When ads bring nothing, the fault is in one of five places. Check them in this order, because each step only matters if the one before it is fine. You will need Ads Manager open on the campaign, with the date range set to the whole time it ran.
You are not alone in this. In a 2016 survey by the website builder Weebly, reported by SmallBusiness.co.uk, 62% of the small businesses that paid for Facebook ads said they were dissatisfied. The report gives no sample size, and the figure is old.
1. Was the ad shown at all?#
Look at the Delivery column and at impressions, which is the number of times the ad was shown.
- It says "In review". Meta says most ads are reviewed within 24 hours.
- It says "Rejected". The ad never ran. Meta emails you, and the reason is in Meta Business Support Home. You can edit it or ask for another review. See Facebook ad rejected?.
- The account has a payment problem. A failed payment pauses every ad. See Facebook ads payment failed or on hold?.
- It ran, but impressions are very low. The audience may be too narrow or the budget too small.
If the spend is close to zero, stop here. Nothing else on this page is the cause.
2. Did people click?#
Look at link clicks and at the share of people who clicked after seeing the ad. Ads Manager calls that share CTR.
For a rough comparison, WordStream's 2026 report gives a typical click rate of 1.93% for US campaigns aimed at website visits, and 2.70% for campaigns aimed at leads. Far below that, the ad itself is the weak point.
- The photo does not stop anyone. Use a real photo of the work or the product. Stock pictures and logos get skipped.
- The words do not say what you do. Say the service, the place and the next step in the first line.
- The wrong people are seeing it. Check the area and the ages you chose.
3. "Clicks but no sales": what happens after the click?#
This is the most common case. People clicked, so the ad did its job. The page did not.
Open your ad on a phone, tap it, and act like a stranger.
- Does the page load quickly? Many people leave a slow page before it appears.
- Does it match the ad? An ad for boiler servicing should land on boiler servicing, not on the home page.
- Is the price or the next step visible without scrolling?
- Is it easy to enquire on a phone? A long form loses people.
Keep your expectations realistic. Shopify's 2026 guide reports that about 1.4% to 2.66% of visits to online shops worldwide end in a purchase, depending on who measured. If 100 people clicked, one to three orders is normal for a shop. With 40 clicks, zero orders tells you very little yet.
4. Were the results counted?#
Sometimes the leads came and nobody saw them.
- Form leads sit inside Meta. If your ad used a form on Facebook, the enquiries wait inside Meta until you collect them. Meta says lead data can be downloaded for up to 90 days after the form was sent.
- Messages go to the Page inbox. Check the inbox on Facebook and Instagram, including message requests.
- Website enquiries need tracking. Meta only knows about an enquiry on your website if a small piece of code on your site tells it. Without that, Ads Manager shows zero even when people got in touch. See How to track leads from Facebook ads on your website.
- You are counting the wrong thing. Likes and clicks are not leads. Decide which actions are a real enquiry and count only those. See Deciding what counts as a lead.
5. "Worked for three days then died": is it the learning phase?#
Meta's system needs results to learn from. Meta says delivery usually settles after about 50 results in the week after the last significant edit. On a small budget that number is hard to reach, and Meta marks the ad set as "Learning limited". Meta says this is not a penalty. It is a sign that its system cannot make the most of the budget with the current setup.
Two things make it worse. Changing the audience, the ad or the goal restarts the learning. A very small budget gives the system too little to work with. See How long do Facebook ads take to work?.
6. Is the offer the problem?#
If the ad was shown, people clicked, the page works and the counting is right, look at what you are selling and to whom.
- Is the price in line with others near you?
- Is there a reason to act now?
- Would a stranger trust you from this page? Reviews and real photos help.
- Can you afford the leads at all? Work out your ceiling with the cost per lead calculator.
No ad setting fixes an offer people do not want. This is the hardest answer, and sometimes it is the true one.
What Madder does about each step#
Madder is an AI agent that sets up and looks after Facebook and Instagram ads for a small business. On this checklist it helps with some steps and not with others.
- Step 1. Madder creates the campaign paused. It does not yet show whether Meta is delivering an ad or why Meta rejected one, and it cannot fix a payment problem.
- Step 2. It builds the ads from photos you upload and approve, with your product's name as the headline.
- Step 3. It sends people to the page you gave it. The campaign is set to bring visits to that page and is not yet optimised for enquiries. Madder does not change your page.
- Step 4. It shows no lead count until you have confirmed which actions are real enquiries, then counts only those.
- Step 5. Its daily check-up, if you switch it on, leaves a campaign alone while it is still learning. It suggests a pause only when a campaign has spent enough with no leads to make the picture clear.
- Step 6. It cannot fix the offer.
Madder is in early access with a waitlist. See How Madder works.
Questions people ask#
Why are my Facebook ads not getting any leads?
Check five things in order: whether the ad was shown, whether people clicked, what they found after the click, whether enquiries were counted, and whether the offer is strong enough. The cause is usually in the first four.
Why am I getting clicks but no sales?
The ad is working and the page is not. Check that the page loads fast on a phone, matches the ad and makes the next step obvious. Also check the numbers: only one to three visits in a hundred usually buy from an online shop.
I spent £300 on Facebook ads and got nothing. What did I do wrong?
Most often one of three things. The goal was engagement or clicks when you wanted enquiries. The page lost people after the click. Or enquiries arrived in a form or an inbox nobody checked.
Why did my ads work for a few days and then stop?
Early results are uneven while Meta's system is learning, and a small budget may never give it the roughly 50 results a week it looks for. Edits to the ad or audience restart that learning.