As a digital marketer, one of the most frustrating things is when your Facebook ads start showing errors instead of running properly. There are many potential causes for Facebook ad errors, ranging from simple fixes to more complex issues that may require contacting Facebook support.
Common Facebook Ad Errors and Solutions
Here are some of the most common Facebook ad errors and potential solutions to try:
| Error Message | Potential Causes | Solutions to Try |
|---|---|---|
| Your ad set is temporarily paused because it hasn’t been delivering ads | Low relevance score Narrow targeting Bidding too low Poor ad creative |
– Broaden your targeting – Increase your bids – Test new creatives |
| Your ad set isn’t running because the status isn’t Active | Ad set paused Campaign paused Ad account disabled |
– Verify ad set status is Active – Verify campaign status is Active – Check ad account status |
| There are no ads to show | Low daily budget Narrow targeting Poor performing ad creative |
– Increase daily budget – Broaden targeting – Test new creatives |
As you can see from the table above, common fixes include adjusting your targeting, increasing your bid amount, raising your daily budget, and testing new ad creatives. Oftentimes small tweaks like these can get your ads back up and running.
Troubleshooting Tips for Facebook Ad Errors
Here are some general troubleshooting tips that may help resolve your Facebook ad errors:
- Refresh the Ads Manager page – sometimes errors clear on their own.
- Double check that your ad set, campaign, and ad account are all in active status.
- Try raising your bid amount, even if just temporarily, to see if that resolves the error.
- Broaden your targeting – a very narrow audience can trigger errors.
- Increase your daily budget if you’re hitting your spending limit too quickly.
- Test new ad creative with different images, copy, etc.
- Create a new ad set as a test – you can pause the old one.
Following these basic troubleshooting steps can help identify what might be causing the errors and get your ads back up and running quickly in many cases.
Why Relevance Score Impacts Facebook Ad Errors
One of the most common culprits behind Facebook ad errors is a low relevance score. Your relevance score measures how relevant your ads are to your target audience.
Facebook determines relevance based on these factors:
- Expected CTR – Click-through rate Facebook predicts for your ad.
- Landing page experience – Relevance of your landing page content.
- Negative feedback – Frequency of users hiding or reporting your ad.
If your relevance score drops too low, Facebook will stop showing your ads to avoid poor user experiences. You may see errors like “Ad set is paused because it hasn’t been delivering ads.”
To improve relevance score:
- Use interest, behavior, and demographic targeting to reach your ideal audience.
- Craft compelling ad copy and creatives tailored to your audience.
- Ensure your landing page provides a seamless experience.
- Split test ad variations to find what resonates best.
Taking these steps can improve the alignment between your ads and target audience. But relevance takes time to optimize, so you need to continually test and tweak your ads.
Other Common Causes of Facebook Ad Errors
In addition to relevance score issues, here are some other common causes of Facebook ad errors:
Targeting Too Narrow of an Audience
If your targeting is too narrow and focused, Facebook may not have enough people to show your ads to in order to spend your daily budget. Try broadening your targeting to reach more potential customers.
Bidding Too Low for Your Targeting
You need to bid high enough to outbid competitors also trying to reach your audience. Look at the estimated reach range for your targeting and aim for the higher end.
Hitting Your Daily Budget Too Quickly
If your budget is too low for your audience size, you may cap out your daily spend early, leading to errors. Try raising your budget to ensure it lasts throughout the day.
Ad Account, Campaign, or Ad Set Paused
Double check that your ad account, campaign, and ad set are all in active status. Just one of these being paused could block your ads.
Facebook Reviewing Your Ad Account
If your account is newer or has had compliance issues in the past, Facebook may review your ads before approving them. This process can temporarily cause errors.
Image or Video Issues
Invalid image formats, blurry images, incorrect aspect ratios, and other creative issues can trigger errors in Facebook’s review process. Double check ad requirements.
When to Contact Facebook Ad Support
In most cases, you can resolve Facebook errors on your own through troubleshooting. But in some scenarios you may need to reach out to Facebook ad support for assistance:
- Errors last more than 24 hours despite troubleshooting steps.
- Your ad account becomes disabled suddenly.
- You receive unclear generic errors not listed in Ads Manager.
- Errors only impact some ads but seem unrelated to targeting, bids, budget.
The Facebook ad support team can dig deeper to identify and resolve persistent errors unrelated to your own settings. Reaching out sooner than later can minimize downtime for your struggling ads.
How to Avoid Facebook Ad Errors
While even the most seasoned advertisers will run into occasional Facebook ad errors, you can take some proactive steps to minimize issues:
- Carefully review Facebook’s ad policies and follow requirements.
- Start accounts and ad campaigns with Facebook’s guided setup.
- Enable Facebook’s automated rules to adjust bids and budget.
- Test new elements like targeting and creatives in small ad sets first.
- Check in frequently on the first few days of new campaigns.
- Set up robust negative keyword lists to avoid irrelevant impressions.
Building compliance, automation, and gradual optimization into your Facebook ad process can help avoid disruptive errors and keep campaigns running smoothly.
Conclusion
Troubleshooting Facebook ad errors requires methodically checking campaign components like targeting, bids, budget, ad creative, and relevance. Addressing common causes like low relevance, narrow targeting, and creative issues can typically get ads back on track. For persistent errors unrelated to your settings, leveraging Facebook’s ad support team can illuminate harder-to-identify technical issues on Facebook’s side. With a combination of vigilance and patience, most Facebook advertising errors can be overcome, leading to fully functioning campaigns and maximized results.