So, you’ve been running some Google Ads. Maybe they were doing great for a while, or maybe they never really took off like you wanted. Now, for whatever reason, you’re thinking it’s time to pull the plug. It is a common situation that many people find themselves in.
Shutting down your ads isn’t as simple as flipping a single off switch for your whole account, but it’s not super hard either. You just need to know where to click. The Google Ads dashboard can feel like a maze, especially if you’re not in there every day. Let’s walk through how you can stop your ads in 2025, without getting lost in the menus.
Why Even Bother Turning Off Your Google Ads?
The reason for stopping an ad campaign, it can come from a lot of places. It’s not always because something went wrong, you know. Sometimes it’s just part of the plan.
Maybe your monthly budget is getting a little tight. It happens. A smart move is to cut spending on ads before it becomes a real problem for your business operations.
Or, the campaign just isn’t working. Your click-through rate is low, and you’re not getting any conversions. It is not a good use of money to keep pouring it into a campaign that isn’t giving back.
Sometimes, your business is seasonal. You don’t need to advertise winter coats in the middle of July. Pausing your campaigns until the right season comes back around makes perfect sense.
And then there’s the simple fact that you’ve finished a promotion. The sale is over, so the ads for the sale need to stop. It’s just basic housekeeping for your marketing stuff.
The Step-by-Step Guide: How to Actually Pause or Remove a Campaign
Alright, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of it. The main thing to get is that you have two choices. You can either pause a campaign or you can remove it entirely. They sound similar, but they do different things. One is temporary and the other, well, it’s pretty final.
The interface for Google Ads does tend to change a bit year to year, but the general ideas and labels normally stay the same. So these steps should be pretty close for 2025.
H3: Pausing a Campaign (The ‘Take a Break’ Option)
Pausing is what you’ll do most of the time. It stops the ads from running and stops you from being charged. But it keeps all your settings your keywords and your ad copy safe. You can turn it back on later.
Here is how you do that:
First, log into your Google Ads account. That’s the obvious first step.
On the left-hand side menu, find and click on “Campaigns.” This will take you to the main screen with a list of everything you’ve got running.
Look for the campaign you want to stop. Next to its name, you’ll see a little green dot. This dot means the campaign is “Enabled” or active.
Click on that green dot. A little menu will pop up.
From that menu, just select “Paused.” The dot will turn into a gray pause symbol.
That’s it. Your campaign is now paused. It won’t show any more ads or spend any more of your money, until you decide to enable it again.
H3: Removing a Campaign (The ‘It’s Over’ Option)
Removing a campaign is more permanent. When you remove it, it’s gone. You can’t turn it back on. You can still see its past performance data, but you can’t revive it. This is generally for old tests or campaigns you know you’ll never, ever use again. Be careful with this one.
Get logged into your Google Ads account, just like before.
Go to the “Campaigns” section from the left menu.
Find the campaign you want to get rid of for good.
This time, click the little checkbox to the left of the campaign name.
Once it’s checked, a blue bar will appear at the top of the list. On that bar, click “Edit.”
A dropdown menu will appear. The last option will be “Remove.”
Google will ask you to confirm because this is a permanent action. If you’re sure, confirm it.
Your campaign is now removed. It’s moved to the “Removed” filter view, and you won’t have to look at it anymore on your main dashboard. It helps to clean things up.
Wait, Should I Pause or Just Remove It Completely?
This is a good question to ask. The choice is really about your future intentions. It is a decision that depends on what you plan to do later on.
You should pause a campaign if you think you might use it again. For example, if you’re stopping ads because of a short-term budget issue or because your business is seasonal. Pausing keeps all your hard work. You don’t have to rebuild everything from scratch which is a huge time saver.
You should remove a campaign if it was a total failure. Or maybe it was for a one-time event that will never happen again. Removing it cleans up your dashboard, so you can focus on the campaigns that are actually active or important. A cluttered account can be confusing.
Generally speaking, pausing is the safer bet. You lose nothing by pausing. Removing is something you should only do when you are 100% certain you are done with that specific campaign forever.
What Happens After You Turn Off The Ads?
So you’ve hit the pause or remove button. What should you expect to happen next? The effect is pretty quick, but there are a couple things to know.
Your ads will stop showing on Google almost immediately. It might take a few minutes for the system to fully process it across all servers, but for the most part, it’s very fast.
You will still have to pay for any clicks that happened right before you paused the campaign. There’s a small delay in reporting, so your final bill might include clicks that occurred in the last hour or so of the campaign being active. Don’t be surprised by one last small charge.
Your Google Ads account itself is not closed. Pausing or removing campaigns doesn’t delete your account. You can still log in, look at old data, and start new campaigns whenever you want. Your account just sits there, waiting for you.
Your Questions on Stopping Google Ads, Answered
How long does it take for Google Ads to stop after I pause them?
It’s usually very fast, normally within a few minutes to an hour. The system needs a moment to stop showing your ads everywhere, but you won’t be charged for new clicks long after you’ve paused it.
Will I still be charged after I pause my campaign?
You won’t be charged for any new clicks after it’s paused. You will, however, have to pay for any clicks that happened right before you hit the pause button. So expect a final bill to cover that last bit of activity.
Can I turn a paused campaign back on?
Yep, absolutely. You just go back to your campaigns list, click the gray pause icon next to the campaign, and select “Enabled.” It will start running again with all its old settings.
What’s the difference between pausing an ad group and a campaign?
Pausing a campaign stops everything inside it—all ad groups and all ads. Pausing just one ad group stops only the ads within that specific group, while other ad groups in the same campaign can keep running.
Is deleting my Google Ads account the same as removing a campaign?
No, not at all. Removing a campaign just gets rid of that one set of ads. Deleting or canceling your entire Google Ads account is a much bigger step that shuts down your whole advertising profile. You typically only do that if you’re closing your business.
Key Takeaways
You have two main choices: pausing or removing. Pausing is temporary, while removing is permanent.
For most situations, like budget cuts or seasonal breaks, pausing is the best option because it saves your work.
Removing a campaign is good for cleaning up your account by getting rid of failed experiments or old, one-time promotions.
The process is done from the main “Campaigns” dashboard in your Google Ads account.
After you stop a campaign, your ads disappear quickly, but you’ll still get a final bill for any clicks that happened right before you stopped it.
