How to

How to fix an ad that is not delivering

Published 12 Aug 2026 · Updated 24 Sep 2026

A campaign that spends nothing usually isn't broken. But "your audience is too small" is the first thing anyone is told, and on seven of the eight platforms we track there is no published number behind that advice.

Which ad platforms publish a minimum audience size?

Only one of the eight we track states a number. On the rest, "your audience is too small" is advice with nothing published behind it.

Read from the same platform data our app checks against at runtime. 1 of 8 platforms publish a minimum audience size. Where this says "not published", it means we looked and the platform doesn't state one — not that the number is zero, and not that we failed to find it.

Why is my campaign not delivering when the audience looks big enough?

Because the floor applies per cell, not per campaign, so splitting a test halves the number you were checking against. Where a floor does exist it applies per cell, not per campaign, and that is the trap. A 500-person LinkedIn audience clears the 300 floor comfortably. Split it into two test cells and each holds 250. Both are under. The campaign's live, the status says Active, and neither cell delivers.

So the number to check is floor × cells.

What stops an ad delivering when there is no published minimum?

Three things, none of which reports an error: a learning phase that never exits, a special ad category stripping your targeting, or a bid under the auction floor. On the other seven, delivery is governed by the auction rather than by a stated threshold, and a stalled campaign is more likely to be one of these:

• The learning phase never exits. Under roughly 50 optimisation events a week per ad set, most platforms keep the ad set in learning, where delivery is conservative and the reported cost per result is noisy rather than informative. Editing the ad set restarts it.
• A special ad category is set. Housing, employment and credit campaigns lose most targeting options by design. The campaign runs; the audience is not the one you selected.
• The bid is below the auction floor. Nothing errors. The ad just never wins an impression.

Can any tool tell me if my own audience is big enough?

No, and one that says it can is guessing. Whether your specific audience clears anything. No tool outside your ads manager can see your forecast panel, and any tool that claims otherwise is guessing. Read the number there before launching.