Understanding the Impact of Ad Serving on Performance — and Why Ads Start in a Paused State


Overview

When creating an Outbound Campaign, you’ll notice two key actions: Enable Campaign and Pause Campaign. These options allow you to control whether your ads are active (serving to your audience) or on hold. However, there’s also an important step before you ever make this choice: all ads are first published in a paused state. This article explains:

  1. Why ads start off paused
  2. When you might want to enable or pause an ad
  3. Why frequent pausing is discouraged

Why Ads First Publish in a Paused State

Opportunity for Final Review

Publishing ads in a paused state gives you a chance to double-check all campaign settings—budget, targeting, ad creative—before those ads actually go live. This helps avoid unexpected costs or compliance issues if there’s an oversight in your configuration.

Prevent Accidental Spend

If your ads were automatically enabled upon creation, you could start accruing costs immediately—even if you haven’t completed setup or identified your ideal targeting strategy. Publishing in a paused state protects against unintentional spend.

Once you confirm everything is correct and compliant, you can Enable Campaign and let your ads start serving to your intended audience.

Why Would You Pause Ads Later?

Temporary Budget Constraints

If marketing funds are temporarily tight, pausing halts ad costs until you’re ready to resume spending.