How do I pause or enable multiple campaigns at once?

How to Pause or Enable Multiple Campaigns at Once

Step 1: Select the Campaigns

Navigate to Campaigns: In your Google Ads account, click on Campaigns in the main left-hand menu.
Filter (Optional): Use the filter bar above the campaign table if you need to select campaigns based on specific criteria (e.g., filter by ‘Status: Paused’ or ‘Campaign Type: Search’).
Select Multiple: Use the checkboxes next to the campaign names to select all the campaigns you wish to modify.

Step 2: Access the Bulk Edit Menu

Once two or more campaigns are selected, an Edit menu will appear in a blue bar directly above the campaign table.
Click the Edit drop-down menu.

Step 3: Change the Status

From the Edit menu, hover over ‘Change status’.
Select the desired action:

Pause: To stop all selected campaigns from showing ads immediately.
Enable: To resume all selected paused campaigns.
Remove: To permanently delete the selected campaigns (cannot be undone, use with caution!).

Confirm: Google Ads will process the change, and the Status column for the selected campaigns will update almost instantly.

Advice and Tips for Bulk Status Changes

Tip/Best Practice	Rationale and Context
Check the Hierarchy	Crucial: Enabling a campaign only works if the ad groups, keywords, and ads within that campaign are also Enabled. If you bulk-enable a campaign but an ad group inside it is Paused, the ads will still not run.
Use Automated Rules	Stat: Use Automated Rules (found under Tools > Bulk actions > Rules) to automate pausing. For example, create a rule to automatically Pause any seasonal campaign when the date passes a specific End Date, or when Cost exceeds a certain threshold.
‘Remove’ vs. ‘Pause’	Pause stops spending but keeps all historical data, keywords, and settings intact it’s temporary. Remove permanently deletes the campaign and its history, meaning it cannot be resumed.
Audit Post-Change	After enabling campaigns, check the Status column a few hours later for warnings like ‘Eligible (limited)’ (which usually means the budget is too low) or ‘Bid strategy limited’ (which may require more conversion data).

Last Updated 2nd February 2026.

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