Facebook Ads (Meta Ads) Troubleshooting

Complete troubleshooting guide for Facebook Ads integration

Last updated: August 11, 2025

Having trouble connecting your Facebook Ads account to Detrics? This comprehensive guide will help you diagnose and resolve the most common connection issues.

Understanding Facebook Access Expiration

Access to Facebook can expire for various reasons. These are the most common causes of connection issues:

Password Changes

Changing your Facebook password automatically revokes access tokens for connected third-party applications.

Meta Security Reviews

Meta may revoke access during routine security reviews, especially for recently connected applications like Detrics.

Token Expiration

Access tokens have built-in expiration dates and need periodic renewal to maintain connection.

Solution: When access expires, you’ll need to reconnect your Facebook Ads account to Detrics through the connection setup process. This re-establishes the authentication and renews the access tokens.

Important: Once you reconnect Meta Ads, all your existing queries and Looker Studio dashboards linked to your Meta accounts will automatically start working again. The reconnection process fixes all connections at once - you don’t need to recreate your queries or dashboards.

Fix Persistent Connection Issues (Full Reset)

If reconnecting doesn’t resolve your issues, follow these steps for a complete reset. This will fix all your Meta Ads queries and dashboards at once.

1. Remove Facebook App Connection

   Go to Facebook Business Tools Settings and click on “Remove” next to the Detrics app.

   
2. Open Google Sheets

   Open a new Google Spreadsheet or click here to create a new sheet directly.

3. Launch Detrics

   Fire up Detrics: Select Extensions > Detrics > Launch

   
4. Connect Data Source

   Click on “Connect Data Source”

   
5. Reconnect Facebook Ads

   Select Facebook Ads and complete the reconnection process to re-establish access.

   

Shared Connection Between Google Sheets and Looker Studio

Google Sheets and Looker Studio share the same Meta Ads connection. This means:

• Single reconnection fixes both platforms: When you reconnect Meta Ads through Google Sheets, your Looker Studio dashboards are automatically fixed too
• No duplicate setup needed: You only need to reconnect once, regardless of which platform you primarily use

Alternative: Reconnect Through Looker Studio

Looker Studio users can also reconnect Meta Ads directly through Looker Studio:

1. Open your Looker Studio dashboard that uses Meta Ads data
2. Click on any chart showing connection errors
3. Select “Reconnect” when prompted
4. Complete the Meta Ads authentication process
5. All your Meta Ads queries in both Looker Studio and Google Sheets will be restored

Need help? If errors persist after following these steps, please reach out to [e-mail]

Meta Server Instability

Understanding Meta’s API Limitations

Error message: “⚠️ Meta servers are experiencing high load”

Meta’s API can become unstable when processing certain types of data requests, particularly:

Large Data Requests:

• Ad-level data with extensive timeframes
• Hourly or daily aggregations over long periods
• Multiple accounts with detailed breakdowns

Quick Solutions

When you encounter this error, try these solutions in order:

1. Reduce Timeframe

   Start with a smaller date range:

   • Instead of 6 months, try 1 month
   • For hourly data, limit to 7 days
   • For daily data, limit to 30 days
2. Switch to Campaign Level

   Use higher-level aggregations:

   • Campaign level instead of Ad level
   • Ad Set level instead of Ad level
   • This significantly reduces API load
3. Change Time Aggregation

   Adjust your time grouping:

   • Switch from “Hourly” to “Daily”
   • Switch from “Daily” to “All Time”
   • Use “Weekly” or “Monthly” for long timeframes
4. Split Your Query

   For large datasets, create multiple queries:

   • Split by date ranges (e.g., monthly queries)
   • Split by account (one account per query)
   • Combine results afterward in your spreadsheet

Still having issues? If none of these solutions work, please try again in a few hours. These server instability issues typically last from a few hours to 24-48 hours in the most extreme cases.

Why This Happens

Meta’s API has several limitations that can trigger this error:

Factor	Impact	Solution
Random Meta instability	Meta’s servers occasionally fail to process requests regardless of query complexity	Wait and retry in a few hours
Ad-level complexity	Each ad requires multiple API calls	Use Campaign or Ad Set level
Long timeframes	Exponentially more data to process	Limit to 30-90 days
Granular time aggregation	Hourly/daily creates more data points	Use weekly/monthly for long periods
Multiple breakdowns	Each dimension multiplies data volume	Reduce dimensions temporarily (e.g., age, gender, country, platform position, publisher platforms)

Best Practices to Avoid This Error

To avoid encountering this instability, we recommend implementing a Historical + Dynamic sheet strategy:

The 3-Sheet Strategy

Set up three sheets to separate your data:

1. “Meta Ads Combined” - Your main reporting sheet with all data
2. “Meta Ads Dynamic” - Recent data that updates daily
3. “Meta Ads Historical” - Archived data that doesn’t change

How to Implement This Strategy

1. Create Your Historical Sheet

   Export all your historical data (e.g., all 2024 data and 2025 data up to the previous month) to the “Meta Ads Historical” sheet. This data is “golden” - it won’t change because Meta’s longest attribution window is 28 days.

2. Set Up Your Dynamic Query

   Create a smaller query in “Meta Ads Dynamic” that only pulls recent data (from the previous month onwards). This smaller timeframe rarely triggers Meta’s instability errors.

3. Combine Both Sheets

   In your “Meta Ads Combined” sheet, use this formula to merge both datasets:

   =QUERY({
     'Meta Ads Historical'!A2:Z;
     'Meta Ads Dynamic'!A2:Z
   }, "SELECT * WHERE Col1 is not null", 0)
   

   This gives you complete data without the load issues.

4. Maintain Your Setup

   Every 6 months, or when you notice instability errors becoming more frequent, move older data from Dynamic to Historical. This keeps your dynamic query small and fast.

Example: If you have a 2-year ad-level daily query that fails:

• Historical sheet: All data up to June 2025
• Dynamic sheet: July 2025 onwards
• Combined sheet: Merges both for complete reporting

When you encounter issues again in 1-2 years, simply repeat this optimization process.

Need help implementing the 3-sheet strategy? Our support team can guide you through the setup process and help optimize your Meta Ads queries for maximum stability. Reach out to [e-mail] with your specific use case and we’ll provide personalized recommendations.