Why Pausing Google Ads Is a Smart Budget Strategy
How to pause Google Ads in 4 simple steps:
- Sign in to your Google Ads account
- Click the Campaigns icon in the left menu
- Find the campaign you want to pause and click the status dot next to it
- Select “Pause” from the dropdown menu
To pause multiple campaigns: Select the checkboxes next to each campaign, click “Edit” at the top of the table, then choose “Pause.”
How to pause Google Ads is one of the most valuable skills for local service businesses managing their digital advertising. Think of pausing as hitting a strategic timeout button – it stops your spending immediately while preserving all your campaign structure and historical data.
Unlike removing campaigns (which permanently deletes them), pausing gives you complete flexibility to restart whenever you’re ready. This is particularly valuable for seasonal businesses or when you need to temporarily control costs.
“Pausing a Google Ads campaign lets you keep the bones and historical data without permanently deleting it. It’s like putting construction on hold rather than demolishing with a sledgehammer,” explains Alex Mallin, PPC Specialist at Improve & Grow.
There are several compelling reasons you might want to pause your campaigns:
- Cost control – Immediately stop spending during budget reviews
- After-hours performance – Our research shows after-hours clicks cost 171% more per conversion
- Seasonal relevance – No need to advertise pool services in winter
- Lead overflow – When your schedule is full and you can’t take more customers
- Campaign optimization – While making major strategy changes
The pause feature is available at three levels – campaign, ad group, and individual ad – giving you precise control over what runs and when.
That pausing resets a campaign’s algorithmic learning, so when you resume, expect a brief ramp-up period before performance returns to previous levels. For many businesses, this is still preferable to starting completely from scratch.
What Does It Mean to Pause in Google Ads?
Imagine you’re watching your favorite show and need a quick break – you hit pause, knowing you can come back right where you left off. That’s exactly how pausing Google Ads works. It’s a temporary timeout that stops your advertising without demolishing all your hard work.
When you pause your ads, you immediately stop them from appearing in search results and halt all spending. Your credit card gets a break, and you won’t accumulate any new performance data or run active experiments while paused. But here’s the beauty of it – all your historical data stays intact, your carefully crafted campaign structure remains untouched, and your ad copy and targeting settings are preserved for whenever you’re ready to resume.
You can even continue making edits and optimizations while your campaigns are paused, allowing you to return stronger when you decide to hit play again.
Pause vs Remove: Keep or Thanos?
There’s a world of difference between pausing and removing campaigns in Google Ads. Pausing is completely reversible, while removing is permanent – what our team often calls the “Thanos-style” deletion.
“Don’t Thanos your ad campaigns,” warns Carl Lefever, Founder of Improve & Grow. “Removing a campaign permanently stops it, and you cannot resume it. All that historical data and campaign structure is gone forever.”
Here’s a quick comparison of pausing versus removing:
| Feature | Pausing | Removing |
|---|---|---|
| Can be resumed later | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Keeps historical data | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes (viewable only) |
| Stops billing immediately | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Campaign structure preserved | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Requires re-review when activated | ✗ No | ✓ Yes (must create new) |
| Can edit while inactive | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
Why You Might Hit Pause
For local service businesses, there are several smart reasons to temporarily pause your Google Ads campaigns. If you run a pool installation business, you might want to dial back during winter months when demand naturally drops. This seasonality pause makes perfect sense – why spend money advertising services few people are looking for?
Budget control is another common reason to pause. Maybe you’re approaching the end of your monthly marketing budget or need to temporarily redirect funds to another area of your business. Pausing gives you that financial flexibility without losing your campaign’s foundation.
Lead overflow provides another perfect pause opportunity. When your schedule is booked solid for weeks ahead, continuing to advertise simply wastes money on leads you can’t properly service. Similarly, if your cost per acquisition suddenly spikes above profitable levels, pausing gives you breathing room to recalibrate your strategy.
Finally, when making major structural changes to your account, pausing prevents ads from running with mismatched settings, giving you time to perfect your new approach before going live again.
How to Pause Google Ads Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Ads
Google Ads offers a flexible pause system that works at three different levels: campaign, ad group, and individual ad. This tiered approach gives you surgical control over what’s running and when, perfect for making quick adjustments to your advertising strategy.
Step-by-Step: how to pause google ads campaign
When you need to stop all advertising within a campaign, pausing at the campaign level is your most comprehensive option:
- Sign in to your Google Ads account at ads.google.com
- Click the Campaigns icon in the left navigation menu
- Find the campaign you want to pause and look for the colored status dot next to its name (green means it’s currently running)
- Click this status dot and select “Pause” from the dropdown menu
- The dot will turn gray, confirming your campaign is now paused
That’s it! Your campaign is now on hold, and you won’t spend another penny until you decide to resume it. This immediate stop is perfect for controlling costs when you need to take a break.
Step-by-Step: how to pause google ads ad group
For more selective control, you might want to pause specific ad groups while keeping others running:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Select “Ad groups” from the page menu on the left
- Find the ad group you want to pause and check the box next to it
- Click the Edit dropdown at the top of the table
- Choose “Pause” from the menu options
Alternatively, you can simply click the status dot next to the ad group name and select “Pause” – same result, fewer clicks! This approach is perfect when you have multiple service offerings but only want to pause advertising for certain ones.
Step-by-Step: how to pause google ads ad
For the most precise control, you can pause individual ads while leaving others active:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Select “Ads & assets” from the page menu
- Locate the specific ad you want to pause and click the green status dot next to it
- Select “Pause” from the dropdown menu
“Pausing individual ads is particularly valuable when testing multiple variations,” explains Alex Mallin, PPC Specialist at Improve & Grow. “You can quickly pause underperforming ads without disrupting the ones that are driving results.”
This granular control is perfect for seasonal promotions, testing new messaging, or temporarily removing specific service offerings without shutting down your entire advertising presence. One huge advantage: paused ads won’t need to go through Google’s review process again when you resume them later.
Resume in One Click
Getting your paused campaigns, ad groups, or ads back up and running is just as simple:
- Steer to the appropriate section (Campaigns, Ad groups, or Ads)
- Click the gray status dot next to the paused item
- Select “Enable” from the dropdown menu
One important thing to remember: Google’s pause hierarchy works downward but not upward. If you’ve paused a campaign and also paused specific ad groups or ads within it, enabling the campaign won’t automatically enable those paused components. You’ll need to resume each element separately.
After resuming, expect a short learning period as Google’s algorithm recalibrates to your campaign. Performance typically takes 7-14 days to return to previous levels as the system relearns and optimizes.
Quick-Link Cheat Sheet
For the official word from Google on pausing and resuming, bookmark these resources:
These official guides can be helpful references when you need to quickly confirm the exact steps for pausing different elements in your Google Ads account.
Bulk Pausing & Automation
When you’re juggling multiple campaigns for your local service business, individually pausing ads can feel like playing whack-a-mole. Good news: Google Ads offers several time-saving methods to pause multiple campaigns at once and even automate the process.
Pause Multiple Campaigns at Once
Need to quickly pause several campaigns before the weekend? Here’s the easiest way:
- Sign into your Google Ads account and steer to the Campaigns page
- Check the boxes next to all campaigns you want to pause
- Click the “Edit” dropdown at the top of the table
- Select “Pause” from the menu
This same checkbox method works for ad groups and individual ads too. For larger accounts with dozens of campaigns, Google Ads Editor (a free desktop application) lets you make all your changes offline first, then upload them in one batch – perfect for major account overhauls.
Automated Rules for On/Off Scheduling
Think of Automated Rules as your personal Google Ads assistant who never sleeps. This powerful feature lets you schedule when your ads pause and resume based on specific conditions.
“Automated rules are a game-changer for our local service clients,” says Brian Welch, Digital Marketing Strategist at Improve & Grow. “We can schedule ads to automatically pause after business hours when conversion rates drop significantly, then resume them in the morning – all without manual intervention.”
Setting up an automated rule to pause your campaigns is straightforward:
- Click “Tools & Settings” in the upper right corner
- Under “Bulk Actions,” select “Rules”
- Click the plus button to create a new rule
- Select “Campaign rules” (or ad group/ad rules)
- Choose “Pause campaigns” as your action
- Set your conditions (time of day, performance metrics, etc.)
- Name your rule and save
This automation is particularly valuable for local service businesses that see dramatic performance differences throughout the day. For example, our data shows that after-hours clicks cost 171% more per conversion for contractors – automatically pausing during these hours can instantly improve your ROI.
You can also use rules to automatically enable seasonal campaigns on specific dates (like turning on snow removal ads when winter approaches) or pause campaigns that exceed your target cost per lead.
Google Ads Scripts: Power Users Only
For the tech-savvy marketers among us, Google Ads Scripts offer the ultimate control over pausing and resuming campaigns. These JavaScript-based tools can automatically pause underperforming keywords or ad groups based on conversion metrics you define.
Scripts can perform complex tasks that would be tedious to do manually – like pausing all keywords with zero conversions after spending $100, or automatically enabling high-performing seasonal campaigns from last year.
There are some limitations to be aware of – currently, you can’t pause individual YouTube video placements via scripts, only entire campaigns, ad groups, or ads. If you’re interested in exploring scripts, Google provides excellent documentation and examples for video campaigns.
While scripts offer powerful automation, they’re not necessary for most local service businesses. The built-in bulk tools and automated rules handle 90% of pausing needs without requiring any coding knowledge.
What Happens After You Pause & Resume?
When you hit that pause button on your Google Ads campaigns, several important things happen behind the scenes. Understanding these effects helps you make strategic decisions about when to pause and what to expect when you resume your advertising.
Benefits of Pausing
Pausing your Google Ads delivers immediate budget relief – the moment you click “pause,” all spending stops completely. This gives you total control over your advertising budget, which is especially valuable for local service businesses managing cash flow.
Data preservation is perhaps the most underappreciated benefit. Unlike removing campaigns (which we jokingly call the “Thanos approach”), pausing keeps all your historical performance data intact. This treasure trove of information becomes invaluable when you’re ready to optimize future campaigns.
Your campaign structure remains completely intact while paused. All those hours spent crafting the perfect ad copy, fine-tuning your targeting settings, and organizing your campaigns? They’re all preserved exactly as you left them.
“Think of pausing like putting your campaign in cryogenic sleep – everything is preserved exactly as it was, ready to be awakened when the time is right,” explains Alex Mallin, PPC Specialist at Improve & Grow.
The ability to react quickly to business changes is another major advantage. Whether you’re suddenly booked solid with jobs or facing unexpected budget constraints, pausing gives you an immediate response option without destroying your advertising foundation.
Drawbacks of Pausing
While pausing offers many benefits, it’s not without some trade-offs. The most significant is what we call the algorithm reset. Google’s sophisticated optimization systems need continuous data to learn what works best for your business. When you pause, this learning process gets interrupted.
When you eventually resume your campaigns, expect a performance ramp-up period. Most campaigns need about 7-14 days to regain their previous momentum as Google’s algorithms collect fresh data and reoptimize your delivery.
Any A/B tests or experiments you were running will be disrupted when you pause. These often need to be restarted from scratch when you resume, as the testing conditions may have changed significantly.
Your Quality Score – Google’s rating of your ads’ relevance and quality – doesn’t disappear when you pause, but it may need to be re-established through new performance data when you resume advertising.
After You Hit Resume: What to Expect
When you decide to bring your paused campaigns back to life, don’t expect immediate results at full strength. Most campaigns start with noticeably lower impression share and slightly higher CPCs than before the pause.
Performance typically improves gradually over a 1-2 week period as Google’s algorithms gather fresh data and optimize your delivery. This learning curve is completely normal and shouldn’t cause alarm.
Be sure to check all components of your campaign hierarchy when resuming. If you had previously paused specific ad groups or individual ads within your campaign, those will need to be enabled separately – resuming a campaign doesn’t automatically activate its paused sub-components.
Monitor your key metrics closely during this restart period. Pay special attention to impression share (how often your ads are showing), click-through rate (engagement level), and cost per conversion (efficiency). These indicators will tell you when your campaign has fully recovered.
“After resuming a paused campaign, be patient,” advises Alex Mallin. “We typically see campaigns start at about 20-30% of their previous performance, then climb steadily over two weeks as Google’s algorithm relearns and optimizes.”
This temporary dip in performance is a small price to pay for the flexibility and budget control that pausing provides. With proper planning and expectations, you can use the pause feature strategically to maximize your advertising ROI throughout the year.
Smarter Alternatives to Pausing
While pausing campaigns is a powerful tool in your Google Ads arsenal, sometimes there are more strategic options that let you maintain momentum while still controlling costs. Think of these alternatives as dialing down the volume instead of hitting the mute button completely.
Lower Daily Budget Instead
Rather than completely pausing your campaign, consider simply reducing your daily budget. This gentle approach keeps your advertising engine idling instead of shutting it down completely.
Reducing your budget maintains the pulse of your campaign while significantly limiting spend. If you typically invest $50 daily, scaling back to $10-15 during slower periods keeps your digital presence alive without draining resources.
“Many of our contractor clients find that maintaining a minimal budget during slower seasons is more effective than completely pausing,” explains Alex Mallin, PPC Specialist at Improve & Grow. “When they’re ready to scale back up, they don’t face that awkward relearning period where Google’s algorithm needs to start from scratch.”
The beauty of this approach is that it preserves all the hard-earned algorithmic learning, keeps your Quality Score intact, and maintains your ad positions – all while giving you tight control over spending. This strategy works particularly well for seasonal businesses that want to maintain some visibility year-round. Learn more about effective PPC strategy on our website.
Use Ad Scheduling & Day-Parting
Why pause entirely when you can be surgical about when your ads appear? Ad scheduling (also called day-parting) gives you precise control over the hours your ads run without completely stopping the campaign.
Our research with home service contractors revealed a striking pattern: 27% of Google Ads impressions occurred after business hours, but with dramatically different results. During business hours, conversion rates averaged 11.8%, compared to just 3.5% after-hours. This translated to an average cost per conversion of $48 during business hours versus a whopping $129.80 after-hours—a 171% increase!
Setting up ad scheduling is straightforward: just visit your campaign settings, click “Ad schedule,” create a custom schedule, and select your preferred days and hours. You can even set bid adjustments to increase your competitiveness during high-converting hours and scale back when performance typically drops.
This approach is like having an automated assistant who knows exactly when to promote your business and when to take a break – all without you having to manually pause and resume campaigns.
Apply Negative Keywords & Geo Tweaks
Sometimes what looks like a performance problem that needs pausing can actually be solved with some strategic filtering instead. Think of it as refining your audience rather than abandoning it.
Negative keywords act as bouncers for your ads, keeping out unwanted clicks. For example, if you’re a plumber specializing in emergency services, adding terms like “DIY” or “how to” as negative keywords ensures you’re not paying for clicks from people looking to fix issues themselves.
Geographic targeting adjustments let you focus your budget on high-performing areas while reducing or eliminating spend in underperforming regions. This is particularly valuable for local service businesses with specific service areas.
Device-based adjustments can help when you notice certain devices (like mobile) aren’t converting well. Rather than pausing everything, you can reduce bids for those devices while maintaining full presence on better-performing platforms.
“Strategic refinement almost always outperforms blanket pausing,” says Brian Welch, Digital Marketing Strategist at Improve & Grow. “By surgically removing waste while keeping campaigns running for the right audiences, our clients maintain momentum while improving ROI.”
These targeting refinements allow you to trim the fat from your campaigns without losing the muscle – keeping your ads running for the people most likely to become paying customers.
Pausing Ads on Other Platforms: A Quick Compare
If you’re advertising across multiple platforms (like many of our local service clients do), it’s helpful to understand how pausing works beyond just Google Ads. The process and rules can vary significantly between platforms.
Yelp Ads Timeout
Yelp’s approach to pausing ads is quite different from Google’s straightforward system. When working with Yelp advertising, you’ll encounter two distinct pausing processes depending on your contract type:
For non-term contract advertising (Yelp’s flexible option), you can pause through their self-service portal:
- Steer to the Billing page in your Yelp for Business account
- Look under “Your Products” and click the “Manage” button
- Find the Pause icon next to your Yelp Ads
- Here’s where things differ from Google – Yelp requires you to select a restart date
- Complete the remaining prompts to finalize your pause
The key distinction here is that Yelp forces you to schedule an automatic restart date when pausing. Unlike Google Ads, which allows you to keep campaigns paused indefinitely until you manually decide to resume them, Yelp wants a commitment to when you’ll return.
“The required restart date in Yelp’s pause feature can be frustrating for seasonal businesses that need extended pauses,” explains Brian Welch, Digital Marketing Strategist at Improve & Grow. “It’s one reason many of our clients prefer the flexibility of Google’s platform for their primary advertising.”
For term contract advertising programs with Yelp, the process is even more restrictive:
You can’t pause these campaigns through self-service at all. Instead, you must call Yelp Customer Success at (877) 767-9357 to request changes to your campaign status. This human-mediated process can introduce delays and additional friction compared to Google’s instant self-service options.
Another factor to consider is that pausing on different platforms can affect your competitive position differently. With Google Ads, when you resume after pausing, you’ll experience a brief learning period but can generally regain your previous position. On platforms like Yelp, where visibility is often tied to a more finite set of positions, pausing might allow competitors to establish stronger footing in your absence.
For most local service businesses we work with, Google Ads ultimately offers superior flexibility and control when it comes to campaign management, especially regarding the ability to pause and resume advertising on your own schedule and terms.
Frequently Asked Questions about Pausing Google Ads
Does pausing affect my Quality Score long-term?
When you hit the pause button on your Google Ads, your Quality Score enters a kind of hibernation mode. Google needs fresh data to maintain those scores, so pausing temporarily interrupts this flow of information.
The good news? Your historical performance data stays safely tucked away. Think of it as putting your campaign’s reputation on ice rather than erasing it completely. When you resume your ads, Google doesn’t treat you like a complete stranger – it remembers your past relationship.
“The impact on Quality Score really depends on how long you pause,” explains Alex Mallin, PPC Specialist at Improve & Grow. “A weekend pause might barely register, but if you’re paused for several months, expect a more significant ‘getting to know you again’ period when you restart.”
For short breaks of a few days to a week, you’ll hardly notice any difference. For extended vacations of weeks or months, prepare for a more substantial warm-up period as Google recalibrates your campaign’s standing.
Can I pause multiple campaigns at once without scripts?
Absolutely! You don’t need to be a coding wizard to pause multiple campaigns simultaneously. Google Ads makes this refreshingly straightforward:
- Steer to your Campaigns page
- Check the boxes next to all campaigns you want to pause
- Click the “Edit” dropdown above the table
- Select “Pause” from the menu options
This same bulk-edit approach works beautifully for ad groups and individual ads too. If you’re managing a particularly large account with dozens of campaigns, consider downloading Google Ads Editor – a free desktop application that makes bulk changes even more efficient.
Will I be charged while my ads are paused?
Here’s the simple answer: No charges whatsoever while paused. The moment you pause your ads, your wallet gets a break too.
Google Ads operates strictly on a pay-per-click model. Since paused ads don’t appear in search results, they can’t generate clicks, and therefore can’t generate charges. Your billing statement will show charges up until the pause point, then nothing until you decide to resume.
This immediate cost control is precisely why pausing is such a powerful tool for managing your advertising budget. Whether you’re dealing with seasonal fluctuations, temporary budget constraints, or just need time to rethink your strategy, the pause button gives you complete financial control without destroying all your hard work.
When you’re ready to resume, your ads can pick up where they left off – though remember that performance might take a week or two to reach previous levels as Google’s algorithms readjust to your campaign.
Conclusion
Knowing how to pause Google Ads campaigns effectively is like having a strategic time-out button in your marketing playbook. For local service businesses managing their digital advertising budgets, this simple yet powerful feature preserves all your hard work while giving you complete control over when your advertising dollars are being spent.
Think of your Google Ads campaigns as valuable assets you’ve built over time. When seasonal shifts happen or when your schedule is fully booked, you don’t want to demolish these assets – you just need to temporarily halt them. That’s where the pause function truly shines.
We’ve explored several thoughtful approaches to consider:
Complete campaign pauses work beautifully when you’re a seasonal business like a pool installer heading into winter months. The same goes when you’re planning a major restructuring of your campaigns or simply need to stop all spending immediately.
Selective pausing gives you surgical precision by letting you pause specific ad groups or individual ads while keeping your core campaigns running. This maintains your market presence while trimming the underperforming elements.
Reducing your daily budget offers a gentler alternative to a full pause. Your campaigns stay active at minimal cost, preserving all that valuable algorithmic learning Google has built up about your business.
Ad scheduling (or day-parting) lets you run ads only during high-converting hours – a smart move when you’ve finded that after-hours clicks cost significantly more, as our research has consistently shown.
Targeting refinements through negative keywords and geographic adjustments often solve performance issues without requiring a full pause. Sometimes a scalpel works better than a sledgehammer.
“The pause button is powerful, but it’s just one tool in your optimization toolkit,” says Carl Lefever, Founder of Improve & Grow. “The best strategy often combines selective pausing with other refinements to maximize lead quality while controlling costs.”
At Improve & Grow, we help local service businesses make data-driven decisions about their Google Ads campaigns. We understand that every marketing dollar needs to generate measurable returns, especially for contractors and trades businesses where margins matter.
The beauty of pausing is its reversibility – you can adapt quickly as your business conditions change. Whether you’re managing seasonal demand fluctuations, temporarily controlling costs, or refining your targeting approach, mastering this function helps you build more efficient and effective advertising campaigns.
For contractors and trades professionals looking to optimize their Google Ads performance, we offer specialized contractor Google Ads services designed to generate high-quality leads at predictable costs. We focus on creating strategies that deliver the 10X+ ROI our clients expect, with pausing tactics being just one piece of the comprehensive approach.
A strategic pause isn’t giving up – it’s a smart way to preserve your campaign’s foundation while adapting to the changing needs of your business.