Why Is My Facebook Ad Not Delivering? Causes and Fixes

When an ad has spent nothing and shown to no one, Meta’s guide sends you to three places in Ads Manager: the Delivery column, the ad set’s settings and the ads themselves. Work through each level of the campaign in turn, starting with the level that holds your budget, and rule out each cause below before you rebuild anything.

What stops an ad from delivering at all?

Meta lists these causes when none of the budget has been spent:

Cause	How to check	Fix
Still in review or scheduled	The Delivery column shows In review or Scheduled, with the pending icon	Wait for review, or edit the ad set’s start date
Passed review, not started	The Delivery column shows Preparing	Wait; Meta says you may need up to 24 hours to see delivery
Rejected	The Delivery column shows Rejected	Fix the ad, or request another review in Meta Business Support Home
Off at another level	Ad set off, Ads off or No ads appears while the campaign is on	Turn on the ad set or ad, or publish an ad
Restrictive schedule	Budget & schedule section of the ad set	Relax the hours the ad set is allowed to run
Bid cap or cost per result goal too low	Conversion section of the ad set	Raise it so it can reach your optimization event; set a ROAS goal low enough
Budget too small for the optimization event	Compare the daily budget with the cost of your optimization event	Raise the budget or pick an event higher in the funnel
Audience too narrow	Estimated audience size in the ad set	Broaden the audience

An error icon means the campaign, ad set or ad can’t run at all until you fix a problem. A pending icon means it isn’t running yet, usually because it is in review or scheduled to start later.

How do you find the blocking setting?

1. Identify your budget type. With Advantage+ campaign budget, Meta says to start at the campaign level; with ad set budgets, start at the ad set level.
2. Check how long the campaign has been active. Meta says you may need to wait up to 24 hours to see delivery.
3. Open the Ad sets tab and read the Delivery column. Active or Learning means the ad set is running.
4. Hover over any error or warning status to see Meta’s note on it and any action you can take.
5. Open the ad set editing pane and check the schedule, cost control, bid control, performance goal and audience.
6. Open the Ads tab and check each ad’s Delivery column for errors.
7. Delete and recreate the ad if it has been published for at least 48 hours and none of these checks fix it.

If more than one ad in the campaign is not delivering, Meta recommends contacting its support team instead of recreating ads.

How big does the budget need to be?

Some optimization events cost more than others; Meta’s example is that a conversion may cost more than a landing page view. Its general rule is a daily budget of at least 10 times the average cost of your optimization event. If a link click averages $5, that means a daily budget of at least $50. If you don’t want to raise the budget, Meta suggests optimizing for an event higher up the funnel, such as landing page views instead of conversions.

Can your own ad sets compete with each other?

Yes. Meta notes that ad sets with similar audiences compete against each other in the auction, and as a result fewer of them may exit the learning phase. Meta lists combining similar ad sets and campaigns among its fixes for learning limited, saying it helps you reach stable results sooner.

FAQ

What does the Preparing status mean?

Meta says the ad has passed review and the delivery system is matching it to the right bid and audience. Once it has at least one impression, it enters the learning phase or becomes Active. Meta adds that significant edits send the ad back to the Preparing stage.

My campaign says Active. Why is nothing delivering?

Campaigns, ad sets and ads can each carry a different status. Meta’s example is a campaign showing Active while an ad set or ad shows In review after recent changes. Check the Delivery column on all three tabs, not just the campaign row.

How long should I wait before recreating the ad?

Meta says delivery can take up to 24 hours to start, and it only recommends deleting and recreating an ad once it has been published for at least 48 hours with every other check done. Most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, though some take longer.