Quick answer
Meta says most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, though some take longer. If an approved ad is active but not spending, the usual causes are an audience that is too small, a bid or cost cap set too low, a payment problem, or a schedule. 'Learning limited' means the ad set is getting too few optimisation events.
Ads Manager shows a delivery status for every campaign, ad set and ad. Read it at all three levels, then work through the checks below in order. More help is in our Meta ads help centre.
Check these first
- Read the Delivery column at every level. An ad can show Active while its ad set or campaign is off, out of budget or finished.
- Check Billing and payments. A failed payment, an unpaid balance or a reached account spending limit stops every ad in the account.
- Check Account Quality for a restriction on the ad account, Page or your profile.
- Open the ad set. Check the start and end dates, the schedule and the budget.
- Look at the audience definition panel. A very small estimated audience may barely deliver.
- Check the bid strategy. A cost cap or bid cap set too low is a common reason an approved ad spends nothing.
What each delivery status means
| What you see | What it means | How to fix it | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| In review | Meta is checking the ad's text, images, targeting and landing page | Wait. Don't edit it, because an edited ad is reviewed again | Meta says typically within 24 hours |
| Rejected | The ad breaks one of Meta's Advertising Standards | Edit it to comply, or request a review if you think it was wrong | A new review after each edit |
| Processing | Recent changes are still being applied | Wait. If it stays stuck for hours, duplicate the ad and turn the stuck copy off | Usually minutes |
| Learning | The ad set is in its learning phase | Leave it alone and avoid significant edits | Until it gets enough optimisation events |
| Learning limited | The ad set is unlikely to get enough optimisation events | Merge ad sets, broaden the audience, raise the budget or choose a more frequent event | 1 to 2 weeks after the change |
| Active but $0 spent | The ad can't win auctions | Check audience size, bid or cost cap, payment and schedule | Hours after the fix |
| Off, paused or completed | Someone turned it off, or the end date or lifetime budget was reached | Turn it on or extend the dates | Immediate |
Ad stuck in review
Meta's review is mostly automated, with people involved in some cases. It looks at the ad's images, video, text and targeting, plus the landing page. Meta says this is typically finished within 24 hours, but it can take longer. If yours has been waiting much longer than that:
- Stop editing and duplicating it. Each edit counts as a new ad and goes through review again.
- Open the landing page on your phone. It should load fast and say what the ad says.
- Check whether the ad touches restricted topics such as health, finance or personal attributes. These can draw closer review. See why Facebook ads get rejected.
- If it is still in review after a few days, contact Meta through Business Support Home.
The learning phase and Learning limited
After launch, or after a significant edit, Meta's system tests who responds to your ad. Meta's help centre says an ad set usually leaves learning after about 50 optimisation events within seven days of its last significant edit. When an ad set is unlikely to get there, its status changes to Learning limited.
Learning limited is not a penalty, and the ad keeps running. It does mean results tend to be less stable. To fix it:
- combine similar ad sets so one budget feeds one learner;
- broaden the audience, or let Advantage+ audience expand it;
- raise the budget if your cost per result makes 50 a week realistic;
- optimise for an event that happens more often.
Significant edits include changes to targeting, creative, the optimisation event and large budget changes. Make your changes in one batch each week rather than tweaking daily, or you may keep restarting learning.
Choosing an optimisation event that happens often enough
Divide your weekly budget by the cost of one event. With example numbers: if you spend $350 a week and a purchase costs about $70, you will get around five purchases a week, nowhere near 50.
In that case you can optimise for an earlier step, such as add to cart or leads, and judge success on sales or booked jobs in your own records. Or you can accept Learning limited and judge the ad set over a month instead of a week. Both are reasonable. What doesn't work is changing the ad every few days because it looks unstable.
Audience too small or overlapping
The audience definition panel in the ad set shows an estimated size. A local business that targets one suburb, a narrow age band and several stacked interests can end up with too few people to deliver to. Widen the radius, remove stacked interests or let Advantage+ audience expand.
If several of your ad sets target the same people, they compete for the same impressions and one of them may barely spend. Merging them usually fixes this.
Bid caps and cost caps
A cost cap or bid cap tells Meta not to pay more than a set amount. Set it below what the auction needs and the ad set simply won't spend. If you aren't sure what cap to use, run the default Highest volume bid strategy for two weeks to see what results really cost. Then set a cap from your own data.
Payment problems and spending limits
- A declined card or unpaid balance pauses every ad in the account until it is paid.
- An account spending limit, set in Billing and payments, stops ads once it is reached. Raise or remove it.
- Meta's invoices to Australian advertisers often come from a Meta company outside Australia. If your bank blocks overseas online transactions, the charge can decline. Ask your bank to allow it.
Schedules and time zones
Start dates, end dates and schedules run on the ad account's time zone, which is set when the account is created. If yours was set to a US time zone, ads will start and stop at odd hours here. Queensland doesn't use daylight saving, so a Brisbane business with an account on Sydney time will see an hour's difference from October to April.
When to get help
If delivery is still stuck after these checks, a specialist looks at delivery at all three levels together with CPM, frequency, audience size, billing history and the edit log. That combination normally shows why spend stalled. If your ads are delivering but nothing comes from them, see Facebook ads with clicks but no sales, and for budget planning read how much Facebook ads cost in Australia.
About this guide
Written by Amann Jhamb, Director of AR Digital Solutions, 17 years in web design, SEO and paid ads. Last checked: 3 November 2026 against Meta Transparency Centre: Advertising Standards (ad review). Change note: first published 3 November 2026. Part of our Meta ads help centre.