Yep, you’re definitely not the only one seeing this—learning phases are taking longer these days, and it’s been a hot topic for a while now.
A big part of it is that Meta’s system now needs more conversion data (around 50 conversions per ad set per week) to confidently exit the learning phase. If you’re not hitting that, it’ll just hang there longer than it used to.
Plus, with all the iOS privacy changes and signal loss, Facebook doesn’t get as much clean data as before. So the algorithm needs more time to figure out what’s working. If you’re using newer tools like Advantage+ placements or broader targeting, that can slow things down a bit too—it’s trying to learn across more variables.
Also, during high-competition times like Black Friday or Q4, CPMs spike and things get more unpredictable, which can stretch the learning process even further.
What helps? Try combining ad sets to concentrate your data, keep your creatives consistent during testing, and consider bumping up your budget a bit just to push it through faster.
So yep—longer learning times are totally a thing now. You’re not doing anything wrong. It's just how the algorithm rolls these days.