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How AI-powered ad filters are disrupting enrollment marketing campaigns

And what you can do about it

October 20, 2025, By Michael Koppenheffer, Vice President, Enroll360 Marketing, Analytics and AI Strategy

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Marketing and Enrollment

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Imagine launching a seemingly harmless Instagram ad promoting an opportunity to intern in a local government office, only to have it flagged as political content. Or promoting a social media post about your college’s low student debt rates, only to watch the ad get rejected as if it were promoting a financial product.

These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re real examples of enrollment campaigns that were derailed by automated social media ad filters, and it’s happening more and more often. In this blog post, I’ll unpack how AI filters are reshaping paid social and share four strategies to keep your campaigns running smoothly.

Facing the Finicky Filters

For higher education marketers, promoting content and ads on social media platforms has become one of the most important approaches for reaching students and families—but it’s also increasingly one of the most scrutinized.

Recruiting the Anxious Generation

Check out this recent Insight Paper for an in-depth look at the communication preferences of today’s teens.

Social media platforms are ramping up AI-driven filters in an effort to combat misinformation, fraud, and regulatory pressure. The problem? Those filters frequently misfire, leaving well-intentioned campaigns blocked, delayed, or sidelined.

Today, AI-based content compliance screening is used across many different digital advertising platforms, including all the major social media networks. But in recent months, Meta’s advertising policy filters have proven to be the most proactive and problematic.

Limited Opportunity to Appeal

Just as marketers have experienced when they try to argue their way out of Google’s email spam-detection algorithms, appeals about paid social advertising violation warnings won’t usually get you very far. Meta has automated its customer service functions extensively, and marketers are unlikely to prevail in their appeals, regardless of how much effort they devote.

Unfortunately, these overactive ad screening agents seem to be a fact of life for higher education marketers, at least for the time being.

The underlying technology will likely improve, reducing the erroneous violation flags that we’ve been seeing lately. But social media advertising policies themselves are also likely to become more restrictive over time, either because of actual legislation or anticipatory compliance by social media platforms. Our best assessment is that this challenge will be with us for quite some time.

4 Ways Enrollment Marketers Can Mitigate the Effects of Ad Filters

Higher ed marketers can’t eliminate ad rejections, but you can mitigate the risk and protect your campaign performance by following these four practices:

1. Be vigilant about sensitive topics.

Most ad rejections encountered by our Enroll360 strategists stem from policies around financial products or political speech. That means messages highlighting affordability, return on investment, or government-related opportunities are especially vulnerable. Before launching, scrutinize ad copy for any language that may trigger these categories, even if the connection seems tenuous. A single flagged phrase can derail an otherwise strong campaign.

2. Monitor campaigns daily.

Ad reviews don’t always just block one piece of content. Sometimes the platforms also will pause related ads, or put an entire account on hold, while the rejection is being processed. To avoid lost impressions and wasted spend, check publishing status every day. Our team monitors partners’ campaigns daily across platforms, and this vigilance is often the difference between a small hiccup and a major setback.

3. Diversify your channels.

Every major social platform uses AI-driven moderation, but their policies and enforcement vary. To minimize risk, ensure your enrollment campaigns reach students across multiple platforms and corporate owners. (For example, Facebook and Instagram don’t count separately; they’re both Meta.) Spreading your investment helps you stay visible even if one platform becomes unexpectedly restrictive.

4. Pre-test high-risk messaging.

Don’t wait for the “Rejected” stamp to appear in your inbox to find out what language might trip the filters. Build time into your workflow to generate and evaluate multiple ad variants with subtle copy adjustments. A small shift in phrasing—from “debt” to “loan burden,” or from “government” to “public service”—could keep your message intact while passing the algorithm’s checks.

A Familiar Parallel: Email Deliverability

If these platform execution challenges feel familiar, it’s because marketers have already been living with them in the world of email. Google and other providers rely on AI-driven screening to decide whether messages reach the inbox, land in promotions, or get flagged as spam. Paid social filters are simply the next frontier for this kind of algorithmic gatekeeping, one that enrollment marketers must now contend with alongside their ongoing email deliverability struggles.

These ad filter challenges may not yet be existential threats for enrollment marketing, but they are here to stay. The good news is that colleges don’t have to be passive victims of platform algorithms. By monitoring campaigns diligently, diversifying across platforms, and pre-testing messaging, enrollment marketers can not only sidestep unnecessary disruptions but also strengthen their overall digital strategy.

Are you monitoring email deliverability the right way?

Find out in this blog post.

Those who embrace these practices will be better positioned to reach and engage students, even as the digital landscape grows more complex and scrutinized.