When you publish a campaign, AdStellar sends it to Meta’s API. Sometimes errors occur — here’s how to understand and fix them.
How Publishing Works
Campaign publishing runs as a background job. You can track the status of any publish on the Campaigns > Launches tab.
Each launch moves through these statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|
| Queued | Waiting to be processed |
| Processing | Actively sending to Meta |
| Completed | All ads published successfully |
| Failed | All ads failed to publish |
| Partial | Some ads succeeded, some failed |
Partial Publish
Some ads may succeed while others fail. The launch card shows which ads published and which had errors. Successfully published ads are already live (paused) in Meta — you don’t need to republish the entire campaign.
Expand the launch card to see per-ad status. You only need to fix and retry the failed ads.
Auto-Retry
AdStellar automatically retries transient errors — like Meta rate limits and temporary server errors — up to 3 times. You don’t need to take action for these. Just wait and check the launch status again.
Common Errors
| Error | Meaning | Fix |
|---|
| Budget too low | Your daily budget is below Meta’s 1/dayminimum,orbelowthelearningphaseminimum(3/day for Traffic, 5/dayforLeads,10/day for Sales per ad). | Increase your budget or reduce the number of ad variations. |
| Instagram account issue | The Instagram account isn’t connected or doesn’t match the Facebook Page. | Go to the Ads step and select a valid Instagram account, or remove Instagram placement. |
| Payment method required | Your Meta ad account doesn’t have a valid payment method. | Add a payment method in Meta Business Manager > Payment Settings. |
| Conversion event unavailable | The selected conversion event isn’t active on your pixel. | Choose a different conversion event or verify your pixel is firing the event correctly. |
| Pixel not found | The selected Meta Pixel doesn’t exist or you don’t have access. | Reselect your pixel on the Ad Sets step, or check pixel permissions in Meta Business Manager. |
| Permission denied | AdStellar doesn’t have the required permissions for your ad account. | Go to Settings > Integrations, click Resync Meta, and grant all requested permissions. |
| Token expired | Your Meta OAuth token has expired. | Go to Settings > Integrations and click Resync Meta to refresh your token. |
| Ad account disabled | Your Meta ad account has been disabled by Meta. | Contact Meta support to resolve the account restriction. |
| Audience too small | Your targeting is too narrow for Meta to deliver ads. | Broaden your audience by adding more interests, locations, or enabling Advantage Audience. |
| Audience too broad | Special ad category campaigns have targeting restrictions. | Remove detailed targeting (interests/behaviors) for Housing, Credit, or Employment campaigns. |
| Creative policy violation | Your ad creative was rejected by Meta’s ad policies. | Review Meta’s Advertising Standards and update your creative. The error details will indicate which policy was violated. |
| Rate limit exceeded | Too many API requests to Meta in a short period. | This is auto-retried. If it persists, wait 15–30 minutes and try again. |
| 50-ad limit per ad set | Meta caps each ad set at 50 ads. | Reduce creative variations or split into multiple campaigns. |
| DSA beneficiary/payer missing | Meta requires beneficiary and payer information for ad transparency. | Set up default beneficiary and payer in Meta Ads Manager > Advertising Settings. See our EU Beneficiary & Payer guide. |
Campaigns Publish as Inactive
By design, AdStellar publishes all campaigns, ad sets, and ads in a PAUSED state. This is intentional — it gives you a chance to review everything in Meta Ads Manager before spending money. To activate your ads, follow the Turn On Campaign guide. You’ll need to turn on both ad sets AND ads for delivery to begin.
If you don’t turn on your ads in Meta Ads Manager, they will never start delivering — even though they published successfully from AdStellar.
Fail-Fast vs Retryable Errors
Not all errors are retried. AdStellar categorizes errors into two groups:
Retryable (transient)
These are automatically retried up to 3 times with increasing delays:
- Rate limits — Meta API codes 4, 17, 613
- Transient server errors — Meta API code 2
Fail-fast (permanent)
These errors won’t be retried because they require manual action:
- Invalid token — Code 190. Resync your Meta connection.
- Account disabled — Code 1487553. Contact Meta support.
- Policy violations — Code 1487890. Update your creative to comply with Meta’s ad policies.
- Spending limit reached — Code 1487696. Increase your spending limit in Meta Business Manager.
AI Builder Errors
When AI campaign generation fails, you’ll see an error with an ID like AI-XXXXXX. Include this ID when contacting support.
Common AI errors:
- Timeout — Generation took too long. Try again with fewer variations or a simpler brief.
- Rate limit — Too many concurrent AI builds. Wait a minute and retry.
- Validation — The generated campaign didn’t pass AdStellar’s checks. Review the error details and adjust your inputs.
Always include the AI-XXXXXX error ID when reporting AI issues to support — it helps us diagnose the problem faster.
Still Stuck?
- In-app chat — Click the support icon inside AdStellar.
- Email — Contact support@adstellar.ai with your error details and a screenshot of the launch card.
