How long does it take to see results from Facebook ads?

What sets the timeline

• Review: most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, some take longer. Changes to targeting, creative, optimisation or billing event trigger a new review. Changes to bid, budget or schedule do not.
• Learning phase: delivery is less stable and cost per result is usually higher until the ad set has enough results.
• Significant edits: changing targeting, creative, optimisation event or bid strategy, adding a new ad, or pausing for 7 days or longer sends the ad set back into learning.
• Learning limited: if an ad set cannot get enough results, it stays in this status and performance stays unstable.

In practice

For an app campaign, judge an ad set after it has left learning and run a full week, then look at cohort metrics such as day-7 retention or revenue. If an ad set cannot reach about 50 results a week, combine similar ad sets or raise the budget instead of making more edits.

Our Facebook ads spec guide covers formats and setup details.