How to Know if Your Instagram Ad is Approved

You’ve crafted the perfect video, written compelling copy, and zeroed in on your target audience. You hit the "Publish" button on your Instagram ad, and now... you wait. That waiting period can feel stressful, leaving you to refresh the page wondering what’s happening. This guide will walk you through exactly how to check your ad’s approval status, what each status means, and what to do if your ad gets rejected.

The Instagram Ad Review Process in a Nutshell

Once you submit your ad, it enters Meta's review queue. This process is mostly automated, with AI systems scanning your ad to ensure it complies with their Advertising Policies. While most ads are reviewed and approved within 24 hours, it can sometimes take longer, especially during peak advertising seasons.

So, what are they looking at? The review system primarily checks four key areas:

Ad Creative: Your images, videos, and carousel cards are checked for prohibited content, excessive text, misleading imagery (like fake "play" buttons), and low-quality media.
Ad Text: Your headline, primary text, and captions are scanned for sensationalized language, misleading claims, profanity, and references to personal attributes (e.g., "Struggling with debt?").
Targeting: The systems check to make sure your audience targeting doesn't discriminate or target vulnerable groups with inappropriate content. For instance, you can't target weight loss ads to users under 18.
Landing Page: Yes, a reviewer (or a bot) clicks your link! They check to see if your website or landing page is functional, matches the product or service in the ad, and isn't deceptive or packed with malware.

Think of it as a comprehensive quality check. Meta wants to ensure a positive and safe user experience, and that includes the ads people see in their feeds and Stories.

How to Check Your Instagram Ad Status

The best place to get a definitive answer on your ad's status is inside Meta's own tools. Depending on how you created the ad (by boosting a post or through Ads Manager), your process will be slightly different.

Method 1: Using Meta Ads Manager (Recommended)

If you're serious about running ads, you should get comfortable with Ads Manager. It's the central hub for all your advertising activity on Meta's platforms and provides the most detailed information.

Log in to Meta Ads Manager: Navigate to adsmanager.facebook.com.
Select your Ad Account: If you manage multiple accounts, ensure you've chosen the correct one from the dropdown menu in the top left.
Navigate to the Ad Level: Your view is divided into three tabs: Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Ads. For ad status, you’ll want to be on the Campaigns tab to start. Find the campaign containing your ad.
Check the "Delivery" Column: This column is your status command center. It tells you instantly what's going on with your campaign, ad set, or individual ad. You can click on the campaign to see the status of the ad set, and then click the ad set to see the status of the specific ad.

The "Delivery" column will display a status like "In Review," "Active," or "Not Approved." We'll break down what each of these means in the next section.

Method 2: Directly in the Instagram App (for Boosted Posts)

If you simply "boosted" a post directly from the Instagram app, you can check its status there as well. This method is quicker but offers less detail than Ads Manager.

Go to your Profile: Open the Instagram app and navigate to your profile page.
Tap "Ad Tools": This button is located under your bio.
Select the Promotion: You’ll see a list of your past and current promotions (boosted posts). Find the specific post you're curious about and tap on it.
View the Status: The app will display the promotion's status, usually at the top of the details screen. It will tell you if it's "Pending approval," "Active," or has been "Rejected."

Understanding What Each Ad Status Means

Seeing a status label is one thing, but knowing what to do with that information is what matters most. Let’s decode the most common delivery statuses you’ll encounter.

In Review

This is the default status for every new or edited ad. It means your ad is in the queue waiting to be checked by Meta’s automated systems. Have patience here - this is a perfectly normal part of the process. If it's been "In Review" for more than 48 hours, you may want to contact support, but usually, it resolves on its own.

Active

Great news! Your ad was approved and is now running. It’s eligible to be shown to your target audience. You should start seeing data populate in columns like "Impressions" and "Reach." Sometimes, an ad's status changes from "Active" to "Limited" as it goes through the learning phase, which is when Meta's system is learning how to best deliver your ad.

Account Error

Houston, we have a problem - but it's not with your ad creative. This status means there’s an issue with your ad account itself. 99% of the time, this points to a billing problem, such as an expired credit card or a failed payment. Head over to the "Billing" section in Ads Manager to resolve it.

Scheduled

This means your ad has been approved but is set to start running at a future date and time. It’s sitting idle and waiting for its cue. Double-check your campaign schedule if you expected it to be active already.

Not Approved (or Disapproved / Rejected)

This is the outcome no one wants. Your ad was reviewed and found to have violated one or more advertising policies. It will not run, and no money will be spent. Don't worry, this happens to everyone. The next section is dedicated to fixing this exact problem.

Not Delivering

This one can be frustrating. Your ad is approved, but for some reason, it's not spending its budget or reaching anyone. Common culprits include:

Audience Overlap: You have multiple ad sets competing for the same audience.
Low Bid or Budget: Your bid might be too low to win ad auctions, or your daily budget is exhausted.
Narrow Audience: Your targeting might be so specific that the potential audience is too small to serve ads to effectively.

My Instagram Ad Was Not Approved. Now What?

Seeing that red "Not Approved" status can be disheartening, but it's usually fixable. AI-powered reviews are not perfect, and false positives happen all the time. Here's a calm, step-by-step plan to get your ad back on track.

Step 1: Check the Reason

Meta won't just reject your ad without an explanation. In Ads Manager, hover over the "Not Approved" status in the delivery column. You should see a prompt that says "See Details" or something similar. Clicking this will open a sidebar that tells you which advertising policy your ad violated. The explanation can sometimes be generic, but it's your starting point.

Step 2: Common Reasons for Ad Disapproval

While there are dozens of policies, most rejections fall into a few common categories:

Personal Attributes: You can't call out or imply you know a user's personal characteristics. For example, instead of saying, "Feeling overwhelmed?" you could say, "Our meditation app helps users find calm."
Misleading Content: This includes "get rich quick" schemes, unsubstantiated health claims, or before-and-after images, which are a major red flag in the health and wellness space.
Prohibited Content: Ads for firearms, tobacco products, illegal drugs, and unsafe supplements are strictly forbidden.
Landing Page Issues: Your landing page cannot have disruptive pop-ups, autoplaying videos with sound, or content that doesn’t function. It also must accurately reflect what your ad is offering.
Brand Asset Usage: You are not allowed to use the Meta, Facebook, or Instagram brand logos or names in a way that implies endorsement. Creating an image that says "Find Us On Instagram" with the logo is fine, making an image that implies your product is "The #1 Instagram-Approved Tool" is not.

Step 3: Fix and Resubmit or Request a Review

Once you’ve identified the potential problem, you have two choices.

Option A: Edit the Ad

If the violation is clear (e.g., you used a phrase that falls under "personal attributes" or your ad copy contains a typo and a broken link), the best route is to edit the ad.

In Ads Manager, find the rejected ad and click the "Edit" button.
Make the necessary changes to the text, image, video, or URL.
Click "Publish."

This will resubmit the ad to the review system as if it were a brand-new ad.

Option B: Request a Manual Review

Did the AI get it wrong? It happens. If you’ve read the policies carefully and are confident your ad is compliant, you can request a human review.

Go to the Account Quality tool in your Meta Business Suite, or look for the "Request Review" button in the Ads Manager sidebar where the disapproval reason is shown.
You'll be able to select the ad and submit a request. Sometimes there's a field to add a short note explaining your case.

A pair of human eyes will then evaluate your ad. This decision is usually final, but it’s an essential step if you believe the system made an error.

Getting your Instagram ads from creation to approval is a process filled with small details. By understanding how to check their status and what each status means, you can move from anxiously waiting to taking confident and decisive action to keep your campaigns on track.

Final Thoughts

By learning to navigate the Ads Manager, read the delivery statuses, and troubleshoot disapproval issues, you can turn a moment of panic into a simple, actionable workflow. These steps ensure you spend less time guessing why an ad isn't working and more time connecting with your audience.

Of course, getting an ad approved is just the first step. The real fun starts when you have to analyze which campaigns are actually turning clicks into customers. We built Graphed to solve this exact problem. By connecting all your platforms - from Instagram and Facebook Ads to Google Analytics and Shopify - we help you see the full picture in one place. Instead of spending hours wrangling spreadsheets to prove your ad performance, you can use simple, natural language to get instant dashboards and reports on your marketing ROI.