🔍 What This Issue Looks Like
After connecting your Google Ads account, you may see campaigns in Search Atlas that you don't recognize or don't want to run. When you try to pause, edit, or change the budget or dates, you see this message:
- Cannot modify dates, budget or status of a trial campaign.
This message comes from Google Ads, not from Search Atlas. It means the campaign is a trial campaign, which Google Ads locks against changes made from outside its own Experiments tool.
💡 Why It Happens
Trial campaigns are created by Google Ads as part of an experiment. An experiment lets an advertiser test a change against an original campaign, such as a new bidding strategy or new settings, before applying it. While the experiment exists, Google Ads controls the trial campaign's status, budget, and dates.
Search Atlas imports the campaigns it finds in your connected Google Ads account, so trial campaigns can appear in your list. Because Google blocks changes to them, Search Atlas cannot pause them for you.
Trial campaigns usually appear for one of these reasons:
- Someone with access to the Google Ads account (you, a colleague, or an agency) set up an experiment.
- The experiment was created from a Google Ads recommendation or a guided setup flow.
- An older experiment was scheduled, and it started running on its start date.
✅ How to Stop a Trial Campaign
The trial has to be ended inside Google Ads. Follow these steps:
- Sign in to Google Ads with an account that has admin or standard access to the affected account.
- Make sure you are viewing the correct account, especially if you manage more than one.
- In the left-hand menu, open Campaigns, then select Experiments. If you don't see it, look for Drafts and experiments or All experiments, depending on your account view.
- Find the experiment that matches the trial campaign name you saw in Search Atlas.
- Open the experiment and select End experiment. If the experiment hasn't started yet, select Remove instead.
- Confirm your choice. The trial campaign will stop serving ads and spending budget.
Ending the experiment does not change your original campaign. Do not choose Apply unless you want the trial's settings to replace your original campaign's settings.
🔄 Refresh the Campaign List in Search Atlas
Once the experiment has ended in Google Ads, return to Search Atlas and refresh the page. Wait a few minutes for the data to sync with your Google Ads account. The trial campaign should show as ended or removed. If it still appears as active after a while, check Google Ads directly to confirm it has stopped.
⚠️ Things to Check If You Can't Find the Experiment
- Account access: Experiments are only visible with sufficient permissions. Ask the account owner to upgrade your access level if needed.
- Correct account: Confirm the Google Ads account ID matches the one connected to Search Atlas.
- Date filters: Widen the date range or status filters on the Experiments page so ended or scheduled experiments are included.
- Agency or team activity: Ask anyone else managing the account whether they created a test. They can end it or tell you which one it is.
💰 Protect Your Budget in the Meantime
A running trial campaign can spend part of your budget. While you work on ending it, you can:
- Check spend for the campaign in Google Ads under Campaigns.
- Lower the budget of the original campaign in Google Ads if you need to limit total spend.
- Review billing and spend alerts in your Google Ads account settings.
🛡️ How to Avoid This in the Future
- Review the Experiments page in Google Ads regularly to catch tests you didn't plan.
- Be cautious when accepting Google Ads recommendations that create experiments automatically.
- Agree with your team or agency on who creates and ends experiments.
- Review your imported campaigns right after connecting your account so you can spot unexpected ones early.
💬 Need More Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team. To help us resolve things faster, include the campaign names and the Google Ads account ID in your message.