About ad group status

Your ad group status lets you know whether your ad group is active or not.

Ad group status is different than the statuses for campaigns, ads, and keywords, though the statuses can affect each other. Ad groups are contained within a campaign, and each campaign can have one or more ad groups. Within each ad group are ads and keywords.

Ad groups can also include Targeting methods other than keywords, like using demographics or remarketing lists. For this article, we’ll focus on ad groups that use keyword targeting.

Ad group structure

Campaign	Campaign

Ad Group	Ad Group	Ad Group	Ad Group
Ads Keywords	Ads Keywords	Ads Keywords	Ads Keywords

This structure means that status changes at the campaign level will affect the statuses of the ad groups, ads, and keywords within it. A status change at the ad group level will affect the ads and keywords contained within it, and so on.

For example, if you pause your campaign, the ad groups within that campaign will inherit the same paused status (as will the ads and keywords). However, if you pause an individual ad group in a campaign containing multiple ad groups, that one ad group will be paused (along with the ads and keywords it contains), while the remaining ad groups, ads, and keywords in the campaign will stay enabled. Learn more about Campaign status.

Tip

Are your ads not running? Here are some of the most common reasons:

You’ve deactivated an ad group or its “parent” campaign by pausing or removing it
You’ve run out of funds
You haven’t scheduled your ads to run

Learn more aboutWhy you may not see your ad.

Check your ad group status

The "Status" column of your Ad groups lets you know if your ad group is active. Based on your ad group's status, you can find out:

Which of your ad groups are paused, enabled, or other states
What changes you need to make to an ad group or its campaign
Whether or not an ad group has been approved based on Google Ads policies

Instructions

How to check your ad group's status

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
Click Ad groups.
Look at the "Status" column to see an ad group’s status.
You can click the “Status” column heading to reorder your ad groups and sort by status.

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What your ad group status means

Ad group status	What it means
Eligible	This ad group’s set to run. It’s a good idea to check the Ads tab to see if policy violations are keeping individual ads from running.
Eligible (Limited)	Most ads in this ad group are disapproved. All or most ads in this ad group are limited by policy. Most ads in this ad group are under review.
Paused	You’ve temporarily stopped this ad group from showing ads. Its ads aren’t running. You can resume the paused ad group to start ads again.
Removed	You’ve removed this ad group. Its ads aren’t running.
Pending	All ads in this ad group are under review.
Incomplete	You haven’t set up necessary parts of this ad group (like keywords or ads). Its ads aren’t running.
Not Eligible	Campaign paused: you've paused this ad group’s campaign. Its ads aren’t running. You can resume the paused campaign to start ads again. Campaign removed: you’ve removed this ad group’s campaign. Its ads aren’t running. You can resume the removed campaign to start ads again. Campaign suspended: the ad group isn't running because your prepaid account balance has run out. Your campaign and the ad groups within it will resume after you add funds. Campaign ended: this ad group’s in a campaign that’s passed its end date. Its ads aren’t running. Campaign pending: you’ve scheduled this ad group’s campaign to start later. Its ads aren’t running yet. There are no creatives in this Ad Group or all creatives are paused. There are no keywords in this Ad Group or all creatives are paused. All ads in this ad group are disapproved.

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