"Not Delivering"

What this status means

• Nothing runs at this level. Not Delivering is a generic status in Snapchat Ads Manager. It shows on a campaign, an ad set or an ad. The exact cause appears when you hover over the status pill.
• The cause can sit at a parent level. According to Snap’s Delivery Status documentation, an active item doesn’t deliver if its campaign or ad set has a problem. A campaign with no active ad set, or an ad set with no active ad, doesn’t deliver either.
• The most common causes, according to Snap’s documentation and help center:
  • campaign, ad set or ad turned off;
  • start date in the future or end date in the past;
  • budget or spend cap reached (ad set, campaign or account);
  • no payment method linked to the ad account, or a failed payment;
  • ad pending review or rejected;
  • audience in the targeting deleted or no longer shared;
  • image or video file that failed processing;
  • inactive organization.

How to fix it

1. In Manage Ads, hover over the pill in the Delivery Status column to read the cause.
2. Check payment, first on a new account that has never delivered: it is the only cause an advertiser has confirmed (see below). In Billing & Payments > Payment Methods, check that a valid payment method is linked to the ad account, and link one if not. According to Snapchat’s help center, an ad account with no linked payment method doesn’t deliver. If a payment failed, follow the “Failed Payments” page.
3. Check the toggles at all three levels: campaign, ad set, ad. Turn back on, in Manage Ads, the one that is paused.
4. Check the ads’ review status. Pending: let the review finish without editing the creative, which would restart it. Rejected: click the ad to read the reason and fix it (see “Ad is rejected”).
5. Check the start and end dates of the campaign and the ad set. If the end date has passed or the start date is in the future, click Edit under the campaign or ad set name, change the start and end times, then click Save & Close.
6. Check budgets and spend caps: daily and lifetime, at the ad set, campaign and ad account level. If one has been reached, raise it:
   • campaign or ad set budget: in Manage Ads, select Campaigns or Ad Sets, click the pencil icon next to the budget, then Save;
   • campaign spend cap: click Edit under the campaign name;
   • ad account spend cap: from the menu, open Ad Accounts, click the account, edit the cap under Ad Account Details, then click Save Changes. It can be raised or lowered, not removed.
7. For a catalog ad, check stock: according to Snapchat’s help center, “Out of Stock” products are automatically excluded. If the stock is actually available, update availability in the catalog or in your feed platform.
8. If the status looks wrong, clear cache and cookies, test in an incognito window or in Chrome, and turn off any VPN or ad blocker.

What worked for other advertisers

On r/PPC, an advertiser whose Snapchat ads weren’t delivering even though everything looked correct found the cause in payment:

1. Connect the ad account to the business, then link the card to the ad account in Payment Methods: “the real issue was with the payment” (1 confirmation, October 18, 2024).

This report dates from 2024: Snapchat’s interface may have changed since.

How to avoid it next time

• Link the payment method to the ad account as soon as you create it, before your first campaign.
• Keep some headroom on the account and campaign spend caps.
• Before deleting or unsharing an audience, check that no active ad set uses it.

The same message in other languages

Snapchat Ads Manager’s interface translates this status as follows: