Ad groups not working

Hi @morganmmg!

Thank you for your patience!

On the Groups & Rotation screen, adding ads is two steps: choose the ad, click Add so it appears in the table, then click Save. If you only select the ad in the dropdown and save, it will not be stored.

If the ad does show in the table and disappears after saving, please try the following.

1. Browser console

Stay on Advanced Ads > Groups & Rotation. Right-click the page and choose Inspect. In the panel that opens, click the Console tab. Then add an ad to the group and save it. Note any red error messages.

Also click the Network tab in that same panel, add an ad, and save again. Look for a request named group (the address contains /wp-json/advanced-ads/v1/group). It should succeed (status 200). If it fails, is missing, or returns 403 / 404 / 405, then something is blocking the save , often a security plugin, firewall, or the REST API being disabled.

2. Query Monitor

Install and activate the free Query Monitor plugin. Open the Groups screen, add an ad, and save. Then open the Query Monitor menu in the admin bar and check HTTP API, PHP Errors, and Logs for anything related to that save.

3. WordPress debug log

On the server, open wp-config.php in the WordPress root folder. Before the line that says, add or edit the line if they already exist:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

Save the file. Go back to Groups & Rotation, add an ad, and save the group. Then check wp-content/debug.log for new PHP errors from that moment.

If those lines are already in the file, you only need to make sure they are true / true / false as above. When we are done, set WP_DEBUG back to false so the site does not keep writing to the log.

4. Security plugins

Temporarily disable security / firewall plugins (Wordfence, iThemes, and similar) and try saving the group again.

5. Workaround: assign the group from the ad

If the group screen still drops the ads, assign the group on the ad itself:

1. Go to Advanced Ads > Ads.
2. Open the ad you want in the group.
3. On the right, find the Groups box (if you do not see it, open Screen Options at the top of the page and enable Groups).
4. Tick the group, then click Update.
5. Repeat for each ad.
6. Go to Advanced Ads > Groups & Rotation and check whether those ads stay in the group after a refresh.

Please send us:

• Whether you see the “Group updated” message after saving
• Whether the workaround in step 5 keeps the ads in the group
• A screenshot of the Console tab after saving
• A screenshot of the Network request for group (including the status code)
• What Query Monitor shows for that save (PHP errors / HTTP API)
• Any new lines from debug.log after saving the group

With that we can hopefully tell whether the ads never reach the server, the save is blocked, or the group list is just not showing them after reload.

Thank you!