Facebook crackdown on horse sale ads: 19 May 2019
Horse & Hound recently confirmed that Facebook is now seriously cracking down on horses for sale posts. Facebook policy states that animals cannot be sold on its platform. However, until recently, this was rarely enforced.
Over the years horse breeders and owners were lulled into thinking they had no need of a website, or paying to advertise their youngstock and horses on classified ads sites, like Horse & Hound (H&H) because they could do it on Facebook for free.
The situation has now changed, following reports that Facebook is now enforcing the rule and regular FB posts showing horses for sale are being removed (not just Marktplace posts).
More worrying still, FB Group pages and user accounts are being suspended for repeatedly contravening their rules on selling livestock and Group owners are urging their followers not to post ads that could be seen as contravening the rule.
FB stated “We will still allow such sales if posted by brick & mortar entities” which they clarified as being entities with their own shop front or website”.
Horse & Hound lost no time in capitalising on the situation with limited time special low-price ad offer (now expired) designed to entice advertisers back to their classified ads platform. As a result, horses for sale classifieds shot up from a mere handful to nearly 400 almost overnight.
A standard H&H classified ad now costs £35 for 1 print issue + 6 weeks online with unlimited photos / videos. A premium package with a larger print image, appearing above the standard online ads, costs £50. But as most advertisers chose the premium option, your ad could still be hard to spot.
If you have one horse to sell, H&H classifieds work, but if you’re a horse breeder with lots of horses to sell, having your own website will provide more bang for your buck + satisfy FB’s statement that ‘brick & mortar entities’ are allowed to sell livestock, by proving you are a bone fide business.
