Troubleshoot ad delivery

Our ad delivery system spends your budget to bid in ad auctions and show your ad to someone at an optimal place and time. We aim to deliver your ads so that your budget is spent according to its set duration. This means that we aim to spend your average daily budget each day, or your entire lifetime budget over the duration of your campaign or ad set.

The way your ads are delivered depends on the settings that you choose at different levels of the campaign structure. Changes that you make to your campaign, ad sets or ads can all influence delivery. Ad setups are a hierarchy, as shown in the graphic. This means that a non-optimal setting for your overall campaign can prevent the ad sets and ads within that campaign from being delivered.

• If you're using campaign budget optimisation (CBO), analyse results at the campaign level, not for individual ad sets. Remember that CBO may not spend your budget equally for each ad set. It's ok if some ad sets or ads deliver less than others, as long as your overall campaign is spending budget according to the goals you've set.
• If you're using a daily budget for your campaign or ad set, we may spend up to 25% more or less on a given day than the daily budget that you set. Daily budgets are an average. If you spend more one day, the system should typically spend less in the upcoming days of your campaign to compensate. When analysing daily budget spend, try looking at a wider time window (such as one or two weeks).
• If you're using a lifetime budget for your campaign or ad set, we may spend more on days when better opportunities are available, and less on days with fewer opportunities. We aim to use your entire lifetime budget by the time the last ad set within your campaign finishes its schedule.
• Some ads may be delivered more than others. Over time, our system learns which ads perform the best for you. The decision on which ad to show the most is based on various factors, such as your budget and how many people click the ad.

If you're using campaign budget optimisation:

• My campaign isn't running.
• My campaign is running, but hasn't delivered enough since it started.
• My campaign slowed down or stopped.

If you're using ad set budgets:

• One of my ad sets isn't running.
• My ad set is running, but hasn't delivered enough since it started.
• My ad set slowed down or stopped.

If you're using either budget type:

• Specific ads in my campaign are underperforming, but others are running fine.