Facebook campaign "Off due to budget"

Quick Answer

"Off due to budget" usually means the campaign hit its lifetime budget, the daily budget is below the auction floor, or the account spending limit is reached. Open the campaign, check which budget is exhausted, and either raise it or extend the schedule.

Step-by-step fix

1. Click the campaign that shows "Off (budget)". Read the exact reason in the warning tooltip.
2. Check the campaign budget type. If lifetime, see how much has been spent vs the cap. If daily, check whether the schedule has expired.
3. For lifetime budget exhausted: increase the budget or extend the end date.
4. For daily budget too low: increase to at least 30x your CPA target. If your CPA is £20, your daily budget should be £600+.
5. For account spending limit: go to Billing → Payment Settings → Account Spending Limit → reset or remove.
6. For schedule expired: extend the end date in the campaign settings.
7. Reactivate the campaign. Status should change from "Off (budget)" to "Active" within minutes.

Why it happens

"Off due to budget" can mean any of:

1. Lifetime budget reached. Campaign budget cap was hit. Common at the end of a campaign cycle.
2. Daily budget below auction floor. Meta won't deliver an ad set if its daily budget is too small to win even one auction. The minimum varies by audience but is typically £/$ 5-10.
3. Schedule end date passed. The campaign was set to end on a specific date, and that date has passed.
4. Account spending limit reached. A different setting from campaign budget — covered separately.
5. Billing threshold not paid. Meta paused the campaign because an outstanding charge hasn't cleared.
6. Campaign budget optimisation (CBO) misallocation. When CBO is on, the campaign can pause individual ad sets that don't meet their share of the budget.
7. Dynamic budget changes by automated rules. If you have an automated rule that pauses campaigns at certain budget thresholds, that rule may be firing unexpectedly.

Meta's UI lumps all of these under the same warning, which is why it's confusing.

How to prevent it

• Use daily budgets, not lifetime budgets, for evergreen campaigns. Lifetime budgets are for time-bound launches only.
• Set the daily budget at 30x your CPA so the algorithm has room to optimise.
• Don't set end dates unless you're running a true time-bound campaign. End dates expire silently.
• Audit automated rules monthly. Old rules pause campaigns based on outdated thresholds.
• Set the account spending limit well above your monthly forecast or remove it entirely.
• Pay outstanding balances promptly — set up auto-pay if your bank supports it.
• For CBO campaigns, set minimum spend rules per ad set so no single ad set gets starved.

When to escalate to Meta support

This is virtually always self-service. Escalate only if:

• The campaign shows "Off (budget)" but the budget is clearly not exhausted, the schedule is current, and there's no spending limit hit.
• The status doesn't change after you've raised the budget and saved.
• You see "Off (budget)" on a brand new campaign that has never delivered a single impression.

Use Pro Team Chat with the campaign ID and a screenshot of the budget settings. Most cases resolve within 24 hours.

Pix-Vu mention

If you're scaling budgets up after fixing this, your creative needs to scale too. Pix-Vu helps you produce more creative variations from existing assets so your bigger budget doesn't burn out a single ad.