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I'm trying to pause ads using Ads API access. I tried 2 different approaches and both of them have a delay of about 30 minutes until the ad is actually paused. The firs approach is setting the bids to CPC 0.05 USD. The Second one is change it status to Pause.

Although I can see the ad as pauses (or with 0.05 CPC) it's still spending money for about 30 minutes.

It's crucial to our clients to pause the ad at the moment. Is there a way to pause ad or campaign immediately?

Thanks, Tal

Tal Yaari
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  • If you are bidding CPC, and ads have been already been inserted when you pause the ad, you will still be charged if a user clicks the ad. – Paul Bain Jan 15 '14 at 09:30
  • Hi Paul, I know, but I'm getting charged as the old CPC and not as the new one (0.05 USD) for the clicks that arrived around 30 minutes after the change. The CPC change does not affect immediately – Tal Yaari Jan 15 '14 at 12:58
  • Are you trying to pause a specific ad in a given campaign or trying to pause the entire campaign? I've found that pausing the campaign itself works just fine, we do it all the time. But we don't pause specific ads. – Erick Brown Jan 15 '14 at 16:38
  • I paused the entire campaign, than the campaign status was changed to paused but the "spent" kept increasing in this campaign for a period time of about 30 minutes. After this time no money spent on it further. – Tal Yaari Jan 16 '14 at 07:14
  • you're bidding to win impressions based on a CPC, so when the ad is inserted, the CPC you pay if a user clicks is determined by the auction price. Changing the bid only affects new auctions, not ones that have already run. – Paul Bain Jan 16 '14 at 17:02
  • OK.. Is there an alternative way to pause the ad ? – Tal Yaari Jan 16 '14 at 17:07

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If you are bidding CPC, and ads have been already been inserted when you pause the ad or campaign, you will still be charged if a user clicks the ad.

Ads on Facebook are determined via an auction. Your CPC is entered into the auction and the price you pay is determined when you win. Therefore altering the bid after an impressions has been inserted will not result in the lower CPC being charged as this only affects future auctions.

CPC is often not the best bidding mechanism on Facebook anyway, and you should consider taking a look at oCPM optimized for link clicks as an alternative. In this case, you are buying impressions so you should not be charged after a campaign has been paused if you bid exclusively on actions.

See: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/ads-api/optimizedcpm/

Paul Bain
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