What does 'Active' really mean?

We've noticed a fair amount of confusion regarding what the word 'Active' really means, as nicely illustrated by the following (slightly edited) post from the AdWords Help group:

My "Starter Campaign", my "Starter Ad Group" and my keywords are all listed as having a status of "Active" -- are you saying that even though they're all *listed* as "Active", they're not *really* running after all...?

To get to the heart of the question, let's first take a look at what 'Active' doesn't mean: in all cases a status of 'Active' is not meant to indicate (nor is it a guarantee) that one's ads are running.

Rather, in the case of campaigns and/or Ad Groups, a status of 'Active' simply means that the campaign (or Ad Group) is not paused or deleted. And, in the case of keywords, 'Active' means that the keyword has a minimum bid at or above the minimum required for that keyword to be eligible to show an ad.

This means that it's possible for a campaign or Ad Group to show a status of 'Active,' but for the ads within that campaign or Ad Group not to be running. Likewise, it's possible for a keyword to have an 'Active' status (meaning that it is eligible to show) but for no ad to appear. This might occur, for example, if a campaign daily budget is set lower than the recommended amount or if the ads are disapproved.

Reading other meanings into the status of 'Active' can lead to confusion, so we hope that we've been able to bring a little clarity to what 'Active' really means.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew