Facebook ads spending money but no sales
Clicks and spend but no purchases. First rule out tracking, then work through the offer, the page and the audience, in that order.
Clicks but no sales Updated 9 November 2026 Checked against Meta’s Help Center
The short answer
Start by checking your shop: if orders are coming in but Meta shows none, tracking is broken, not the ads. If there truly are no sales, look at where people drop off: landing page views (slow or broken page), add to carts (offer or price), and checkouts (shipping costs, payment). Ads optimised for traffic or engagement bring cheap clicks from people who rarely buy.
This is probably you if
- Hundreds of link clicks and zero purchases
- Add to carts but no purchases
- Spend continues every day with no sale in a week
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Check my accountCauses, most likely first
Work down the list: rule each cause out or mark the one you find
- 1
Sales happen but Meta does not see them
A missing or broken Purchase event looks exactly like no sales.
- How to check
- Compare shop orders with Meta purchases for the same days. Check Events Manager for recent Purchase events.
- Fix
- See pixel not tracking purchases.
Is this the cause?
- 2
The campaign is optimised for clicks, not sales
A Traffic or Engagement campaign finds people who click, and people who click a lot rarely buy.
- How to check
- Look at the campaign objective and the ad set performance goal.
- Fix
- Use a Sales campaign optimised for purchases (or add to cart while volume is low).
Is this the cause?
- 3
People leave before the page loads
If many link clicks never become landing page views, the page is too slow or broken on mobile.
- How to check
- Compare link clicks with landing page views. A big gap means a page problem.
Is this the cause?
- 4
The page does not match the ad
If the ad promises one thing and the page shows another, visitors leave.
- How to check
- Click your own ad on a phone and see what a stranger sees.
- Fix
- Send the ad to the exact product or offer it shows.
Is this the cause?
- 5
The offer or price does not convince
Add to carts without purchases often mean a surprise at checkout: shipping, price or payment options.
- How to check
- Compare add to cart, initiated checkout and purchase counts.
- Fix
- Show shipping costs early, add trusted payment options, test the offer. See add to cart, no purchases.
Is this the cause?
Keep it from coming back
- Test a purchase yourself after every change to the site or checkout.
- Set a stop-loss: pause an ad set that has spent several times your target CPA without a sale.
Did this guide help?
Terms in this guide
Frequently asked questions
Still unsure? Ask us anything. Talk to us
- How long should I wait for sales from Facebook ads?
- Judge by spend, not days: if an ad set has spent three to five times your target cost per purchase without a sale, something is wrong.
Related problems
- Meta pixel not tracking purchases Orders come in, Meta shows none. How to find where the Purchase event breaks: the pixel, the Conversions API, the checkout or consent.
- Meta ads get add to carts but no purchases People add to cart and leave. Where the checkout loses them, and how to tell a checkout problem from a tracking problem.
- Why did my Facebook ads ROAS drop? ROAS is purchase value divided by spend, so it falls when costs rise, when fewer people buy, or when tracking misses sales. A step-by-step way to find which.
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