• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • Live
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • More
  • Newsletters
  • Home
SEM

AdWords Spring Cleaning Coming: Detritus Be Gone, But You’ll Have to Think Before You Remove

Unused ads, ad groups and campaigns will be deleted and "remove" will be a permanent move across the board.

Ginny Marvin on February 24, 2015 at 10:31 am
  • More
google-adwords-bigA8-1920

Have you ever wished there was a real delete function in AdWords? Sometimes “remove” doesn’t cut it, and accounts are haunted by the ghosts of ads, ad groups and campaigns that never amounted to anything.

We’re not getting a delete function, but Google is going to be doing some spring cleaning to get rid of the most obvious jetsam in our accounts. Starting the week of March 23, Google will remove any ads that have never earned an impression and have been removed for more than 100 days. Later in the year, this same type of clean out with same criteria will be applied to ad groups and campaigns.

The idea of Google sweeping your AdWords account to delete things might bring panic, but this spring cleaning should be a welcome one. I can’t think of a scenario in which this would not be good news. And certainly Google would like to lighten the processing load by getting all of these unproductive entities out of the system.

To reiterate, the criteria for deletion are: 0 impressions and removed for more than 100 days.

Once the entities are deleted from your account, they’re gone for good. They won’t show up in any historical reporting and there will be no way to reactive them once they’re gone. Which brings me to the more important part of this announcement . . .

Reactivation For Removed Campaigns & Ad Groups Will No Longer Be Possible

With this cleaning comes a hitch you need to be aware of. Currently, you can change your mind and reactivate campaigns and ad groups that you’ve removed. This will no longer be an option, just as it already isn’t feasible with removed ads.

Along with the trimming down of your unused ads, it will no longer be possible to reactivate campaigns or ad groups that have been removed from your account.

The only editing options will be adding and removing labels on removed campaigns and ad groups.

This is a change that could potentially be quite disruptive if everyone on your team is not aware of the implications of choosing remove over pause.

If you’re using the remove function as another way to pause campaigns and ad groups that you may want to use in the future, now’s the time to set those entities to paused.

Hat tip: GMR WebTeam for spotting the announcement.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.



About The Author

Ginny Marvin
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

Related Topics

Channel: SEMGoogleGoogle AdsSearch AdsSearch Ads: General

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

February 23, 2021: SMX Report

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

October 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

December 17, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges. Our next conference will be held:

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • The State of Local Marketing Report 2020-2021
  • Quality CRM Data: The Key to Delivering Great Customer Experiences
  • How the Microsoft Search Network Can Maximize Your Search Campaigns
  • The Marketer’s Playbook for Customer Acquisition
  • How To Optimize SEO With UGC
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • How to Avoid the Digital Transformation Trap
  • How to Build a Marketing System of Record
  • Meet BIMI: The brand-boosting email security marketers must have for 2021
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

h
Receive daily search news and analysis.
Search Engine Land
Download the Search Engine Land App on iTunes Download the Search Engine Land App on Google Play

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX
  • MarTech

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • Search Marketing Expo
  • MarTech Conference

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Youtube
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok