Google Ads Update: Automatic Pausing of Low Activity Ad Groups

Google Ads Update: Automatic Pausing of Low Activity Ad Groups

What’s Happening?

Google Ads is rolling out a new feature aimed at improving the efficiency of ad campaigns by automatically pausing low-activity ad groups. This change will start taking effect from September 2024 and it’s important for all advertisers to understand.

What Does This Mean for You?

If you have ad groups that were created over 13 months ago and haven’t had any impressions for the past 13 months, these groups will be automatically paused. This means that if these ads are not generating any activity, they will no longer consume budget or clutter your campaigns.

Why Is Google Implementing This Change?

Google's aim is to enhance the overall quality and efficiency of your advertising efforts. By pausing ad groups that show no activity, you can focus your budget on campaigns that are performing and driving results. This also helps in maintaining cleaner accounts and more accurate data.

Navah Hopkins, a well-regarded voice in the digital marketing community, highlighted the positive impact of this update. She mentioned that inactive ad groups can drag down the overall quality of your campaign and that pausing them helps in crunching more meaningful and efficient data ^{3 7} .

What Should You Do Next?

1. Review Your Ad Groups: Go through your ad groups and identify which ones might be subject to automatic pausing.
2. Strategic Unpausing: If you find that a paused ad group is necessary for your campaign, you can manually unpause it. However, only unpause ad groups if you have a strong reason to believe they will gain impressions in the coming weeks. Remember, ad groups that don’t receive impressions within three months of being unpaused will be paused again ⁷ .
3. Plan for Efficiency: Use this opportunity to streamline your campaigns. Focus on ad groups that are driving results and consider restructuring or refreshing old groups that have become inactive.

How to Manage Paused Ad Groups

To manage your paused ad groups, follow these steps:

1. Log into your Google Ads account.
2. Click on the Campaigns icon.
3. Select the ‘Ad groups’ tab.
4. Use the filter icon to find ad groups paused due to low activity.
5. Unpause necessary ad groups as per your campaign requirements ⁴ .

Conclusion

This update from Google Ads is a step toward better budget management and campaign performance. By automatically pausing low activity ad groups, you get to focus on what works best for your marketing efforts. It’s a good practice to routinely audit your ad groups and make strategic decisions to keep your campaigns effective and efficient.

Stay tuned to our blog for more updates and tips on navigating these changes smoothly!

Sincerely,

The Yikes! Marketing Team

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Need expert guidance or management for your Google Ads or Facebook Advertising campaigns? Reach out to us at Yikes! Marketing, where we turn your advertising into results.

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