Mathew PaquetChecklist · 4 min read
The Ad Link Checklist
Find every Meta ad that sends people to TikTok or another ByteDance app before Meta refuses it: the three search words, the questions for your agency, the three fixes and the open questions to watch.
Since October 8, 2026, Meta has stopped accepting two kinds of ads in seven countries: the U.S., Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Meta's words: "We don't have to run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps." Meta has only described ads. Nothing it said is about what you post for free.
Most ads point at a website, a product page or a booking form. If that's you, nothing changed. Three kinds of business lost a route:
For most accounts this is a short job. The question isn't what your ads say. It's where they send people.
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Countries to check: U.S., Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam
If someone else runs your ads or makes them, the search has to reach their campaigns too. Start with the one question that matters, then the ones that make the search complete.
or other ByteDance properties in seven countries.
1. Do any of our ads send people to TikTok?
2. Do any link to TikTok Shop, CapCut or Lemon8?
3. Do any use a short link or a page that sends people on
to TikTok? Where does each one really land?
4. Are any paused ads on that list?
5. Which of them are shown in the U.S., Canada, Egypt,
Indonesia, Japan, Thailand or Vietnam?
1. If you want results on TikTok, buy them on TikTok. TikTok sells ads, and on October 5, 2026 it opened its ad network to campaigns aimed at the U.S. Use each platform's ads to win on that platform.
2. Send Meta's ads somewhere that does the job by itself. The product page where people can actually buy. A page with the video playing right there, not a link out to it. Your own page, not a doorway to someone else's app.
Worked example (made up): a small candle company's best Instagram ad shows a candle being poured, with a button that says "watch the full pour and buy it on TikTok". The fix is one change. Same ad, same pour, but the button opens its own product page, with the pour playing at the top and the buy button under it.
Creator campaigns work the same way. With their permission, run the creator's video as your Meta ad, and point it at your page instead of their TikTok.
3. Don't hide the destination. A page that only exists to bounce people to TikTok, a redirect or a shortener: Meta hasn't said how it treats those, and this rule is about where an ad really goes.
Meta hasn't published a policy page for this. There are only statements. Until it does, these are open:
Sources
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Ask your agency and your creators one question: do any of our ads send people to TikTok?
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