When you create a new Google Ads campaign, you can control how long it runs. This feature comes in handy when you already know the date you want your campaign to end—for example, after a promotion or offer expires. Just set an end date in advance and, when the day comes, you won't have to change it manually. You can also set a start date for a campaign dedicated to an upcoming holiday, for example. This article explains how automatic campaign start and end dates work and when you might want to use them.
Example
Let's say that you own an online party supply shop and want to have a campaign dedicated to sales of discounted noisemakers for the New Year's holiday. You know you want your campaign to start exactly two weeks prior to New Year's Eve, which would be 18 December. In Google Ads, you're able to set this date for your campaign to begin. You can also set it to end when the promotion is over, on 1 January.
How campaign start and end dates work
When you create a new campaign, your start date is set to "today" unless you specify otherwise. If you leave the start date as "today", your campaign will start as soon as your first ads are approved.
Once you set a start date, you can edit that date at any time until your campaign begins. After the start date has passed, it's no longer possible to edit that date. For example, if your start date is February 1, you won't be able to edit your start date on February 2. You can, however, still pause, resume or remove your campaign.
The default setting for each ad campaign is to have no end date, so that your ads are able to run indefinitely. However, you can change that setting at any time to have your campaign end on a specific date. When you select an end date, your campaign will end on that date at 11:59 p.m. (or 23:59) in the time zone that you have chosen for your account.