A campaign's status: draft, active, paused, archived
Explains: D-021-01, specs/007-pricing-modes#req-004, D-DIST-06, D-DIST-07, D-LIFE-02, D-LIFE-03, D-JL-02, D-JL-09, D-021-14, D-BUD-05, D-BUD-10, specs/006-campaign-lifecycle#req-001, specs/006-campaign-lifecycle#req-002, specs/006-campaign-lifecycle#req-003, specs/014-publisher-feed#req-002, specs/014-publisher-feed#req-008, specs/014-publisher-feed#req-005, D-DIST-18
Every campaign has one of four statuses, shown on its row. Nothing deletes a campaign (specs/006 REQ-002): a campaign you no longer want is archived, and it can come back. Only an active campaign sends jobs to publishers (specs/006 REQ-001).
When a campaign stops being active, its links leave each publisher's feed at the next build (a job another active campaign still sends stays, through that campaign). Publishers work from copies of their feed, so clicks on those links keep earning for 24 hours, with two exceptions: redirection stopped, which refuses them at once, and the budget spent, which pays the publisher and bills the customer nothing (D-JL-02, D-JL-09). When a job goes away explains both, and what happens after the 24 hours.
draft
A new campaign is saved as a draft. A draft sends nothing to any publisher. Press Activate when its segment, bidding and publishers are ready.
active
The campaign is running: its matched jobs can go to the publishers it is ticked for (specs/014 REQ-002), and clicks on them are billed and paid under the rules on click reasons. A ticked publisher still gets nothing from it while that publisher is paused (specs/014 REQ-008), and a job is left out while redirection is stopped for its customer or feed (D-DIST-18) or while another campaign sends the same job to that publisher (specs/014 REQ-005). You can edit an active campaign; a change to its segment or its bidding reaches publishers at the next build of their feeds. Pause stops it and Archive retires it.
Activate is refused while the customer is disabled or archived (D-LIFE-02, specs/006 REQ-003), while the campaign or its customer is over a budget's stop point (D-021-14), and while the campaign's bidding is missing what it needs to price a click (specs/007 REQ-004).
paused
The campaign is stopped and its jobs leave publishers' feeds. It stays editable. The reason under the
status says who or what paused it, and links to
its own explanation: a person
(operator or other) or a disabled customer (customer_disabled). A campaign a person or a
disabled customer paused stays paused until someone presses Activate. Re-enabling a disabled customer
resumes none of its campaigns: each one waits for someone to activate it (D-LIFE-03).
A campaign a budget stopped shows that stop as a status of its own instead of plain "paused", and says what resumes it. Most budget stops lift on their own, at a new month or a new day or when spend figures are fresh, and Activate is refused while the stop holds (D-BUD-05, D-BUD-10, D-021-01, D-021-14); Why a campaign stopped explains each.
archived
The campaign is retired: it sends nothing, it is hidden from the list unless you tick Show archived campaigns, and it cannot be edited. Unarchive brings it back paused, never active, so nothing returns to publishers until someone activates it (specs/006 REQ-001).
Archiving a customer archives every one of its campaigns (D-DIST-06). Unarchiving the customer brings it back disabled and leaves its campaigns archived, to be brought back one by one (D-DIST-07). While the customer is archived, nothing on its campaigns can be changed, unarchive included (specs/006 REQ-003).