How Does Ad Scheduling Work in Meta Ads?

Scheduling controls when Meta is allowed to deliver an ad set. You can fix start and end dates, and you can also pick specific hours on specific days, for example only mornings for a breakfast brand. Meta stops delivering outside the hours you choose, but it can only control delivery, not the moment a person scrolls to the ad. Ad scheduling is separate from budget scheduling, which raises a daily budget for busy periods instead of limiting hours.

Which budget type does ad scheduling need?

Meta’s help pages are not consistent here, so check what Ads Manager offers you:

• “Schedule an ad set in Meta Ads Manager” says you can schedule an ad set to run on a specific day and time if you have a lifetime or daily budget.
• “About budget scheduling” says ad scheduling can only be used with lifetime budgets.
• “Set up Advantage+ campaign budget” says that with a lifetime campaign budget you can choose to run ads on a schedule, set within each ad set.

A lifetime budget is the one setup that all three pages support.

How do you schedule an ad set?

1. Create a new ad set or open an existing one in Ads Manager.
2. Click the edit icon on the ad set you want to schedule.
3. Choose Scheduled under Delivery scheduling and select the times you want the ad set to run.
4. Use the Insert ad dropdown to choose which ads appear in each slot.
5. Click Review and publish.

Each schedule must run for at least one hour.

Which time zone does the schedule use?

Meta’s scheduling article says your ad appears in your audience’s time zone, and suggests a separate campaign for each time zone if you want to compare how people respond in each. Meta’s budget scheduling article describes ad scheduling as using either the viewer’s time zone or your ad account’s time zone.

Can people see your ad outside the schedule?

A small number can. Meta’s example: your schedule ends at 5 pm, and at 4:58 pm Meta places your ad low in someone’s feed. The person watches a video and comments on other posts first, then reaches your ad at 5:08 pm. Delivery happened inside the schedule; viewing happened outside it.

Scheduling also interacts with ad review. An ad becomes eligible to run once Meta reviews it, which typically takes up to 24 hours. An ad set to start immediately starts once it has been reviewed.

How is ad scheduling different from budget scheduling?

Question	Ad scheduling	Budget scheduling
What it does	Limits the days and hours ads deliver	Raises the budget for chosen high-demand periods
Budget type	Lifetime (see the conflict above)	Daily only
Limits	Each schedule runs at least one hour	Up to 50 periods per campaign or ad set, each at least 3 hours, total no more than 8 times the daily budget
Learning phase	Meta says editing certain ad set details may restart learning	A scheduled increase doesn’t trigger a learning phase

In reservation campaigns you can schedule ads for part of the day but can’t vary it by day of the week, while auction campaigns let you set different hours for different days.

FAQ

Can I change an ad set’s schedule after it starts?

Yes, on a desktop computer; Meta says changing the schedule isn’t supported on mobile. Open the ad set, click Edit and update the Budget & schedule section. Meta notes that editing certain details may restart the learning phase or trigger another ad review.

What does error #1487007 mean?

You see error #1487007 when you try to edit an ad inside an ad set that has reached its end date. Meta’s fix is to extend the ad set’s end date in the Budget & schedule section first, which also lets a completed ad keep running.

Is scheduling better than turning ads on and off by hand?

For a future start date, Meta offers both routes: create the ad and leave it off until you want it live, or set a schedule while creating the ad set. A schedule avoids relying on someone to switch the ad on at the right moment.