Solutions to problems like ads not spending, not performing, and not reaching enough people

Slow ad delivery is frustrating and could be caused by more than just one issue. This article will walk you through the underlying reasons that could lead to ads not spending and reaching.  

1. Learning phase. Your ads could experience slower delivery and less stable performance during this data accumulation process. Facebook needs 50 optimization events, such as Conversions, to determine your best audience. Making significant edits such as adjusting budgets by 20% or changing bid caps will reset the learning process. If you're making frequent edits during the campaigns' learning phases, your campaigns could struggle to reach and spend.
2. Limited audience size. Your ads will have trouble spending when your audience size is too small. To find out what your audience size is, you could leverage tools like Audience Insights for acquisition campaigns (reaching out to strangers), or you could review the approximate audience size at the ad set level during the creation process. For retargeting campaigns, you could use the Facebook Analytics tool found in your Business Manager to understand the size of each funnel stage.
3. Too much text in the image. Facebook will slow down campaign delivery when too much text is detected in the image(s) used. Consider swapping the old images out with lifestyle, flat-lay or model images with minimal text. You could use Facebook's Text Tool to see if your images are good to go!
4. Optimization setting. Facebook could struggle to find enough people when the audience size is limited and the campaign's delivery setting is optimizing for bottom-funnel events like Conversions. Consider trying Landing Page Views, Link Clicks or even Impressions to boost reach.

Tip: be sure to keep an eye on the frequency as top-of-the-funnel optimization settings could lead to higher frequencies.

5. Bid too low. Having cost and bid caps could help you control costs and keep performance stable. However, setting caps too low will restrict campaigns to win bids and slow down spending. Consider setting bid caps starting from 3 times the average cost-per-purchase and cost caps around the same level as your average cost-per-purchase. You could adjust the caps up or down based on the spending and performance.

6. Audience size drop. Don't panic if you see your ads stop performing. Take a look at your past 7-day traffic to see if there have been fewer people visiting your site. Here are some tips on how to drive more traffic to your website!