Klaus and Céline Langer’s son is fascinated by cars, but the ones in the coloring book are childish and cartoonish, with faces and eyes as silly as headlights.

So Langers hired a graphic designer to create their own coloring book: with a sleek Porsche 911, a monster truck, and a powerful one. muscle car American. In 2019, they started selling their designs on Shopify to customers around the world to print at home.

Business skyrocketed during the pandemic. French company Color Crush Books then spent up to 500 euros a day in advertising via Facebook and Instagramtoday part of Meta, to attract new customers.

But three weeks ago, business ground to a halt when the Color Crush Book Facebook ad account was abruptly terminated.

Klaus said that about 90% of the company’s sales, about 10,000 euros, evaporated. Although the pair claimed that a Meta representative assured them at the time that the account had been deactivated in error, Langer has not heard from them since.

“We sell children’s coloring books with perfect quality. We haven’t turned off ads for the last 3 years,” explained Klaus Langer. “This is crazy.”

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Color Crush Books is now exploring its budget to other platforms like TikTok and is even considering starting printing its books to move to a more classic distribution model that relies less on digital marketing, they told Business Insider.

The company’s advertising account on Meta has been restored this Tuesday after Business Insider contact the company to inquire about the case.

Color Crush Books is not an isolated case. As reported Business Insider last monthMeta Advertisers have noted an increase in the number of blocked accounts and ad pages, as well as difficulties in contacting the company to recover them.

Although Meta said last month that it had identified an error “where some advertisers were unable to access certain features,” the problem still persists and the company haven’t announced a deadline for completing it or information about possible compensation.

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Downtime is particularly detrimental to some small businesses whose revenue relies heavily on Facebook and Instagram advertising, especially as they enter the holiday sales season.

Cory Dobbin, founder and CEO of Toronto-based agency Aaron Advertising, revealed that a Meta representative admitted to him in an email this week that a technical glitch was causing account deactivation and ad page issues.

A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that they offer tools to help small businesses grow and they also have systems in place to prevent abuse.

“We are regularly working to improve the support we offer businesses, whether that be by explaining our policy enforcement actions more clearly or by fixing any technical issues if they occur to reduce their impact on the businesses that depend on our platform,” the spokesperson added. .

Meta has previously warned of possible disruption as it is reorganizing its business around the so-called metaverse and moving other resources to TikTok competitor Reels.

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It’s also rebuilding its advertising infrastructure after Apple’s recent privacy changes hampered its ability to target and measure campaigns.

Problems with ad accounts have seen changes in the budgets spent by companies to appear in searches, moves to TikTok and, in the case of at least one particular company, layoffs.

The British company The Others Beauty offers products for people with special needs. Its first and biggest brand is Stories and Ink, a line of skincare products for people with tattoos.

Like many skincare brands, the company relies heavily on Meta ads to engage customers, shop about 30,000 euros per month on the platform.

Ad account from Story and Ink it was decommissioned in mid-September, causing sales to plunge 35%, according to The Others Beauty founder Stu Jolley.

As Stories and Ink prepares to launch in the US, Jolley said the company wasted hours opening dozens of support tickets with Meta’s customer service team without reaching a resolution.

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“For a small or medium-sized business, timing is everything,” Jolley recalls.

Michael Lorenzos, head of performance and growth at UK-based fintech firm Silverbird, said it is true that in the 6 years he has bought advertising on Facebook, several of his campaigns have been canceled for violating some of Facebook’s policies. company, but clarified that “flat restrictions are so generalized it’s nothing new”.

Silverbird’s advertising account was deactivated in mid-August, and Lorenzos shifted some of its budget to search and offline channels.

Despite the restrictions preventing them from running ads on their Pages, Lorenzos and other ad buyers he knows outside of Silverbird have been bombarded with emails from outsourced Facebook marketing support experts who offer them to improve the performance of their ad accounts, said.

This summer, Meta launched the Meta Pro Team to offer hands-on support and advice for small businesses.

“The resources Meta dedicated to the development of this team would have been better put to use if a support system was created that would reactivate the accounts,” Lorenzos recalled.

More than half a dozen advertising agencies and consultants have been recognized this week Business Insider what andthey have a problem with account deactivation, ad disapproval, and spending limits.

Hop Skip Media founder Ameet Khabra estimates that since June, his Canada-based advertising agency has lost 40-45% of its revenue due to issues with these Facebook ad accounts.

In the end, some became active again, but “the customer trust was broken”, recalls Khabra, who was forced to lay off some of his staff, reducing his team from 10 to 6 people. “This is amazing,” he emphasized.