When it comes to getting rid of certain ads in AdWords, I’m sure there’s plenty of people in the business who wants a real delete function. “Removing” ads doesn’t always work, since accounts can be haunted by the remnant of ads, ad groups, and campaigns that just didn’t work out that well.
Although there is currently no delete function, nor is there any plan for it (at least not yet), Google will be taking steps to get rid of the “worst offenders” in our accounts. In other words, Google will remove any ads that haven’t earned an impression and have been removed for more than 100 days. All this will start the week of March 23. The same type of spring cleaning will occur later in the year, but this time it will be applied to ad groups and campaigns.
Understandable, this could cause some people to panic, but if you removed ads, ad groups and campaigns over 3 months ago and haven’t looked back since, it really shouldn’t be a big issue.
To make it simple, the criteria for deletion are 0 impressions and removed for over 100 days. Once deleted, there will be no way to get these things back. There will be evidence in historical reporting, and you can’t reactive them once they’ve disappeared.
When it comes to reactivating removed campaigns and ad groups, when the cleaning comes, these things will no longer be possible. As of right now, you can change your mind about reactivating campaigns and ad groups that have been removed, but once the spring cleaning commences, it’s a done deal. No more reactivate for you!
An adding and removing labels on removed campaigns and ad groups will be the only editing options.
Make sure that everybody on your team is aware of this announcement, as it could lead to problems if people are unaware that this clean up is coming.
In case you are hesitent on having any ads, ad groups and campaigns removed permanently, you may want to consider unremoving them and simply pausing them.