How Long Should You Run a Facebook Ad? Data From 9,839 Ads
How long do winning Facebook ads run? Run times of 9,839 Meta ads that lasted 60+ days in Europe, by industry and country, plus when to judge, keep or replace an ad.
adthief.ai · · 5 min read
"How long should I run a Facebook ad?" is really two questions. How long should you wait before you judge a new ad? And once an ad works, how long can it keep working?
The first is about patience and data. The second is where our archive helps. We track 9,839 Facebook and Instagram ads from 5,185 brands that each ran for at least 60 days in Europe. Their run times show how long winners last, and how much that depends on your industry and your market.
What "long-running" means here
- Source: Meta's public Ad Library, collected every night by adthief.ai.
- Which ads: ads shown in Europe that had been running for 60 days or more, in six industries (supplements, beauty, fashion, home, pets, food and drink). One record per creative.
- Snapshot: 31 October 2026.
We use 60 days as the line because few advertisers keep paying for an ad that doesn't sell for two months. But Meta publishes no spend or sales for commercial ads, so "long-running" stands in for "profitable": a strong signal, not proof.
Two more things to keep in mind when you read the numbers. Every ad here already passed 60 days, so these are winners' run times, not the average ad's. And an ad that was still live on 31 October is counted up to that day, so its final run will be longer than the number we have.
How long winners run, by industry
| Industry | Ads | Median days | Ran six months or more | Longest run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pets | 1,320 | 72 | 16% | 766 days |
| Fashion | 1,942 | 68 | 17% | 809 days |
| Home | 2,066 | 68 | 17% | 549 days |
| Supplements | 3,124 | 66 | 15% | 968 days |
| Beauty | 2,864 | 66 | 14% | 809 days |
| Food and drink | 2,428 | 66 | 14% | 809 days |
Read this table in two halves.
The median is close to the line. In every industry, half of the long-running ads sit between 60 and about 70 days. Most winners have a good run of two months or so, and are then replaced or paused.
The tail is long. Between 14% and 17% of these ads passed six months, and every industry has at least one ad that ran for well over a year. The record in our archive is a supplement ad at 968 days, more than two and a half years.
So a winning ad usually lasts a couple of months, and about one in seven lasts half a year or more. Both are normal.
How long winners run, by country
| Main market | Ads | Median days | Six months+ | Longest run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 158 | 99 | 23% | 580 days |
| Germany | 1,448 | 79 | 18% | 766 days |
| Sweden | 204 | 67 | 14% | 269 days |
| The UK | 4,519 | 66 | 17% | 464 days |
| Italy | 498 | 66 | 17% | 564 days |
| Poland | 180 | 66 | 24% | 968 days |
| Romania | 206 | 66 | 19% | 283 days |
| Denmark | 123 | 66 | 19% | 270 days |
| Spain | 367 | 66 | 10% | 309 days |
| France | 354 | 66 | 13% | 390 days |
| The Netherlands | 330 | 66 | 12% | 356 days |
| Portugal | 134 | 65 | 13% | 376 days |
| Ireland | 323 | 65 | 15% | 549 days |
| Belgium | 183 | 65 | 11% | 264 days |
| Greece | 183 | 65 | 14% | 296 days |
The German-speaking markets stand out. Long-running ads in Germany have a median of 79 days, and in Austria 99 days, with almost a quarter past six months. Inside single industries the gap is even bigger: Austrian supplement ads have a median of 124 days, and German beauty ads 83 days against 65 in the UK.
Poland has the highest share past six months (24%) and the single longest run (968 days), though from a smaller set of 180 ads. Spain sits at the other end: only 10% of its long-running ads reached six months.
If you advertise in Germany or Austria, plan for good ads to keep working longer, and for fewer replacements. In Spain, plan for more creative.
Before 60 days: how long to test a new ad
Our data starts at 60 days, so it can't tell you when to switch off an ad in its first week. Here is how we handle that part:
- Give it enough results, not enough days. Meta's delivery system needs data to settle. Meta itself says an ad set leaves its learning phase after about 50 optimisation events in a week. On a small budget you may never reach that, so judge on cost per result once you have a meaningful number of clicks and conversions, not after one day.
- Change one thing at a time. Editing an ad resets part of what Meta has learned. Let it run, then decide.
- Kill clear losers early. If an ad spends several times your target cost per result with nothing to show, you don't need 60 days to know.
- Compare like with like. Judge a new ad against the ads running next to it, on the same audience and budget.
For a full testing setup on a limited budget, read creative testing on a small budget.
After 60 days: when to replace a winner
The data's main lesson: don't retire an ad because it is old. About one in seven winners passed six months, and the brands behind them keep them running for a reason. Replace an ad when its numbers say so:
- Cost per result rises for a week or more while nothing else changed.
- Frequency climbs and click-through rate falls: the same people are seeing it too often.
- Comments turn from questions to complaints about seeing the ad again.
Those are signs of fatigue, covered in detail in ad fatigue signs. Until you see them, add new ads next to the winner rather than instead of it.
The short answer
- Testing: long enough to collect real results, usually more than a few days. Judge on cost per result, not on time.
- Winning: as long as it keeps performing. For most winners that is around two months; for about one in seven it is six months or more; in Germany and Austria it tends to be longer.
To see what your competitors are running now, use the free competitor check, or browse the longest-running ads by industry on the top ads pages.