Staying Informed: Checking the Status of Facebook Ads Manager

Understanding the Scope: Recent Facebook Ads Manager Outages

Imagine sitting down to manage your crucial ad campaigns, only to find Facebook Ads Manager unresponsive. This familiar scenario can be incredibly frustrating for any business relying on Meta’s powerful advertising platforms. When Ads Manager goes down, it can feel like a sudden halt to your marketing efforts, causing financial and operational chaos.

For many businesses, Meta platforms are the backbone of their digital advertising. An unexpected outage can disrupt budgets, delay campaigns, and even lead to lost revenue. That’s why understanding how to handle these situations is so important.

This article is your guide. We will show you how to verify, steer, and recover from Facebook Ads Manager downtime. Our aim is to equip you with the knowledge to minimize disruptions and maintain your campaign’s momentum, even when things go wrong. For truly effective ad management, being prepared is key.

The digital advertising landscape demands constant vigilance, and few platforms are as central to modern marketing as Meta Ads Manager. Yet, despite its critical role, the platform is no stranger to technical hiccups. We’ve observed a concerning trend: Meta Ads Manager has had 88 tracked incidents since May 2023. This recurring nature of platform instability underscores the need for advertisers to be prepared for potential downtime.

A Timeline of Recent Disruptions

The frequency of these disruptions highlights a clear pattern of intermittent issues. To put this into perspective, let’s look at some recent, notable outages that have impacted advertisers:

• June 2, 2025 Outage: A significant incident impacted ad delivery for approximately 7 hours. During this period, many advertisers reported their campaigns showing no spend or ads not displaying, leading to substantial lost reach and potential revenue.
• May 23, 2025 Outage: Another ad delivery disruption lasted for about 4 hours. Similar to the June incident, this caused campaigns to underperform or halt entirely, leaving advertisers scrambling.
• May 18, 2025 Outage: A shorter, but still impactful, ad delivery issue was reported, lasting for approximately 1 hour. While briefer, even short outages can cause significant data discrepancies and missed opportunities.

These recent incidents are part of a broader history of Meta’s ad systems experiencing glitches. For instance, a major Facebook ad glitch in April 2023 led to advertisers questioning refunds due to significant overspend, as reported by CNBC. Another notable incident occurred just before Black Friday in 2018, causing widespread issues with ad delivery and reporting. The trend suggests that these aren’t isolated events but rather a recurring challenge for advertisers.

Identifying Common Ads Manager Problems

When Ads Manager isn’t functioning as expected, users typically encounter a range of frustrating issues. These problems can manifest in various ways, making it difficult to diagnose whether the issue is local or platform-wide. Here’s a list of common error messages and functional problems reported by users:

• Dashboard Loading Failures: Users often report that the Ads Manager dashboard simply won’t load, or it loads indefinitely, displaying a blank screen or a spinning wheel. Sometimes, Business Manager might load fine, but Ads Manager remains inaccessible.
• ‘Too many redirects’ Error: This specific error message (ERRTOOMANY_REDIRECTS) can prevent access to the platform, even after basic troubleshooting steps like clearing browser cookies.
• ‘Internal error’ Messages: Generic “Internal error” or “API error” messages frequently appear when attempting to perform actions like setting up ad sets, reviewing ads, or making changes to campaigns. These can persist for days, blocking critical tasks.
• API Errors Affecting Third-Party Tools: Integrations with third-party advertising tools often rely on Meta’s API. When the API is experiencing issues, these tools may fail to sync data, create campaigns, or provide accurate reporting.
• Ad Delivery Failures: Campaigns may be active but show no spend, or ads may simply not display to the target audience, leading to zero impressions or clicks. This can go unnoticed for hours, wasting budget or missing critical campaign windows.
• Campaign Management Glitches: Advertisers report being unable to edit existing ads, create new ad sets, or even upload creative assets. This severely hampers the ability to adapt to market changes or launch new initiatives.
• Billing and Payment Section Errors: Issues with the billing and payments pages are particularly concerning. These sections may not load, display incorrect data, or prevent users from updating payment methods, potentially leading to ad account suspensions.

These issues collectively paint a picture of a platform that, while powerful, can be prone to operational inconsistencies. Understanding these common problems is the first step in developing a robust response strategy.

A Proactive Guide to Managing Facebook Ad Outages

Given the recurring nature of Meta Ads Manager disruptions, a proactive approach is no longer a luxury but a necessity for any serious advertiser. Developing a clear contingency plan and response protocol can significantly mitigate financial losses and operational headaches.

Step 1: How to Verify an Outage

When you first encounter an issue with Ads Manager, the immediate question is: “Is it just me, or is everyone experiencing this?” Verifying an outage quickly is crucial to avoid wasting time on local troubleshooting.

1. Official Meta Business Status Page: Your primary source should always be Meta’s official status page. Meta provides a dedicated resource where you can check the real-time status of all its business products, including Ads Manager. This page offers information on any ongoing outages or disruptions. You can typically find this at metastatus.com/ads-manager.
2. Third-Party Status Checkers: Websites like Downdetector and IsDown aggregate user-reported issues and can quickly indicate widespread problems. These tools often show a spike in reports when an outage occurs, providing a community-driven confirmation.
3. Community Forums and Social Media: Platforms like Reddit (e.g., the r/FacebookAds subreddit) and X (formerly Twitter) are invaluable for real-time user feedback. A quick search for “Facebook Ads Manager down” or checking hashtags can reveal if other advertisers are facing similar issues. This can often be the fastest way to confirm a problem before official statements are released.
4. Internal Team Confirmation & Testing: If you work in a team, check with colleagues. Also, try accessing Ads Manager from different devices, browsers, and internet connections (e.g., switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data) to rule out local network or browser-specific problems.

Step 2: Immediate Actions for Advertisers

Once an outage is verified, swift action is essential to protect your ad spend and minimize negative impact.

1. Pausing Active Campaigns: If ad delivery is clearly affected (e.g., campaigns showing no spend, ads not displaying, or erratic spending), immediately pause your active campaigns. This is the most effective way to protect your budget from being wasted on malfunctioning campaigns or, worse, overspending due to glitches, as seen in past incidents where advertisers spent significantly more than intended.
2. Using Automation Rules as a Failsafe: For proactive protection, implement automated rules within Ads Manager that pause campaigns if certain metrics (like spend without impressions or clicks) hit unusual thresholds. While these rules might also be affected by a broader outage, they can offer a layer of defense.
3. Communicating with Stakeholders: Transparency is key. Inform your clients, internal teams, and management about the situation. Set clear expectations regarding campaign performance and potential delays. Documenting the outage with screenshots and timestamps is vital for future reference, especially if seeking refunds.
4. Documenting All Issues: Keep a detailed log of every problem encountered, including error messages, timestamps, and screenshots. This documentation will be critical if you need to submit a refund claim or explain performance anomalies to clients.

Step 3: Post-Outage Recovery and Analysis

The work doesn’t end when Ads Manager comes back online. A careful recovery and analysis phase is crucial for understanding the impact and preparing for future events.

1. Gradual Campaign Reactivation: Don’t immediately reactivate all paused campaigns at full budget. Gradually ramp up budgets and monitor performance closely to ensure stability and proper ad delivery. This prevents sudden spikes in spend or unexpected issues from resurfacing.
2. Reviewing Performance Data for Anomalies: Scrutinize your campaign data for the period of the outage. Look for unusual dips or spikes in impressions, clicks, conversions, and spend. These anomalies will help you understand the true impact.
3. Analyzing the Impact on Key Metrics: Assess how the outage affected your KPIs. Did it lead to increased Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)? Did your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) suffer? Understanding these impacts is vital for future planning and budget adjustments.
4. Submitting Claims for Refunds: If your campaigns were significantly impacted by a confirmed Meta outage, investigate Meta’s policy on outage-related ad spend. As highlighted by the CNBC report on a major ad glitch, advertisers often have to actively inquire about refunds. Gather all your documentation and contact Meta Business Support to discuss potential compensation.

The Business Impact of Ads Manager Downtime

The consequences of Facebook Ads Manager downtime extend far beyond mere inconvenience. For businesses heavily reliant on digital advertising, these outages can translate directly into significant financial losses, wasted resources, and damaged client relationships.

Quantifying the Financial Toll

The financial impact of an Ads Manager outage can be multi-faceted:

• Direct Ad Spend Loss: Malfunctioning campaigns can lead to wasted ad spend, where budgets are allocated but ads fail to deliver effectively or, conversely, overspend due to system glitches. Reports from Bloomberg and Social Media Today have highlighted how system glitches have led to significant overspend for some advertisers, with some seeing CPMs double or triple.
• Opportunity Cost from Lost Sales: When campaigns are paused or fail to deliver, businesses miss out on potential leads, sales, and conversions. This opportunity cost can be substantial, especially during peak seasons or critical promotional periods.
• Damage to Agency-Client Relationships: For marketing agencies, Ads Manager outages can strain client relationships, leading to questions about accountability, performance, and trust. Failing to meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) due to platform issues can have long-term repercussions.
• Erosion of Trust: Repeated outages can erode advertisers’ trust in the platform’s reliability, potentially leading them to diversify their ad spend across other channels, impacting Meta’s market share.

Strategies for Data and Reporting Challenges

Outages inevitably create data integrity challenges. Gaps in reporting, skewed metrics, and attribution problems make it difficult to accurately assess campaign performance and make informed decisions. This is where the need for robust effective ad management becomes paramount.

When faced with data discrepancies due to downtime, it’s crucial to:

• Annotate Performance Reports: Clearly mark periods affected by outages in your performance reports. Explain the cause of any anomalies to provide context for stakeholders.
• Communicate Data Discrepancies: Be transparent with clients and internal teams about the limitations of the data during and immediately after an outage. Focus on qualitative insights where quantitative data is unreliable.
• Adjust Attribution Models: Consider the impact of the outage on your attribution models. A sudden drop in conversions during an outage might artificially inflate the perceived value of other channels post-outage if not accounted for.

Official Channels and User-Sourced Solutions

Navigating a Facebook Ads Manager outage requires a multi-pronged approach, leveraging both official Meta communications and the collective intelligence of the user community.

Where to Find Official Statements from Meta

While Meta can sometimes be slow to provide detailed explanations for outages, they do offer official channels for status updates:

• Meta Business Status Page: This is the most direct and authoritative source. The Meta Status Page is designed to provide real-time updates on the operational status of all Meta business products. We recommend bookmarking this page and checking it first when you suspect an issue.
• Meta for Business Official Facebook Page: Occasionally, Meta for Business will post updates regarding widespread issues on its official Facebook page. However, this is less frequent and often less detailed than the dedicated status page.

Official corporate responses tend to be high-level, often acknowledging “technical issues” without delving into specific root causes. Advertisers should temper their expectations for detailed technical breakdowns.

Common Workarounds for Managing Facebook Ad Outages

While waiting for Meta to resolve a widespread issue, there are several basic troubleshooting steps you can take to rule out local problems or potentially regain limited access:

• Clear Browser Cache and Cookies: This is a classic first step for many web-based issues. Accumulated cache or corrupted cookies can sometimes interfere with how Ads Manager loads.
• Use Incognito or Private Browsing Modes: These modes disable extensions and prevent cookies from being stored, providing a “clean slate” that can bypass certain browser-related problems.
• Access Ads Manager via the Business Suite Mobile App: If the desktop version is down, try managing your campaigns through the Meta Business Suite mobile app. Sometimes, mobile functionality may be less affected or recover faster.
• Try Different Web Browsers: If Chrome isn’t working, try Firefox, Edge, or Safari. This can help determine if the issue is browser-specific.
• Check Your Internet Connection: Ensure your internet connection is stable and fast enough. A weak or intermittent connection can mimic platform downtime.

A strong cautionary note: During widespread outages, social media platforms are often flooded with “recovery experts” or “hackers” offering to fix your account or restore access for a fee. These are almost always scams. Never share your login credentials or sensitive information with unofficial third parties. Always rely on Meta’s official support channels.

Are Outages Geographic? Understanding Patterns

The nature of Ads Manager outages can vary. Some are global, affecting all users, while others might be regional or localized.

• Global vs. Regional Disruptions: By checking Downdetector’s live maps, you can often see if reported issues are concentrated in specific geographic areas or if they are truly global. This can help you understand the scope of the problem.
• The Unpredictable Nature of Outage Timing: There’s rarely a predictable pattern to when outages occur, although high-traffic periods or major platform updates might sometimes correlate with increased instability.
• Relying on Community Feedback: User reports are crucial here. If advertisers in your region are reporting issues, but those in another continent are not, it suggests a localized problem. This crowdsourced information can be more granular than official statements.

Frequently Asked Questions about Managing Facebook Ad Outages

When Facebook Ads Manager experiences downtime, advertisers often have pressing questions about their campaigns, budgets, and next steps. Here are answers to some of the most common concerns.

How can I get a refund from Facebook for an ad outage?

Obtaining a refund from Meta for ad spend incurred during an outage can be a complex process, but it is possible under certain circumstances.

1. Check for Official Announcements: First, monitor Meta’s official status pages and news outlets for any announcements regarding the incident. If Meta officially acknowledges a widespread issue that impacted ad delivery or caused overspend, they might initiate a refund process or provide specific instructions.
2. Contact Support Through the Meta Business Help Center: If no public announcement is made, or if you believe your specific account was disproportionately affected, you should contact Meta Business Support directly. Be prepared to provide detailed evidence.
3. Provide Detailed Evidence: This is crucial. Include screenshots of error messages, campaign dashboards showing zero spend or erratic activity during the outage, timestamps of when you noticed the issue, and a clear explanation of the financial impact (e.g., wasted budget, missed conversions). Reference any public reports or user complaints you found during your verification process.
4. Understand That Refunds Are Not Guaranteed: While Meta has issued refunds for significant, acknowledged disruptions in the past (as seen in the April 2023 glitch), they are not guaranteed. The outcome often depends on the severity of the outage, its impact on your campaigns, and Meta’s internal assessment. Persistence and clear documentation are your best tools.

Should I immediately pause all my ads when I suspect an outage?

The decision to pause all your ads immediately depends heavily on the nature of the issue you’re observing.

• If it’s a reporting glitch but delivery seems normal: Sometimes Ads Manager might show incorrect data or fail to update, but your ads are still delivering and performing as expected. In such cases, monitor closely. You might consider reducing budgets slightly as a precaution, but a full pause might be an overreaction that costs you valuable impressions and conversions.
• If ad delivery is clearly broken: This includes campaigns showing zero spend, ads not displaying, erratic and uncontrolled spending, or the billing section malfunctioning. In these scenarios, pausing immediately is the safest action. This protects your budget from being wasted and prevents potential overspend. It’s better to temporarily halt campaigns and lose a few hours of delivery than to incur significant financial losses.

Always prioritize protecting your budget and maintaining control over your ad spend. When in doubt, a temporary pause allows you to assess the situation without further financial risk.

Can I use third-party tools to manage my ads during an outage?

While third-party ad management tools offer improved features and automation, they typically rely on Meta’s Marketing API to function.

• API Dependency: Most third-party tools (for reporting, optimization, or campaign creation) pull data from and push changes to Ads Manager via the Meta Marketing API. If Ads Manager itself is experiencing an outage, it’s highly likely that the underlying API is also affected.
• Potential for Further Issues: Even if a third-party tool appears to be working, its actions might not be correctly processed by Meta’s systems. This could lead to data discrepancies, failed campaign updates, or even exacerbate existing problems.
• Check API Status: Always check the API status on the Meta Status page. If the API is reported as having issues, it’s best to assume your third-party tools will not function reliably. Also, look for announcements from your specific tool provider, as they may have their own status updates or workarounds.

In most cases, during a confirmed Meta Ads Manager outage, relying on third-party tools is not advisable. It’s safer to pause campaigns and wait for Meta’s core systems to stabilize before resuming automated management.

Conclusion

Facebook Ads Manager outages are an undeniable and recurring reality for advertisers. While we cannot control when these disruptions occur, we can certainly control our response to them. A proactive and well-defined response plan is not just beneficial; it is essential for minimizing financial damage, protecting campaign performance, and maintaining trust with stakeholders.

We’ve outlined the core steps to steer these challenging periods: Verify the outage using official and community-sourced channels, Act decisively to mitigate damage by pausing campaigns and documenting issues, and Analyze the aftermath to understand the impact and seek appropriate recourse.

While outages are an uncontrollable variable in the dynamic world of digital advertising, a prepared and informed response is your most powerful tool to minimize their negative impact. Stay vigilant, stay informed, and always be ready to adapt.