Digital Marketing
How do I know if my Facebook ads are actually running?
Don't trust the word "Active" — trust spend. If money left your account today and impressions are climbing, your ad is running. If today's spend is zero, it isn't, whatever the status says.
ShoaibUpdated 4 min read
What should I check, in order?
- Today's spend. In Ads Manager, set the date to Today and look at the Amount Spent column. Zero for several hours means it isn't delivering
- The Delivery column. It tells you the real reason — "Active", "Learning", "Not delivering", "Rejected", or a budget warning
- Both switches. The campaign, the ad set and the ad each have their own toggle. Any one of them being off stops everything below it
- The Ad Library. Search your own Page at Meta's Ad Library, which shows the active ads a Page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network
What do the common messages mean?
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Learning | Running, but still gathering data. Leave it alone |
| Not delivering | Live but losing auctions, or the schedule has ended |
| Rejected | Broke an ad rule; fix it or request a review |
| Budget too low | Meta doesn't think it can get a result at that amount |
| Scheduled | It hasn't started yet — check the start date |
Why would a live ad still spend nothing?
Usually one of four things: the payment method failed, the audience is too small, the ad set's end date has passed, or the budget is below what the chosen result needs. See why an ad isn't spending its budget and how much budget to start with.
If nothing runs at all across the whole account, the account itself may be restricted — see what to do when a Facebook ad account is disabled.
Want someone watching delivery so problems get caught the same day? See our Meta Ads service.