Activity
Rolling out. If you do not see Automation in the menu yet, your account does not have it switched on.
Automation, then Activity is the log of what your rules have done. Every check a rule made on a campaign, ad set or ad appears here with what happened and, where nothing happened, why.
Each entry shows the thing the rule checked, which rule checked it, the date the numbers came from, when the check ran, and the outcome.
The three outcomes
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Turned off | The rule matched and switched the thing off. |
| Would have turned off | The rule matched, but did not act. Either the rule is on Only tell me, or acting is not switched on for the account yet. |
| Left alone | The rule matched on the stored numbers, then a guardrail stopped it. The reason is always shown. |
Left alone is not a failure. That line is the most useful one in the log: the guardrail proving it works. A log full of “left alone because it was still settling in” means the rule points at things too new to judge. Know that before you let it act.
Why something was left alone
| Reason shown | What happened |
|---|---|
| the numbers had already changed when we checked again | Before acting, the rule reads the current numbers again. They no longer matched, so it stopped. Overnight conversions are the usual cause. |
| it was still settling in | On Meta, the thing was still in its learning phase. |
| it had just been changed | Someone edited it in the last couple of days, so its numbers do not reflect its current setup. |
| the change could not be applied | The rule tried to turn it off and the platform refused. |
| we could not check it safely | A guardrail check itself could not complete, so the rule did nothing rather than guess. |
| it did not meet every condition on the second check | The second look disagreed with the first on at least one condition. |
The re-check before acting is deliberate. A rule decides on stored daily numbers, which can be hours old. Reading the current numbers again before turning anything off means a thing that recovered overnight stays on.
Reading the log
- A rule that never appears is not matching anything. Loosen its numbers, or check that you switched it on.
- A rule that only produces Would have turned off is on Only tell me. That is the intended state for a new rule.
- A rule producing Turned off on things you wanted running means the conditions are too loose. Raise the spend floor first, then lengthen the period.
Through the AI Copilot
Ask “what have my rules been doing?” to get the same log by chat. Do that before you decide a rule has failed. Most of the time the rule is working and a guardrail is holding it back, for a reason the log states plainly.