Your Facebook Ads Aren't Delivering — Here's the Step-by-Step Diagnostic.

Your campaign launched. Budget approved. Audience defined. But Meta is barely spending — impressions are below 1,000/day, leads are zero, and you don't know why. Here's the 12-point diagnostic — work through them in order; stop at the first match.

Check ad status in Ads Manager. If status shows 'In Review' for >24 hours, Meta hasn't yet approved it — no delivery yet. If status shows 'Active' but impressions are zero, problem is elsewhere. If status shows 'Rejected,' that's a different issue (see /guides/facebook-ad-rejected-what-to-do).

Go to business.facebook.com/accountquality. If status is 'Average,' 'Poor,' or 'Critical,' Meta is silently throttling your delivery. Recent violations, restricted-content flags, or unpaid invoices all degrade Account Quality. Fix the underlying cause first.

Meta needs a target audience of 50K+ for reliable delivery. Below that — campaigns underspend because the algorithm can't find enough qualified people. Check audience size in Ads Manager → Audience tab → 'Estimated audience size.'

If you set a Bid Cap or Cost Cap below market rate, Meta literally cannot find impressions at your price — campaign sits on the bench. Switch to 'Highest Volume' (lowest cost) bidding for the first 14 days; cap-based bidding only after Learning Phase exits + you have stable benchmarks.

Meta needs 50 conversion events per ad set per week to exit Learning Phase. Below that, delivery is unstable + spend is under-pacing. Check ad set status: 'Learning' or 'Learning Limited' = you haven't given the algorithm enough volume. Either consolidate ad sets, raise budget, or change optimization event to one you can hit 50/week of.

If you optimize for a Conversion event the Pixel hasn't fired in the last 14 days, Meta can't deliver to anyone — there's no data to optimize toward. Check Events Manager → make sure your selected optimization event has fired 50+ times in the last 7 days. If not, either fix tracking or pick a different event temporarily.

Meta minimum effective daily budget is roughly 5-10x your target CPL. If CPL is $25 + budget is $30/day, you're below the minimum effective spend — Meta literally can't optimize at that volume. Raise to $125-200/day OR pause for now.

Check Ad Set → Schedule. If you accidentally set 'Run only on specific days' or 'Run only at specific hours,' Meta can't spend your full budget within those windows. Either expand the schedule or accept reduced delivery.

Running multiple ad sets targeting overlapping audiences? Meta auctions against itself, inflating CPM + reducing each ad set's delivery. Check Audiences tab → Audience Overlap Tool. If overlap >25% between active ad sets, consolidate them.

Check the 'Quality Ranking' column for each ad. 'Below Average' Quality Ranking = Meta charging you 20-40% more in CPM AND reducing delivery as a punishment. Replace any 'Below Average' creative immediately.

Frequency above 5+ across the entire ad set = your audience has already seen the ad too many times; Meta reduces delivery to prevent oversaturation. Refresh creative + sometimes reset audience targeting.

Editing budget, audience, creative, OR objective DURING delivery resets Learning Phase. The campaign goes back into 'Learning' status + delivery slows for 7-14 days while the algorithm re-optimizes. If you edited recently, that's why. Wait it out OR avoid the edit next time.

If diagnostics 1-12 don't reveal the issue, the problem is usually OUTSIDE Ads Manager: payment method declined, business location-restricted, account-level restriction not yet visible. Contact Meta Business Support via Business Manager → Help Center. Real human reps can see backend issues that aren't surfaced in Ads Manager.