Smart Hacks To Fix Instagram Ads Not Working Now [2025]

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Author Mr. Thanh
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10m reading

Are your Instagram ads not working today? Don’t worry, we’ve spent more than $10 million on Meta ads every month over the past 4 years, and this issue happens to us too. In this article, I’m going to show you some smart hacks to get your ad results back on track.

Smart Hacks To Fix Instagram Ads Not Working Now
Smart Hacks To Fix Instagram Ads Not Working Now

Why Are My Instagram Ads Not Working?

Not working ads can happen to any Instagram advertisers. You may have your ads approved and delivered, but it’s not generating results.

Think of it like this: You print and hand out flyers to promote your business. They’ve reached potential customers, but no one responds or visits your store. Similarly, your Instagram ads are shown to your target audiences, but they are not engaging, clicking, or purchasing on ads.

This is a bit different from the Instagram ad not delivering issue, where your ads are not showing to audiences at all.

Sometimes, your campaigns and ads used to perform well, but all of a sudden, your results just drop off.

Signs of not working Instagram ads

Ad results drop off
Ad results drop off

You know an ad is not working if you notice one of these signs:

  • Low engagement rate: People don’t interact with your ad in any meaningful way. They don’t like, share, comment, let alone click ads.
  • Low click-through rates (CTR): People see your ad but don’t click.
  • Poor conversion rates (CR): People click on ads but don’t take the desired action.
  • High cost per landing page view (CPLPV): People click on ads but quickly leave before being sent to your landing page.
  • High cost per impression (CPM): It’s expensive to get your ads shown to viewers.

Reasons for Instagram ads not working issue

Your Instagram ads may be not working due to incorrect audience targeting, uncompelling ad content, and ineffective landing pages.

To work out what exactly happened to your ads, you need to analyze the ad metrics.

For example:

  • Low engagement rate: Your ad creatives are not compelling enough to stop people from scrolling away. 
  • High CPC, low CTR: You target the wrong audiences, or ad content and calls to action are not strong enough to drive clicks. 
  • Low CPC, high CTR, low CR: You target audiences incorrectly,  or the landing page is irrelevant to the ad.
  • Low CPC, high CPLPV: Your landing page loads too slowly, or is not optimized for mobile users.
  • High CPC, high CPM: Your ad creatives are not compelling or your target audience group is getting highly competitive. 

Besides, if your campaigns were highly performing but suddenly lost effectiveness, it may be due to ad fatigue. This happens when your ads are shown repeatedly to the same audience, so the ad frequency gets too high. In this case, even if you have perfect targeting and interesting ad creatives, your results still go down over time. 

Aside from these factors, external causes can make your Instagram ads ineffective:

  • Seasonality: Some products or services are only in high demand in certain periods, so your ads may be less effective when the peak season is over.
  • Competition: The appearance of new competitors can increase the market’s competitiveness and affect your winning campaigns.
  • Algorithm updates: New updates on the platform may affect how Instagram delivers ads.

The First Thing You Should Try When Your Instagram Ads Are Not Working (2025)

As I have said, our agency has been in that situation many times before. So how do we get our ads working again? Join GDT Agency for an effective solution, updated for 2025. 

A genuine hack I recommend you do first is to duplicate your ads or campaigns. 

This works like a reboot for your ads. It sends your ads to Meta’s learning phase again, allowing the algorithms to re-learn audiences, reselect effective placements, and optimize ad delivery.

Here’s how to apply this strategy:

Step 1: Identify not working ads

In Meta Ads Manager, analyze ad performance by assessing core metrics to detect which ads are underperforming.

Step 2: Duplicate ad assets

Select those assets and click Duplicate to create new versions that are identical to the original ones.

Duplicate ads
Duplicate ads

Step 3: Turn off the original

To prevent audience overlap, pause the original campaigns, ad sets, or ads. This allows Instagram to focus on new ad versions.

Step 4: Monitor performance

After duplicating, you should review ad performance regularly every other hour. You may see improvements within a few days after the algorithms successfully re-learn.

Extra Solutions To Fix Instagram Ads Not Working

Improve campaign performance
Improve campaign performance

If duplicating ads doesn’t solve the issue, don’t give up. Here are some additional methods to troubleshoot not working Instagram ads and improve campaign performance.

  • Review your targeting parameters to ensure they reflect your prospects.
  • Ensure your ad content resonates with your target audience. Highlight benefits rather than listing product functionalities.
  • Include video or copywriting hooks in the first part of your ads to stop viewers.
  • Use visually appealing images and videos, and tell compelling stories to hold attention. 
  • Add clear, actionable calls to action to drive your desired actions, such as <Buy Now>, <Shop Now>, etc.
  • Optimize your landing page to reduce bound rates. Make sure it is fast-loading (under 3 seconds), mobile-friendly, and seamless to ads.
  • Renew ad creatives with different images, videos, and copy versions to prevent ad fatigue and increase engagement rates.
  • Stay updated with Instagram’s algorithm and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Learn more: How To Easily Fix An Ad Account Disabled On Instagram [2025]

Wrapping Up

Instagram ads not working is a common issue that any business can encounter. By monitoring performance and analyzing metrics, you can identify the problems and fix them successfully. Remember to apply our strategies to reboot your ads, refine audience targeting, and enhance ad content. With continuous learning and optimizing, you can bring your Instagram ads back to their full potential and achieve your business goals!

  • Expert facebook ads thanh

    As a Facebook Ads expert at GDT Agency, Thanh has helped numerous businesses achieve impressive results through effective advertising campaigns on this platform. With in-depth knowledge and practical experience, Thanh is always seeking innovative solutions to optimize ad performance and deliver maximum value to clients.

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