Meta Ads Manager delivery statuses, in Meta's own words
What In review, Preparing, Learning, Learning limited, Not delivering, Update required and the rest mean, quoted from Meta's pages, plus the API statuses Meta never explains.
Meta's delivery status
page defines the
Delivery column in two layers: five icons (Error, Warning, Pending, Active,
Inactive) and eleven named statuses, from Rejected to Completed. Meta's
definitions chain an ad from In review → Preparing → Active, with
Processing in front of review when you've made changes; Learning is a
status of the ad set the ad sits in, not of the ad.
Not delivering and Update required aren't in that table; Meta defines
them on a different page. A campaign, its ad sets and its ads can each show a
different status, and Meta's own advice is to check all three levels. The
Marketing API has its own list, and for values like PREAPPROVED, IN_PROCESS
and WITH_ISSUES Meta's reference gives the value, a version note at most,
and no definition.
Below are both of Meta's tables in its exact wording, the statuses documented elsewhere, three places where Meta's pages use different words for the same thing, and what the API reference does and doesn't say.
What do the Delivery column icons mean?
Each status sits next to an icon. Meta's table, word for word:
| Icon | What Meta says it means |
|---|---|
| Error | "The campaign, ad set or ad can't run at all because there's a problem that needs attention." |
| Warning | "The campaign, ad set, or ad is experiencing limited delivery. Addressing this warning may improve performance." |
| Pending | "The campaign, ad set or ad isn't running yet. It's usually in review or scheduled to begin running at a later start date." |
| Active | "The campaign, ad set or ad is on and running as expected." |
| Inactive | "The campaign, ad set or ad isn't running. This is usually because it's been completed or because a related campaign, ad set or ad has been turned off." |
Meta maps only some named statuses to icons: the Pending row covers ads in review or scheduled, and a page quoted below adds drafts. It gives no full mapping from the eleven statuses to the five icons, so this post doesn't guess one. What it does say is where to look next: "You can hover over some statuses, like errors and warnings, to see more information about the status and if there are any actions to take."
One more note from the same page: when something is switched off, "you'll see Off in the Delivery column." Off isn't a status Meta's table defines. It's what the column shows when the toggle is off: the toggle is blue when on and gray when off.
What does each delivery status mean?
This is the full "Common statuses" table on Meta's page, in Meta's order. The order is not the order an ad moves through, which comes in the next section.
| Status | What Meta says it means |
|---|---|
| Rejected | "The ad can't run because it doesn't comply with Meta Advertising Standards." |
| Learning limited | "The ad set didn't generate enough results to exit the learning phase." |
| Scheduled | "The ad set is scheduled to run at a future date. You can edit the ad set to change its schedule." |
| In review | "The ad is in review to make sure it complies with Meta Advertising Standards. Following this review, your ad will become active and begin running as scheduled." |
| Processing | "The ad is being updated with the changes you made. This usually takes a few minutes, but some updates may take up to 8 hours. Once processing is complete, your ad status will be updated to confirm if it's now active, in review or has errors." |
| Preparing | "The ad successfully passed review and the delivery system is now matching it to the right bid and audience so you can start seeing impressions. Once it has at least 1 impression, it will enter the learning phase or become active. Significant edits will cause the ad to re-enter the preparing stage." |
| Active | "The ad is running normally, or your campaign or ad sets contains at least one ad running normally." |
| Learning | "The ad set and all of its ads are still in the learning phase. During this period, the delivery system is exploring and optimizing the best way to deliver your ads. Performance is less stable during this time period and CPAs are usually worse." |
| No ads | "The campaign or ad set does not have a published ad." |
| Ads off or Ad set off | "The campaign appears on and the toggle switch is blue, but the ad set or ad is Off." |
| Completed | "The campaign, ad set or ad is no longer running because the scheduled end date has passed." |
Read the subjects, not just the verbs. Rejected, In review, Processing and Preparing are about an ad. Learning, Learning limited and Scheduled are about an ad set. Active and Completed apply at any level, and Active at the campaign or ad set level only means "at least one ad running normally". So a campaign that says Active can still hold an ad that is Rejected.
In what order does an ad move through the statuses?
Meta's definitions chain together. Each one names the status that comes after it:
- Processing: "The ad is being updated with the changes you made", "usually … a few minutes, but some updates may take up to 8 hours". Afterward the ad is "active, in review or has errors." Meta words this for changes, and doesn't say whether a brand-new ad shows it too.
- In review: "Following this review, your ad will become active and begin running as scheduled." How long review takes, and which edits restart it, is covered in how long Meta's ad review takes (and in short at ad review).
- Preparing: the ad "successfully passed review" and is waiting for its first impression.
- Learning or Active: "Once it has at least 1 impression, it will enter the learning phase or become active."
Scheduled sits outside that chain. Meta's page on ads that aren't running says an ad under the Pending icon "is either in draft, pending review, or scheduled for a later time." Meta's page about ads in review puts review first: a scheduled ad "will go through ad review but won't begin delivering until your start date." So a scheduled ad is reviewed when you submit it, then waits for its start date.
Two details are easy to miss. Preparing means review is over, not that it is still going. And Preparing isn't only for new ads: "Significant edits will cause the ad to re-enter the preparing stage." Meta's troubleshooting page for a campaign that isn't running adds the wait to expect: "You may need to wait up to 24 hours to see delivery. If your ad has passed review but hasn't started delivering, you may see the Preparing ad delivery status."
What do Learning and Learning limited mean?
Both describe the ad set, and both are about the learning phase. Learning means "the ad set and all of its ads" are still in it. There is no learning status per ad. Both mean the ad set is running: Meta's troubleshooting page for an ad set that isn't running says "If your ad set is running, you might see Active or Learning", and "If your ad is running but didn't exit the learning phase, you may see Learning limited."
Learning limited is the one people worry about. The table's wording is in the past tense, "didn't generate enough results", but Meta's dedicated page treats it as a forecast and says it "isn't a penalty". How long learning lasts, which edits reset it, and Meta's six fixes for Learning limited are in Meta's learning phase, explained.
What does "Not delivering" mean?
It isn't in the status table. The one definition we found is a note on Meta's page about the Update required status:
Note: The status Not delivering is different from an ad rejection and will appear if the ad, ad set or ad campaign has been turned off or has finished its scheduled course of delivery.
So by Meta's wording, Not delivering means off or finished, not broken and not rejected. If you expected the ad to be running, check its toggle at each level and its end date. Turning off a campaign "turns off any ad set or ad in that campaign", according to Meta's page on turning ads on and off. Meta's page on an ad that isn't running names three ways an ad gets switched off: "when you turn them off, when an automated rule you created turns them off, or when they are scheduled to end."
What does "Update required" mean?
Also outside the table, and also on its own page:
If there is an issue preventing the ad from being delivered, the status will read Update required. For example, this status will appear if the ad contains an offer that has ended or the Page has been deleted and an error message will appear in Ads Manager explaining what went wrong.
Meta lists the errors behind it, among them: "Page post can't be used", "Ad post is not available", "Shared post can't be boosted", "Offer has ended or expired", "Page is unpublished for ad", "Event has ended", "Missing product ID" and "Product set is empty". Two lines on that page matter more than the list:
Once you've made the necessary update, you will have to manually toggle the ad set back to active.
Note: If you did not fix the issue and attempted to activate the ad, the ad may show as active but will reset to Update required again.
So fixing the error isn't the last step. The ad set has to be switched back on by hand.
Rejected, Not approved, Ad error: one problem, different labels
Meta's pages use different words for a rejection depending on where you look. Three differences, each from a Meta page:
| Where you look | What Meta says you'll see |
|---|---|
| Ads Manager, desktop, ad level | Rejected: "The ad can't run because it doesn't comply with Meta Advertising Standards." |
| Ads Manager app | Not approved: "The ad can't run because it doesn't comply with Meta Advertising Standards." |
| Ads Manager, a rejection at each level | "Ad set errors in the Campaign column", "Ad error in the Ad sets column", "Rejected in the Ads column" |
The app's delivery status page gives Not approved the same definition, word for word, that the desktop table gives Rejected. The third row comes from the Update required page. So "Ad error" on an ad set can mean one of its ads was rejected, and the Ads tab is where the word Rejected appears.
Meta's rejected ad page says a rejection also comes with "an email notification and a link to Meta Business Support Home where you can find the reason for the rejection." What to change in the ad is covered in what Meta's policies say to change in a rejected ad.
Why do the campaign, ad set and ad show different statuses?
Because each level has its own. Meta, on the delivery status page:
Note: Campaigns, ad sets and ads can have different delivery statuses. For example, your campaign may appear active, but your ad set or ad may show a status of In review if you made recent changes. We recommend checking the status of your ad at all levels if you are experiencing delivery issues.
In practice, a status shown at the campaign level summarizes what's below it. "Active" there means at least one ad is running. "Ads off or Ad set off" means the campaign is on but something under it is off. A rejection reads Rejected only in the Ads column, and, as Meta's note says, an ad set or ad can be In review while the campaign looks active.
Meta's page for specific ads that aren't delivering adds a check the status column won't show you: "Check the activity history of your ads to see if specific ads have been paused by Meta."
What do the API's effective_status values mean?
If you read statuses through the Marketing API or a reporting tool built on it, you see different names. Meta's Ad reference (marked "Updated: May 6, 2026") gives an ad two status fields:
| Field | Values in Meta's reference |
|---|---|
status / configured_status | ACTIVE, PAUSED, DELETED, ARCHIVED |
effective_status | ACTIVE, PAUSED, DELETED, PENDING_REVIEW, DISAPPROVED, PREAPPROVED, PENDING_BILLING_INFO, CAMPAIGN_PAUSED, ARCHIVED, ADSET_PAUSED, IN_PROCESS, WITH_ISSUES |
The first is what you set. The second is what actually applies. The Ad Set reference ("Updated: Oct 14, 2026") explains the difference: "The effective status of the adset. The status could be effective either because of its own status, or the status of its parent campaign." Two values are explained that way, and the Ad reference explains a third, the review state:
CAMPAIGN_PAUSED: the campaign reference ("Updated: May 11, 2026") says that if a campaign's status isPAUSED, "all its active ad sets and ads will be paused and have an effective statusCAMPAIGN_PAUSED."ADSET_PAUSED: the Ad Set reference says that if an ad set is set toPAUSED, "all its active ads will be paused and have an effective statusADSET_PAUSED."PENDING_REVIEW: the Ad reference says a new ad "will first go through ad review, and will have the ad statusPENDING_REVIEWbefore it finishes review and reverts back to your selected status ofACTIVEorPAUSED."
PREAPPROVED, IN_PROCESS, WITH_ISSUES: what Meta says, and doesn't
For the rest, Meta's reference gives the name and little else; on the Ad
reference, the description next to effective_status is just the field's name
again. Here is everything Meta's developer pages say about these values:
| Value | What Meta's developer pages say |
|---|---|
PREAPPROVED | Listed in the Ad effective_status enum. Listed as a "Live" status on the object status guide. No definition. |
IN_PROCESS | Listed in the Ad, Ad Set and campaign enums. "IN_PROCESS is available for version 4.0 or higher." No definition. |
WITH_ISSUES | Listed in all three enums. "WITH_ISSUES is available for version 3.2 or higher." If a campaign is set to it, "all the objects below it automatically inherit that status"; if an ad is, "the ad set or ad campaign containing that ad keeps its original status". No definition. |
PENDING_BILLING_INFO | Listed in the Ad enum. No definition. |
DISAPPROVED | Listed in the Ad enum. No definition. |
We searched Meta's Business Help Center for "preapproved", "with_issues", "in_process", "effective status" and "pending billing info". None of the results explains any of these values, and no Help Center page we read maps an API value to an Ads Manager label. The names suggest meanings. We haven't filled them in, because Meta hasn't.
The developer pages don't agree with each other either. The object status
guide
("Updated: Nov 10, 2025") lists the "Live" statuses as ACTIVE, PAUSED,
PENDING_REVIEW, CREDIT_CARD_NEEDED, PREAPPROVED, DISABLED,
PENDING_PROCESS and WITH_ISSUES. Three of those, CREDIT_CARD_NEEDED,
DISABLED and PENDING_PROCESS, aren't in the Ad reference's enum, which has
PENDING_BILLING_INFO and IN_PROCESS instead. The Ad reference is the more
recently updated of the two. If your code reads statuses, treat the enum as the
list and expect values you can't look up.
The practical version
- Read the Ads tab. Campaign and ad set statuses summarize, and a rejection reads Rejected only in the Ads column.
- Preparing means it passed review. Give it up to 24 hours to deliver before you change anything, and remember a significant edit sends it back to Preparing.
- Not delivering means off or finished, by the one definition we found. Check the toggles at every level, your automated rules and the end date.
- After fixing Update required, turn the ad set back on yourself. Meta says you "will have to manually toggle the ad set back to active."
- Ad error on an ad set can be a rejected ad. Open the Ads tab, then Business Support Home for the reason.
- Hover over the status. It's where Meta puts the detail for errors and warnings.
- In the API, compare
statuswitheffective_status. A paused parent shows up asCAMPAIGN_PAUSEDorADSET_PAUSED. ForPREAPPROVED,IN_PROCESSandWITH_ISSUES, Meta publishes no meaning.
Sources
- View campaign, ad set or ad delivery status in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center: the five icons, the eleven common statuses, the note on statuses differing by level, Off and the toggle, and hovering for detail (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- Troubleshoot Facebook ad delivery issues with an "Update required" status — Meta Business Help Center: Update required and its errors, "manually toggle the ad set back to active", the definition of Not delivering, and the rejection labels by column (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- View delivery status in Meta Ads Manager app — Meta Business Help Center: the app's In review, Not approved and Learning statuses (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- Troubleshoot why an ad isn't running in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center: Pending as "draft, pending review, or scheduled", and the three ways an ad turns off (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- How to turn an ad on or off in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center: turning off a campaign turns off its ad sets and ads (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- Troubleshoot ad delivery: your campaign isn't running — Meta Business Help Center: "wait up to 24 hours to see delivery" and Preparing after review (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- Troubleshoot ad delivery: One of your ad sets isn't running — Meta Business Help Center: Active, Learning and Learning limited on a running ad set (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- About learning limited — Meta Business Help Center: Learning limited "isn't a penalty" and is a forecast, not a verdict (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- Troubleshoot ad delivery: specific ads in your campaign aren't delivering enough — Meta Business Help Center: checking activity history for ads "paused by Meta" (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- How to troubleshoot a rejected ad — Meta Business Help Center: the rejection email and where to find the reason (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
- About ads in review — Meta Business Help Center: a scheduled ad "will go through ad review but won't begin delivering until your start date" (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-16 for how long Meta's ad review takes; not re-read for this post)
- Ad (Marketing API reference) — Meta for Developers, "Updated: May 6, 2026": the
status,configured_statusandeffective_statusenums, andPENDING_REVIEW(rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18) - Ad Set (Marketing API reference) — Meta for Developers, "Updated: Oct 14, 2026": what effective status means, the
WITH_ISSUESandIN_PROCESSversion notes, andADSET_PAUSED(rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18) - Ad Campaign Group (Marketing API reference) — Meta for Developers, "Updated: May 11, 2026": the campaign enum and
CAMPAIGN_PAUSED(rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18) - Manage your ad object's status — Meta for Developers, "Updated: Nov 10, 2025": the "Live" status list and how
WITH_ISSUESpasses down the hierarchy (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
The Help Center pages are client-rendered and return title-only HTML to a crawler, so they were read in a real browser on 18 October 2026, except About ads in review, quoted as read on 16 October for an earlier post. None of them shows a publication or update date; the developer pages show the "Updated" dates given above. Where this post says Meta doesn't explain something, that means we couldn't find it on Meta's pages or through the Help Center's own search. It's a statement about Meta's documentation, not about how delivery works inside Meta. Meta revises these pages without notice, so check the source before acting on a quote.
Terrads gets your next batch of ads made days before launch, so you can publish early and have review behind you before your start date instead of on it.