “We noticed unusual activity”, with advertising features restricted. A protective measure rather than a penalty. Often triggered by a change of device, country of login or payment method. Route: identity and business verification.
• A restriction on the entire business portfolio. All connected ads stop. The worst case: what is at risk is the whole structure, not one account.
• A payment-related disablement. A failed charge, a mismatch between the cardholder name and the account, a chargeback. Resolved faster than the rest, and through a different procedure.
• A personal profile block that took the ad account down with it. Here the order of actions is the reverse of the usual one, see the rule above.

Google Ads

• Circumventing systems. The heaviest category. Triggered when a payment method, IP address, address or domain matches a previously suspended account, even if the business is unrelated. The three-strike system does not apply; suspension is immediate.
• Suspicious payments. Requires verification of the payment method within a limited window.
• Misrepresentation. A complaint about the landing page: unclear terms, missing contact details, a mismatch between the promise and what is actually offered.
• Suspension after buying a domain with history. The previous owner's violations carry over to you.

If your wording is not listed here, send me a screenshot and I will tell you which category it falls into.

More on the procedure: Google Ads and Business Profile recovery

Honestly: neither Meta nor Google publishes guaranteed timelines. Rough guidance from practice:

• Simple cases such as payments and verification close within a few days.
• A standard policy appeal: from a few days to two weeks.
• Heavy categories such as circumventing systems: weeks, and often a refusal on the first round.
• Silence lasting more than two weeks usually means the process has stalled rather than that anyone is reviewing it.

What is time-critical

• Meta accepts documents for review within 180 days of the restriction. After that the account may become permanently disabled.
• An internal complaint under the DSA must be filed within six months of the decision.
• Payment method verification in Google is normally limited to 30 days.

The longer you wait, the fewer options remain. But acting in the wrong order is worse than waiting a day and doing it properly.

Two different tempos, do not confuse them

• A hack: minutes. File the compromise report immediately, before someone else files an appeal. Platforms usually respond within 30 to 60 minutes.
• A policy block: two to three working days. You get one appeal and cannot refile. I take two or three working days to prepare and submit only when I am confident in the wording. That is not a delay; it is the only way not to waste your single attempt.

If someone offers to file your appeal the same day, ask what the wording is based on. Nobody works out the real cause of a block in an hour.