This usually happens during the early part of Meta’s ad review process. “Preparing” means your ad hasn’t entered full review yet, it’s still in the pre-processing stage, where Meta is packaging up your creative, targeting, and placement settings before pushing it into the approval queue.
That said, if it’s stuck there for longer than 30–60 minutes, something might be holding it back. Here are a few common causes I’ve seen:
Possible reasons your ad is stuck:
Creative upload lag: If you used a large video file or multiple image variations, it might be taking time to fully upload and process across placements.
Advantage+ campaign setups: Some Advantage+ formats (especially Shopping or App campaigns) go through extra preparation steps for automation modeling.
Billing issue or low spending trust: New accounts or recently updated billing methods can trigger a pause in ad delivery.
Dynamic creative or catalog delay: If you’re using dynamic product ads or creative testing, Meta may need time to generate and prep variations.
Ad policy checks: Even though it hasn't entered the “In Review” stage yet, your creative may be triggering internal flags (e.g., sensitive topics, claims, or landing page mismatches).
What you can do:
Wait at least 60–90 minutes. Often, the issue resolves itself once Meta finishes background processing.
Check your billing setup. Make sure your payment method is verified and active.
Try duplicating the ad. Sometimes creating a fresh version triggers the system to re-process it faster.
Switch browsers or devices. Rarely, Ads Manager UI glitches can cause status errors that don’t reflect real-time backend activity.
Use Meta Business Support chat. If it’s been stuck for several hours or more, reach out directly, they can manually trigger the review or flag issues with the ad.
Pro Tip:
If this keeps happening, try publishing ads in non-peak hours (e.g., early morning or late night). Meta’s system is less congested, and ads tend to process faster.
