Why is My Instagram Ad Pending Approval?
Staring at an "In Review" or "Pending Approval" status on your fresh Instagram ad can be incredibly frustrating. You’ve planned your campaign, crafted the perfect creative, and all you want to do is go live. Instead, you're stuck in limbo. This article will walk you through exactly why your ad might be delayed, what’s happening behind the scenes, and what you can do to speed up the process.
What Happens During the Ad Review Process?
Before diving into the reasons for delays, it’s helpful to understand what "In Review" actually means. Every single ad submitted to Meta (which includes Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger) goes through a mandatory review process before it can go live. This isn't a sign that you've done something wrong, it's a standard procedure to ensure all ads meet Meta's Advertising Policies.
The review is primarily conducted by an automated system that uses AI to scan your ad’s components, including:
The creative itself: This includes the image, video, caption, and any text overlay.
Targeting parameters: Who you're trying to reach with your ad.
The landing page: The destination URL a user goes to after clicking your ad.
In most cases, this automated review is quick, with many ads approved in under an hour. However, if the system flags something potentially problematic or isn't sure about a specific element, it gets passed to a human reviewer for a closer look. This is where longer delays often begin.
Meta officially states that most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, but it can occasionally take longer. The key is to be prepared for this standard waiting period and not panic if your ad isn't approved instantly.
Common Reasons Your Instagram Ad is Stuck in Review
If you’ve blown past the 24-hour mark or notice a pattern of slow approvals, one of these common culprits is likely the cause.
1. Potential Ad Policy Violations
This is by far the biggest reason an ad gets delayed or rejected. Meta’s advertising policies are extensive, and even a minor slip-up can get your ad flagged for human review. Here are some of the most frequent policy offenders:
Restricted Content: Your ad may be promoting things that are either forbidden or highly regulated. This includes products like alcohol, dating services, financial products (especially crypto and personal loans), and wellness supplements. Ads in these categories almost always undergo a more detailed manual review.
Personal Attributes: Ads are not allowed to directly or indirectly imply knowledge of someone’s personal characteristics. For example, you can’t say, “Feeling depressed?” or “Suffering from back pain?” because it calls out a specific attribute of the user. Framing it as “Learn about mood-boosting techniques” is more likely to be approved.
Misleading Claims or Sensationalism: This includes everything from promising unrealistic "get rich quick" schemes to using dramatic "before and after" photos for weight loss. If it sounds too good to be true, Meta's AI will probably flag it.
Brand Asset Usage: Improperly using brand names or logos (like using the Instagram logo incorrectly in your creative) can trigger an extended review. This also applies to ads that try to mention "Facebook" or "Meta" in a way that suggests an official endorsement.
2. Issues with Your Ad Creative (Image, Video, or Text)
The visual and written elements of your ad are under intense scrutiny. A few common creative-related issues can hold things up.
Too Much Text on the Image: While Meta officially removed its strict "20% text" rule, its systems still favor images and videos with minimal text overlay. An image that looks more like a text-based banner ad than a photo may perform poorly and can trigger a more thorough review.
Low-Quality Media: Blurry images, distorted videos, or pixelated graphics provide a poor user experience, and Meta’s review system can pick up on this. Ensure your creative meets the recommended specs for quality and resolution.
Bait-and-Switch Tactics: Using clickbait imagery or provocative visuals that don’t align with your actual product or service is a quick way to get your ad stuck. For instance, using a picture of a celebrity who is not affiliated with your brand is a definite red flag.
3. Problems with Your Landing Page
The review process doesn’t end with your ad, it extends to the user’s destination after they click. Your landing page must be functional and align with what your ad promised.
Mismatch Between Ad and Landing Page: If your ad shows a pair of running shoes but your landing page goes to a homepage selling coffee mugs, it’s a non-starter. The content and offer on the landing page must directly relate to the content and offer in the ad.
Non-Functional Landing Page: This includes broken links (404 errors), extremely slow loading times, or a page that is still under construction. Meta’s bots will crawl your site, and an inaccessible page will immediately halt the approval process.
Poor User Experience: Intrusive pop-ups that are difficult to close, aggressive email capture forms that block content, or pages that autoplay audio/video are all signals of a low-quality landing page experience.
4. Your Ad Account History
Your track record with Meta matters. The status and history of your ad account can significantly influence approval times.
New Ad Accounts: If you’re running ads from a brand-new account that has no history, expect your first few campaigns to be reviewed more carefully. Meta needs to build trust with new advertisers. Once you have a history of running compliant, successful ads, approvals tend to get much faster.
History of Rejected Ads: If your account has had several ads rejected in the past, your future submissions will be subject to greater scrutiny. It’s like being on a watch list, the system will be more cautious about automatically approving your ads.
5. High-Volume Advertising Periods
Sometimes, the delay has nothing to do with you or your ad. During peak advertising seasons like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, or other major holidays, Meta's review queues are flooded with submissions. With a massive influx of ads, the standard 24-hour window can easily stretch to 48 hours or more as both automated systems and human reviewers get backlogged. Plan ahead and submit your campaigns early during these busy times.
What to Do When Your Ad Approval is Taking Too Long
If you find yourself stuck on "Pending," don't just sit and wait. Here’s a sequential plan of action you can take.
Step 1: Be Patient for the First 24 Hours
This is the hardest but most important step. Don’t immediately start making edits or resubmitting your ad a dozen times if it has only been a few hours. Constant changes can reset your place in the review queue, effectively putting you at the back of the line each time. Give Meta’s systems at least a full day before you start troubleshooting.
Step 2: Scrutinize Your Ad Against the Policies
If it’s been over 24 hours, it's time to become your own ad reviewer. Open your ad and carefully check it against the common issues listed above.
Read your caption aloud. Does it make any borderline claims?
Look at your image. Is the text minimal and the quality high?
Click your website link. Does the landing page load quickly and deliver exactly what the ad promises?
Often, a fresh look will reveal a small detail you missed, like a broken URL or a piece of phrasing that could be misinterpreted by an automated system.
Step 3: Edit the Ad or Duplicate and Resubmit
If you find a clear problem after your review, the solution is simple: edit the original ad to fix the issue and republish it. Note that this will restart the review process.
However, sometimes your ad gets stuck simply due to a one-off technical glitch. In these cases, a popular and often effective trick is to duplicate the ad set. Go into your campaign, select the stuck ad set, duplicate it, and publish the copy (making sure the original is turned off to avoid double-charging later). This new submission sometimes gets processed by a different part of the system and is approved quickly.
Step 4: Contact Meta Support
If 48 hours have passed and you’ve tried the steps above with no success, it’s time to reach out for a manual review. You can typically do this through the Meta Business Help Center. When you contact them:
Be specific and polite: Provide the Ad ID and a clear, concise explanation of the situation ("My ad has been in review for over 48 hours despite being compliant with your policies").
Ask for a manual review: Explicitly requesting that a human looks at your ad can often resolve the issue quickly. They can either push the approval through or give you a specific reason why it’s being held up.
How to Prevent Delays in the Future
The best way to deal with pending approvals is to minimize the chances of them happening in the first place.
Know the Rules: Spend 30 minutes reading through Meta's core Advertising Policies. Understanding what an "unacceptable business practice" or "personal attribute" actually means will save you hours of guesswork.
Warm Up Your Account: If a new account, start with simple, safe campaigns. A straightforward traffic or engagement campaign with a generic product image is more likely to be quickly approved and helps you build a positive history.
Create a Pre-Launch Checklist: Before hitting "Publish," double-check everything: image text, URL functionality, targeting, and your ad copy.
Plan Ahead: Don’t launch major holiday or sales campaigns at the last minute. Get your ads in for review a few days early to build in a buffer for any potential delays.
Final Thoughts
An ad stuck in review is a common hurdle every advertiser faces, but it rarely means your campaign is doomed. It's usually caused by something specific - a policy misunderstanding, a technical issue with your landing page, or just a system backlog. By being patient, systematically troubleshooting, and understanding Meta’s rules, you can navigate these delays and get your ads running smoothly.
Once your ads are approved and live, the focus naturally shifts from getting seen to understanding performance. Manually piecing together reports from Instagram Ads, Google Analytics, and your e-commerce platform eats up valuable time that could be spent on strategy. To solve this, we built Graphed. Our platform connects directly to all your data sources, letting you create dashboards and get insights simply by asking questions in natural language. Instead of spending hours in spreadsheets, you can ask, “Show me how my latest Instagram campaign is impacting Shopify sales,” and get an answer in seconds.