When attempting to modify or re-activate certain objects within Marin, you may encounter the following error (or some variation thereof):
Keyword/Creative/Group/Campaign has been deleted and can not be modified.
This error occurs when trying to edit or create objects that have been deleted in the past either in Marin or the publisher.
Objects That Can Be Undeleted
The following table outlines which objects can be undeleted in both Marin and the Google Ads interface:
| Object | Marin | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Keywords | NO, but you can change the capitalization of a keyword since Marin is case sensitive.* |
YES. Keywords that had data will show as deleted and can be reactivated. Keywords that had no data and have been deleted will not show up here at all, but you can re-add these back without incurring a duplicate error. |
| Creatives | NO | NO |
| Groups | NO | NO |
| Campaigns | NO | NO, but it is possible to add a new campaign with the exact same name as a deleted campaign. For these campaigns, Google Ads will generate a new publisher ID. Take note, however, that this can lead to syncing problems in Marin, as Marin will see an identical campaign name with a different publisher ID. |
Once you have either reactivated or re-added the 'deleted' objects within Google Ads, perform a manual sync on this campaign in Marin. This will then update the 'deleted' keyword within Marin to either Active or Paused (depending on the status that was made in Google Ads).
Note: This may cause attribution issues if you are using creative level only tracking using keyword/match type parameters to attribute data to the keyword level.
Undeletion With Microsoft
Please note that Microsoft does not currently allow the retrieval of deleted objects, however, new keywords, creatives, groups, and campaigns can be re-created in Microsoft Ads with the same name.
Additional Information
- Editing an ad in Google Ads will be considered a new ad by Google. This will result in the same ad being deleted in Marin and a new one will be created. Once this occurs, any latent revenue and cost data will be attributed to the keyword or group.
- Deleted objects can still receive attribution from latent conversion data, but not cost data.
