Google is tightening its account retention policy — canceled Google Ads accounts will now be permanently deleted six months after cancellation, marking the end of indefinite account storage.

Driving the news. Under the new policy, Google will begin a cleanup of inactive accounts, sending a 30-day email warning before deletion. Previously, advertisers could reactivate canceled accounts at any time, preserving data and structure indefinitely.

Why we care. This change could impact advertisers who rely on historical performance data, conversion tracking, or campaign templates stored in inactive accounts. Once deleted, all account history and assets — including campaigns, reports, and settings — will be gone for good.

How it works:

  • Canceled accounts with no active campaigns will be deleted six months after cancellation.
  • A 30-day warning email will be sent before deletion.
  • Reactivating an account within the six-month window will prevent deletion.

Between the lines. The policy shift underscores Google’s broader effort to streamline its ad systems and purge unused data, mirroring similar moves across other Google services.

The bottom line. Advertisers who want to preserve old campaign data or structures should reactivate or export data from canceled accounts before the six-month clock runs out.

First seen. This update was spotted by PPC News Feed founder Hana Kobzová.


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Anu AdegbolaAnu Adegbola

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more. In 2008, Anu’s career started with delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side. Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live and host of weekly podcast PPC Live The Podcast.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US, UK, Munich, Berlin), Friends of Search (Amsterdam, NL), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna, IT) and more.