About learning limited

If your ad set isn't getting enough optimisation events to exit the learning phase, the Delivery column reads Learning limited. Learning limited isn't a penalty – it's an indication that your budget isn't being spent effectively because the ad delivery system can't optimise performance with your current setup.

An ad set becomes learning limited when it is unlikely to receive around 50 optimisation events in the week after your last significant edit. This diagnosis can happen any time after you create an ad set or make a significant edit to an existing one.

Generally, an ad set becomes learning limited when the ad set is limited by small audience size, low budget, low bid or cost control, high auction overlap, an infrequent optimisation event or other issues such as running too many ads at the same time. If an ad set is limited by a low bid or cost control, a tooltip will appear when you hover over the learning limited status.

There are multiple ways to fix learning limited ad sets to improve performance.

• Combine ads sets and campaigns. Combining ad sets and campaigns will help you get the results you need faster, which means you'll see stable results sooner.
• Expand your audience. The larger the audience, the more opportunities for people to complete your optimisation event.
• Raise your budget. If your budget is too low to receive around 50 optimisation events, the ad set is unlikely to exit the learning phase.
• Raise your bid or cost control. If your bid or cost control is too low to receive around 50 optimisation events, the ad set is unlikely to exit the learning phase.
• Change your optimisation event. Consider choosing an optimisation event that occurs more frequently. For example, move from purchases to add to basket.

If a learning limited ad set receives 50 optimisation events since your last significant edit, it will move from Learning limited to Active.