Troubleshooting
Ad spend isn’t showing
Spend shows up when the Meta connection is Active, the account was checked and saved under Ad accounts, and the sync has already run (every 30 minutes). If it’s still at zero, check the account’s time zone, the reporting currency and the report filters.
Read the notice the reports show
| Notice | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “Connect an ad account…” | There’s no active Meta connection: it doesn’t exist, is disabled or has invalid credentials. | In Settings › Integrations, create or fix the connection. |
| “Sync pending: ad data hasn’t arrived yet.” | The connection exists, but the first sync hasn’t finished yet. | Wait a few minutes: the first sync can take a while. |
| “Ads out of date” | The last sync was more than 3 hours ago. | Check that the connection is still Active. In Analytics › Campaigns, use Sync now. |
| “Ads synced …” | Everything is up to date. | If the number still looks wrong, check the time zone, currency and filters below. |
Check, in this order
- Active connection. In Settings › Integrations, the Meta connection has to be “Active”, with the Ads source function. With “Invalid credentials”, syncing stops: add a new token under Edit and use Test (“Connection verified”).
- Account checked and saved. Under Ad accounts, check the account and click Save selection (“Account selection saved”). Saving doesn’t trigger a sync right away: the spend comes in on the next one.
- Token can see the account. “No ad accounts” means the token can’t see any account: give the system user access to the accounts in Business Manager. The “No access” warning on an account means the connection can no longer see it.
- Account in another connection. An account can only be in one connection: “Account already synced by another connection”.
- Time zone and currency. An account with “Different time zone” is excluded from totals; spend in another currency only shows up when that currency is selected in the report. See ad account excluded from totals.
- Plan limit. If you save more accounts than your plan allows, you’ll see “Plan limit reached”. See plan limit reached.
Filters that change spend
- Source without Paid traffic. When you filter only Organic or Outbound, the media metrics show “Not applicable”.
- Salesperson or number. Spend is then split across each one’s paid leads (“Allocated cost”). A salesperson with no paid leads in the period has no spend. And salespeople always see their own allocated spend.
- Period. Spend is always by delivery date, in the organization’s time zone, in both views (cohort and event date).
When each number updates
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Spend for the last 2 days | Every 30 minutes |
| Review of spend for the last 28 days | Every day at 3:30 a.m., in the organization’s time zone |
| Hourly spend for today | Every 30 minutes, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. |
| Campaigns, ad sets and ads (names and structure) | Every hour |
Meta keeps adjusting spend for recent days for a while, and that’s what the daily review is for: small differences in the last few days sort themselves out.
Example
Example Co. connected Meta in the morning and, by the afternoon, the reports still showed “Connect an ad account”. Under Integrations, the connection had “Invalid credentials”: the token had been generated for a regular user and expired. The manager generated a system user token, pasted it under Edit, clicked Verify and save and then Sync now in Analytics › Campaigns. A few minutes later, the footer showed “Ads synced 2 min ago”.
Didn’t work? See…
- Connect from scratch: connect your Meta ad account.
- Account selection and syncing: ad accounts and syncing.
- Connection status and actions: manage connections.
Frequently asked questions
How often does spend update?
Every 30 minutes for the last 2 days, with a daily review of the last 28 days at 3:30 a.m. in the organization’s time zone.
Does TraceClose’s spend match Ads Manager?
It should match for the same account, period and time zone. Differences usually come from an account in another time zone, a filter applied, or recent days that Meta is still adjusting.
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