Your Facebook ad isn’t working? How to find the cause

Your ad isn’t being shown

• Rejected: Meta rejected your ad. You see the reason next to the ad, and you can ask for a new review.
• A payment problem: your card has expired or a payment failed. Meta then stops your ads until it is sorted.
• Your budget has run out, or your campaign’s end date has passed.
• Your audience is too small, for example because of a small radius and many filters at once.
• Your campaign, ad set or ad is still paused.

It is shown, but nobody clicks

Look at your CTR: the percentage of people who see your ad and click on it. If it is low, your ad doesn’t appeal. The first second of your video and the first line of your text do most of the work.

• Try a different image, or start your video with the result.
• Say in the first line who it is for.
• Show your product or your work, not just your logo.

People click, but don’t buy or enquire

• Your page loads slowly on a phone.
• The price, delivery time or the button to order can’t be found straight away.
• Your ad promises something different from what your page shows.
• Your pixel isn’t measuring: there are sales, but Meta doesn’t see them. Check in Events Manager whether purchases or enquiries are coming in.

It went well, and now it doesn’t

People see your ad too often. If your frequency rises and your CTR drops, it is due for replacement. Make a new version with the same idea. Or the competition rises, as around Black Friday and the holidays. Then every impression gets more expensive.

You are still in the learning phase

After a new campaign or a big change, Meta first works out who to show your ad to. According to Meta’s Business Help Center, that lasts until an ad set gets about 50 results in 7 days. Until then, your numbers fluctuate. If an ad set doesn’t get there, Meta shows ‘Learning limited’. That isn’t a punishment, but a sign that there are too few results to learn from.

Checked every night

AdSweet looks at these things every night. Costs that suddenly rise, an ad that Meta rejects, your website no longer passing on sales, a payment problem at Meta or a change made outside AdSweet: you get an alert in the app and by email.