The short answer: reuse one post per creative across ad sets so comments collect in one place, read every ad comment in Meta Business Suite's inbox, set your Page's blocked words and profanity filter, and agree on what gets hidden and what gets a reply. Once you have more ad comments than someone can read every few hours, connect a tool that receives them through Meta's API and handles them within minutes.
Why ad comments are harder than Page comments
- Dark posts are invisible on your Page. Most ads run as posts that never appear in your feed, so nobody on the team scrolls past them.
- Volume follows spend. Double the budget and you roughly double the people who can comment.
- Every new creative is a new comment section. Ten creatives across three ad sets can mean dozens of threads.
- Scammers like ads. An ad gives a fake "support" account a large audience that already trusts your brand.
- Comments run around the clock. Ads deliver at night and on weekends, when the team is offline.
Step 1: Use fewer posts
When you create an ad in Ads Manager, choose Use existing post and enter the post ID instead of building a new post for every ad set. All ad sets that use that creative then share one post, so comments, likes and shares collect in one place. You get one thread to watch instead of ten, and the social proof adds up on a single post.
Step 2: Find every ad comment
- Meta Business Suite inbox: comments on your Facebook and Instagram ads show up in the inbox alongside Page comments, including comments on dark posts.
- Ads Manager preview: open an ad's preview and use the option to view the Facebook post with comments to jump straight to that ad's thread.
Make one person responsible for checking these at fixed times, at least morning, midday and evening while ads run.
Step 3: Turn on your Page's filters, then test them
Your Page's profanity filter, blocked keywords and Moderation Assist hide comments automatically based on words, links and account signals. Add the words scams use on your ads, such as "support", "refund", "WhatsApp" and look-alike versions of your brand name. Then test: from a personal account, post a comment with one of your blocked words on a running ad and check that it gets hidden. Don't assume a setting covers ad posts until you have seen it work.
Step 4: Decide what to hide and what to answer
Write this down once so everyone handling ads acts the same way.
| Comment | Action |
|---|---|
| Scam link or fake "support" account | Hide immediately, report the account |
| Spam, bots, unrelated promotion | Hide |
| Hate speech, threats, personal attacks | Hide, keep a screenshot |
| Question about price, size, shipping | Reply publicly within hours: it is a buying signal |
| Complaint or bad experience | Keep visible, reply publicly, move details to a DM |
| Criticism of the product or the ad | Keep visible, reply if you have a real answer |
Hiding a genuine complaint on an ad tends to backfire. On Facebook the person who wrote a hidden comment and their friends can still see it, so the customer notices and often posts again, angrier. Our article on moderating with AI without hiding customer complaints goes deeper.
Step 5: Cover the hours your ads run
Comments pile up right after a launch and in the evening, when most people scroll. A scam reply that sits for eight hours overnight on an ad with a big budget has been seen by many of the people you paid to reach. If nobody can check at those times, that is the point to automate.
Step 6: Automate when volume passes what people can read
Moderation tools connect to your Page through Meta's official API. Meta sends each new comment to the tool as it is posted, including comments on dark posts, and the tool can hide it, flag it or draft a reply within minutes, day and night.
Social Moderator AI receives Facebook and Instagram ad comments in real time. When a comment arrives on an ad post it hasn't seen before, it first fetches the ad's text and image so the AI knows what the ad is about, then applies your rules. You write those rules in plain English ("hide fake support accounts and links to other sites, keep complaints visible and draft a reply"), every action shows its reason, and anything can be undone in one click. For other options, see our comparison of 15 moderation tools.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn off comments on Facebook ads?
Most Facebook ad formats have no switch to turn comments off, so hiding comments is the standard approach. Comments also act as social proof, so a clean comment section usually beats an empty one.
Does the person know when I hide their comment on an ad?
Not usually. A hidden comment stays visible to the person who wrote it and their friends, but not to anyone else. Deleting removes it for everyone.
Should I delete negative comments on ads?
Delete or hide spam, scams and abuse. Answer criticism and complaints in public. A calm, helpful reply under an ad often persuades more people than the ad itself.
How quickly should we respond to ad comments?
Within a few hours for questions and complaints, and within minutes for scams, because every hour a scam reply stays up, more paid impressions see it.
What about comments on Instagram ads?
The same steps apply. Instagram ad comments appear in Business Suite next to Facebook ones, and Instagram has its own Hidden Words settings for spam.