Google Ads Pause Glitch: Unexpected Keyword Reactivations

I’ve noticed something quite unexpected happening with Google Ads lately. It seems that their system tool is re-enabling paused keywords automatically, which has led to increased campaign expenses without warning.

Some advertisers, including myself, have observed a Google Ads tool—created for low-activity bulk changes—unexpectedly switching paused keywords back to active. This unusual behavior has been a surprise to many account managers, like myself, who haven’t come across this issue before.

What’s happening? The activity logs are showing entries linked to Google’s ‘Low activity system bulk changes’ tool executing actions that enable previously paused keywords. These logs appear as automated bulk updates and, thankfully, have an ‘Undo’ option available.

In the past, this tool mainly paused inactive elements rather than reactivating them, so this change in behavior is quite perplexing.

What’s unclear? Google hasn’t issued any public documentation to explain this behavior, leaving us unsure whether it’s an intentional feature, a limited test, or a mere bug.

I find myself wondering what exactly triggers this reactivation and how widespread this phenomenon is becoming.

Why does this matter? If like me, you’re diligently managing your campaigns, unexpected keyword reactivation can change your campaign delivery in ways you didn’t plan for, impacting budgets, pacing, and overall performance—particularly if you’ve paused keywords for a specific reason.

For both agencies and in-house teams, this change is raising concerns about automated systems potentially overriding manual settings.

What steps should we take now? As account managers, we might want to regularly check change histories, be on the lookout for any unexpected keyword activations, and use the ‘undo’ function promptly if we notice unplanned changes.

Until Google clarifies the situation, more careful monitoring of campaigns relying heavily on paused keywords might be necessary.

First Alerted This issue was first brought to light by Performance Marketing Consultant Francesco Cifardi on LinkedIn.

Inspired by this post on Search Engine Land.