Set the ad object to ARCHIVED by setting status field to ARCHIVED. When an object status is set to ARCHIVED, you can continue to query the details and stats based on the object id. However there is a maximum limit on the number of objects you can archive. So you should respect this limit and change status to DELETED when you no longer need an object.

An ARCHIVED object has only 2 fields you can change: name and status. You can also only change status to DELETED.

Deleted

Set the ad object to DELETED by either setting status field to DELETED or sending an HTTP DELETE to that object. Once an object status is set to DELETED, you cannot set it back to ARCHIVED.

If you keep the deleted object ID, you can continue to retrieve stats or object details by querying the object ID. However you cannot retrieve the deleted objects as a connection object from a non deleted node or object. For example, <API_VERSION>/<AD_ID>/insights works for a deleted object but <API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/insights?level=ad does not return stats for the deleted object.

After you delete an ad, it may still track impressions, clicks, and actions for 28 days after the date of last delivery. You can query insights for DELETED objects using the ad.effective_status filter.

If you have an ad set with 2 ads in it, and you delete one ad, the following 2 queries do not return the same results:

https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_SET_ID>/insights
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_ID>/insights

The ad set returns stats for both the deleted and the non-deleted ads in it. However when you query for ads in the ad set, you only see one ad:

https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_SET_ID>/ads

To avoid this scenario, you should delete ads 28 days after their last date of delivery to ensure stats no longer change. Also you should store the stats or ids of those objects in your own system before you delete them. This recommendation is optional:

If your application does not show the breakdown of stats, or

You do not care if the sum of breakdowns of stats do not match that of the parent object, due to some deleted child objects.

You cannot change any field, except name, for a DELETED object.

Manage status

This is how you typically manage object status:

You create ad objects, they run and start delivering

When you delete an object, we automatically delete it

When you reach the limit for archived objects, you can no longer archive more objects.

You should move archived deleted objects to the deleted state to reduce the limit.

The status on ad objects works this way for the hierarchy of ad objects:

If the status of a campaign is set to with_issues, paused, archived, or deleted for a campaign, all the objects below it automatically inherit that status.

If you set an ad campaign to deleted, you cannot retrieve the ad sets or ads below that campaign without explicitly specifying the IDs.

If the status of an ad is set to with_issues, paused, archived, or deleted, the ad set or ad campaign containing that ad keep its original status and is available for retrieval.

The following limits apply to ARCHIVED objects for given ad account:

100,000 for Ad Campaigns

100,000 for Ad Sets

100,000 for Ads

If you read archived edges, you must specifically filter for the archived objects since we do not return them by default. If you read stats for an ad object, we include the stats of all children objects, no matter if the child is active, archived, or deleted. Therefore you need no filter for insights on child objects.

Comparisons of different statuses

Objects with statuses such as ACTIVE, PAUSED differ from those with ARCHIVED status, and DELETED. Here are the major differences.

Query	Live	ARCHIVED	DELETED
Exists in database	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum number per ad account	With limits	100,000	No limit
Query as edges without filter	Yes	No	No
Query as edges with status filter	Yes for objects of status contained in the filter	Yes if status filter contains `ARCHIVED`.	No if status filter does not contain `DELETED`, and error if it does.
Query by its own ID	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stats aggregated in `/<PARENT_OBJECT_ID>/insights`	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stats included in the result list of `/<PARENT_OBJECT_ID>/insights?level=<OBJECT_LEVEL>`	Yes	No	No
Stats included in the result list of `/<PARENT_OBJECT_ID>/insights` with delivery_info filtering	Yes for objects of status contained in the filter	Yes for objects of status contained in the filter	No
Insights shown with `/<OBJECT_ID>/insights`	Yes	Yes	Yes
Status can be changed to	Any valid status	`DELETED`	Cannot change

To set an ad to be archived:

curl -X POST \
  -d "status=ARCHIVED" \
  -d "access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_ID>

To delete an ad:

curl -X POST \
  -d "status=DELETED" \
  -d "access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_ID>

To retrieve live subobjects of a live object, for example, all live ads of an ad campaign, not including ARCHIVED or DELETED ads:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'fields="name"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_CAMPAIGN_ID>/ads

To retrieve ARCHIVED subobjects of a live object, for example, all ARCHIVED ads of an ad set, requires the status filter:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'effective_status=[
       "ARCHIVED"
     ]' \
  -d 'fields="name"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_CAMPAIGN_ID>/ads

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