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How Long Does It Take for My Paid Social Ad Campaign to Go Live?
How Long Does It Take for My Paid Social Ad Campaign to Go Live?

Once an ad is uploaded, how long until my ad shows to people?

Matthew avatar
Written by Matthew
Updated over a year ago

There are a few different states your Paid Social Ad campaign can be in!

  • Draft - Your campaign is not public and has not been published to Facebook / Instagram

  • Pending - Your campaign is in the process of uploading to Facebook.

  • In Facebook Review - Your campaign is uploaded to Facebook and is awaiting manual review from Facebook's team. This state usually only lasts a few hours, but can last for up to 48 hours in some cases.

  • Scheduled - Your campaign is uploaded to Facebook, and has been approved by Facebook's team, and will begin displaying on the scheduled start date.

  • Live - Your campaign is uploaded to Facebook, and has been approved by Facebook's team, and is actively displaying to Facebook and/or Instagram users.

  • Error - Your campaign has an error in it, and the description on the error message describes what to change before attempting to re-launch / update your campaign.

Generally, most ads will be in "Pending" for under an hour, and in Facebook Review for under 3 hours. If a campaign is not "Live" within 24 hours, feel free to ask our team for support at boost@eventbrite.com or our live chat.

Things that may cause a delay:

  • Creating new lookalike audiences. Facebook takes time to "populate" large audience where they find the correct people to put in your target audience. Using lookalike audiences can cause a campaign to remain in "Pending" for longer than usual.

  • Facebook's ad approval process. Facebook’s ad review time can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 days. Once your ad is created, it enters a review queue where a team of Facebook employees will review it and then either approve or reject it.

If you'd like your campaign to begin delivering at an exact time, we recommend your create your ad well in advance and launch with a start date that is in the future. This will "schedule" your campaign and give Facebook time to populate your audience and approve your ad.

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