Meta data is stale or empty
Why Meta Ads data may look delayed, partial or missing in Ordinary — sync delays, expired access, zero spend or missing campaigns — and how to fix it.
Written by The Ordinary Team · Updated On this page
Meta’s reporting APIs are eventually consistent and occasionally flaky. Here’s what’s typical, what’s a bug, and how to fix it.
Normal delays
- Today’s data refreshes every hour. If you check at 2pm and see metrics through ~1pm, that’s expected.
- Yesterday’s data is re-pulled every hour as well. Meta keeps adjusting recent days for a while after they end, and each sync picks up the latest numbers.
- First sync after connection pulls the last 90 days first, then older history in the background. Settings → Sync Status shows progress.
If you’re inside these windows, wait — it’s not a bug.
”Reconnect required” on the Meta card
When Meta revokes or expires Ordinary’s access, Settings → Meta shows an amber Reconnect required badge. Ad spend, campaign data and purchase-event delivery pause until you reconnect.
Fix: click Connect Meta and approve the permissions again. Sync resumes automatically.
Spend shows zero for yesterday
Most common causes:
- Reconnect required (see above).
- Ad account paused — if all campaigns were paused, spend is legitimately zero.
- Wrong ad account connected — check the Ad Account shown on Settings → Meta matches the one running ads.
- Meta’s reporting delay — Meta may not have finished reporting yesterday yet. The next hourly sync picks it up.
Campaigns missing from the list
- No activity in the date range — Channels → Meta lists campaigns with activity in the selected range. Widen the range to find older campaigns.
- New campaign just created — Meta’s reporting lags a little behind Ads Manager. It appears after a later hourly sync.
Ad-set or ad-level data missing but campaigns show up
On first sync or after a long outage, ad-set and ad-level data can take a little longer to fill in than campaigns. Check Settings → Sync Status for a sync in progress. There’s no manual refresh; the next hourly sync picks up anything outstanding.
Numbers don’t match Meta Ads Manager
This is expected — we’re two different measurement systems. See Channels — Meta ads § Click-through vs view-through.
In short: Meta uses view-through + cross-device identity; Ordinary uses click-based pixel data. They’ll never match exactly.
Still broken
If you’ve waited past normal delays and reconnected successfully:
- Note the campaign name and date range where data looks wrong.
- Note the last time you saw data update.
- Email support@tryordinary.com.
We can check our Meta sync job logs for your account and often find the exact point where sync lagged.
Related articles
- Connecting Meta Ads
- Channels — Meta ads
- Notifications and alerts — the “No recent Meta Ads data” notification.