This email from Google (with the subject “Google Ads will automatically pause low-activity keywords”) landed in most of our inboxes in the last few days:
“Starting in June 2024, we will begin to automatically pause low-activity keywords.
Positive keywords in search ads campaigns are considered low-activity if they were created over 13 months ago and have zero impressions over the past 13 months.”
Good/bad?
My take: I am confused.
Initial response: Google, please f#$k off with these automatically-applied changes. Warnings I can easily turn off, yes, please. Notifications on ways to improve things… all good. Automatically-applied changes without my consent? NO WAY!
Second thought: Not sure this is a bad thing, after all? After all, 13 months of zero impressions… sounds like pretty useless clutter in the account, right? Potentially hurting the mythical account level QS, and complicating account management for sure.
Third thought: I am still thinking… If you have been thinking about this, please do share your thoughts. I would love to learn!
Fourth thought: Even if pausing low-activity keywords turns out to be a good thing (for the average account), here’s the thing: I still want to be in the know when this change happens. (Because it just might not be a good thing for my account.)
Which brings me to…
…my Change History Alerts Script.
URL: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-change-history-alerts/
What it does:
The script checks all the entries in the Google Ads change history of your account, and if there is a change by a user outside of your list of ‘recognized’ users, you will get an alert via email. The alert mail contains the number of changes as well as a link to the Google Sheet that lists all changes by unrecognized users.
Why you care:
It is all too often that people outside your team (or Google) make changes to the Google Ads accounts you manage. You want to make sure these changes are in line with your strategy ASAP. This script ensures you do.
Happy scripting!
– Nils