Semantics: Google AdWords To Replace “Delete” With “Remove” In Most Instances

It’s always seemed odd that choosing to “Delete” a campaign, for example, in AdWords doesn’t actually mean the campaign will be vaporized as if it never existed. It’s not possible to truly delete a campaign from an account — that historical data remains available in perpetuity. That’s good for historical records, but can be confusing […]

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It’s always seemed odd that choosing to “Delete” a campaign, for example, in AdWords doesn’t actually mean the campaign will be vaporized as if it never existed. It’s not possible to truly delete a campaign from an account — that historical data remains available in perpetuity. That’s good for historical records, but can be confusing for those new to AdWords.

In a semantic move that has been a long time coming, Google is replacing “Delete” in AdWords with “Remove” in most cases. The change will go into effect in roughly two weeks.

Google AdWords "Delete" Now "Remove"It’s subtle, but makes sense. As Google writes in a blog post announcing the move, “This change is designed to help advertisers better understand that removed objects are still available for future reference. For example, you can report on a removed campaign’s historical performance.”

It’s not clear if there was anything specific that triggered the change after 10+ years.

Advertisers that use Excel macros or scripts on downloaded reports from AdWords should update them by July 21 to avoid errors.


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About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech 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.

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