Skip to main content

​
Fetching Existing Campaigns

You can import campaigns you’ve already created on your connected platforms and bring them onto the Whathead canvas. This lets you edit existing campaigns using Whathead’s visual interface and republish changes back to the platform.
What you’ll learn:
  • How to fetch campaigns from connected platforms
  • What data is imported automatically
  • What settings need to be reconfigured
  • How to expand campaigns to load ad sets and ads

​
Why Fetch Existing Campaigns

Fetching existing campaigns is useful when you:
  • Want to edit campaigns you created directly on the platform
  • Need to make bulk changes to multiple existing campaigns
  • Want to duplicate existing campaign structures
  • Need to transfer campaigns between ad accounts
  • Want to use Whathead’s visual interface for campaigns created elsewhere
Fetching preserves platform IDs, so when you publish changes, Whathead updates the existing campaigns rather than creating duplicates.

​
Fetch Workflow

1

Connect your platform

Ensure you’ve connected the platform where your campaigns exist. Go to Settings > Integrations to verify your connection status.
2

Open Campaign Builder

Navigate to the Campaign Builder to access your visual canvas workspace.
3

Add existing campaign

Click + Campaign and select Select Existing from the dropdown. A list of your campaigns from the connected platform appears.
4

Choose campaign

Browse your campaigns and select the one you want to import. You can search by campaign name or filter by status (active, paused, archived).
5

Campaign loads on canvas

The campaign node appears on the canvas with all its current settings. The campaign retains its platform ID for updating on publish.
6

Expand to load children (optional)

Right-click the campaign node and choose Expand to fetch its ad sets. Right-click ad set nodes and choose Expand to fetch ads.
7

Edit as needed

Double-click any node to open its configuration form. Make your changes and save.
8

Publish changes

Click Publish to send your changes back to the platform. Whathead updates the existing campaign with your modifications.

​
What Gets Imported

When you fetch a campaign, Whathead imports all the campaign’s current settings from the platform:

​
Campaign-Level Data

  • Campaign name: The current name on the platform
  • Objective: The campaign’s optimization goal (Sales, Traffic, Awareness, etc.)
  • Budget: Daily or lifetime budget settings
  • Status: Active, paused, or archived state
  • Schedule: Start date, end date, and any dayparting rules
  • Spending limits: Account-level or campaign-level caps
  • Platform ID: The unique identifier linking to the platform entity

​
Ad Set-Level Data (When Expanded)

  • Ad set name: The current name on the platform
  • Targeting: Location, age, gender, interests, behaviors, and custom audiences
  • Placements: Where ads appear (feed, stories, search, etc.)
  • Schedule: Start and end dates for the ad set
  • Optimization goal: How the platform optimizes delivery
  • Bid strategy: Manual or automatic bidding settings
  • Budget: Ad set-level budget if applicable
  • Platform ID: The unique identifier for the ad set

​
Ad-Level Data (When Expanded)

  • Ad name: The current name on the platform
  • Format: Single image, video, carousel, collection, etc.
  • Creative references: Links to media assets in the platform’s library
  • Ad copy: Primary text, headline, description
  • Call-to-action: Button text and type
  • Destination URL: Where users go when they click
  • Tracking parameters: UTM codes and conversion tracking
  • Platform ID: The unique identifier for the ad
Platform IDs are critical for update behavior. Nodes with platform IDs update existing entities when you publish. Nodes without platform IDs create new entities.

​
What Needs Reconfiguration

Some data cannot be imported automatically and requires manual configuration:

​
Creative Assets

What’s imported: References to media assets (image IDs, video IDs) What needs reconfiguration: The actual media files are not downloaded. When you edit an ad, you’ll see placeholders for creative assets. You can:
  • Keep the existing assets (no changes needed)
  • Replace with new assets from your media library
  • Upload new assets during editing
If you change creative assets on a Snapchat ad, publishing creates a new ad rather than updating the existing one. This is a Snapchat platform limitation.

​
Custom Audiences

What’s imported: Audience names and IDs What needs reconfiguration: Custom audience definitions are referenced but not fully loaded. If you need to modify audience targeting, you’ll need to:
  • Select audiences from your platform’s audience library
  • Create new custom audiences if needed
  • Verify audience availability in the target ad account

​
Conversion Tracking

What’s imported: Pixel IDs and conversion event names What needs reconfiguration: Conversion tracking setup is referenced but may need verification:
  • Ensure pixels are installed on your website
  • Verify conversion events are firing correctly
  • Update tracking parameters if needed

​
Platform-Specific Settings

Some platform-specific settings may not import completely:
Fully imported:
  • Campaign objectives and budgets
  • Ad set targeting and placements
  • Ad creative references and copy
May need reconfiguration:
  • Special ad categories (housing, employment, credit)
  • Dynamic creative settings
  • Advantage+ campaign settings

​
Expanding Campaigns

When you first fetch a campaign, only the campaign node loads. To work with ad sets and ads, you need to expand the campaign:

​
Expand Ad Sets

1

Right-click campaign node

Right-click the campaign node on the canvas to open the context menu.
2

Choose Expand

Select Expand from the menu. Whathead fetches all ad sets under this campaign.
3

Ad sets appear

Ad set nodes appear on the canvas connected to the campaign. Each ad set retains its platform ID.

​
Expand Ads

1

Right-click ad set node

Right-click an ad set node to open the context menu.
2

Choose Expand

Select Expand from the menu. Whathead fetches all ads under this ad set.
3

Ads appear

Ad nodes appear on the canvas connected to the ad set. Each ad retains its platform ID.
You can expand multiple ad sets simultaneously by selecting them all, right-clicking, and choosing Expand. This is faster when working with campaigns that have many ad sets.

​
Selective Expansion

You don’t have to expand everything. You can:
  • Fetch a campaign and only expand specific ad sets
  • Expand ad sets without expanding their ads
  • Work at the campaign level without loading children at all
This is useful when you only need to edit specific parts of a campaign structure.

​
Editing Fetched Campaigns

Once you’ve fetched and expanded a campaign, you can edit it like any other campaign on the canvas:

​
Making Changes

  1. Double-click any node to open its configuration form
  2. Edit the fields you want to change
  3. Save your changes to update the node on the canvas
  4. Repeat for other nodes as needed
Your changes are saved locally until you publish.

​
What You Can Edit

Different platforms have different rules about what can be edited on existing campaigns:
Editable after publish:
  • Campaign name and budget
  • Ad set targeting (with some restrictions)
  • Ad set schedule and budget
  • Ad copy and creative (updates existing ad)
  • Ad status (active, paused)
Not editable:
  • Campaign objective (cannot change after creation)
  • Special ad category (cannot change after creation)
Attempting to edit locked fields triggers validation errors when you try to publish. Whathead shows which fields cannot be changed for existing campaigns.
Learn more about platform-specific editing limitations in Editing Existing Campaigns.

​
Adding New Children

You can add new ad sets or ads to fetched campaigns:
  1. Click + Ad Set on a fetched campaign to add a new ad set
  2. Click + Ad on a fetched ad set to add a new ad
When you publish:
  • The existing campaign updates if you changed it
  • New ad sets and ads are created under the existing campaign
This lets you expand existing campaigns with new content.

​
Publishing Fetched Campaigns

When you publish changes to fetched campaigns, Whathead determines what to do with each node:

​
Update Behavior

Nodes with changes: Whathead sends UPDATE requests to the platform with your modifications. The existing entity is updated with new values. Nodes without changes: Whathead skips these nodes entirely. No API calls are made, and the platform entity remains unchanged. New child nodes: Whathead sends CREATE requests for any new ad sets or ads you added under existing campaigns.

​
Example Scenarios

Scenario 1: Edit campaign budget only
  • Fetched campaign with 3 ad sets and 10 ads
  • Changed campaign budget from 100to100 to 200
  • Did not change any ad sets or ads
  • Result: Campaign updates, ad sets and ads are skipped
Scenario 2: Edit one ad’s copy
  • Fetched campaign with 3 ad sets and 10 ads
  • Changed copy on 1 ad
  • Did not change campaign or ad sets
  • Result: Campaign and ad sets are skipped, 1 ad updates, 9 ads are skipped
Scenario 3: Add new ad set to existing campaign
  • Fetched campaign with 2 ad sets
  • Added 1 new ad set with 3 new ads
  • Did not change existing campaign or ad sets
  • Result: Campaign and existing ad sets are skipped, new ad set and ads are created
This selective update behavior makes publishing efficient. Whathead only makes API calls for entities that actually changed.

​
Fetching from Multiple Accounts

If you manage multiple ad accounts for the same platform, you can fetch campaigns from any connected account:
1

Switch account

Use the account selector dropdown to choose which ad account to fetch from.
2

Fetch campaign

Click + Campaign > Select Existing to see campaigns from the selected account.
3

Repeat for other accounts

Switch to a different account and fetch more campaigns. You can have campaigns from multiple accounts on the same canvas.
Campaigns from different accounts can coexist on the same canvas. When you publish, each campaign goes to its original account.

​
Common Workflows

​
Bulk Editing Existing Campaigns

  1. Fetch multiple campaigns onto the canvas
  2. Expand them to load ad sets and ads
  3. Multi-select nodes you want to edit
  4. Use bulk edit to change common fields
  5. Publish to update all campaigns at once
This is much faster than editing campaigns one-by-one on the platform.

​
Duplicating Existing Campaigns

  1. Fetch a campaign and expand it fully
  2. Select the entire campaign structure
  3. Copy and paste to create a duplicate
  4. Edit the duplicate as needed
  5. Publish to create new campaigns based on the existing structure
Pasted campaigns create new entities because platform IDs are cleared on paste.

​
Transferring Between Accounts

  1. Fetch a campaign from Account A
  2. Expand to load full structure
  3. Change the target account to Account B
  4. Publish to create the campaign in Account B
The original campaign in Account A remains unchanged. Learn more in Cross-Account Transfer.

​
Troubleshooting

Cause: Your platform connection may have expired, or you’re looking at the wrong ad account.Resolution:
  1. Verify your platform connection is active in Settings > Integrations
  2. Check the account selector dropdown—make sure you’ve selected the correct ad account
  3. Try refreshing the campaign list
  4. If campaigns still don’t appear, reconnect your platform
Cause: The campaign may not have any ad sets or ads, or the fetch request failed.Resolution:
  1. Log in to the platform directly and verify the campaign has ad sets and ads
  2. Check your internet connection
  3. Try expanding again after a few seconds
  4. If the issue persists, disconnect and reconnect the platform
Cause: Whathead imports references to media assets but doesn’t download the actual files.Resolution: This is expected behavior. You can:
  • Leave assets unchanged (they’ll remain on the platform)
  • Replace with new assets from your media library
  • Upload new assets when editing the ad
Cause: You fetched campaigns but didn’t make any edits, so Whathead skips all nodes.Resolution: This is correct behavior. If you didn’t change anything, there’s nothing to publish. Make edits to nodes you want to update, then publish again.
Cause: Some fields are locked after campaign creation and cannot be changed.Resolution:
  1. Check the validation error message to see which field is locked
  2. Revert that field to its original value
  3. If you need to change a locked field, you’ll need to create a new campaign instead
Learn more about editable fields in Editing Existing Campaigns.
Cause: The campaign may have been edited on the platform after you fetched it, or there’s a sync delay.Resolution:
  1. Right-click the campaign node and choose Refresh to re-fetch current data
  2. If data still doesn’t match, disconnect and reconnect the platform
  3. Check the platform’s API status page for known issues

​
Next Steps

Editing Existing Campaigns

Learn which fields you can edit on existing campaigns and platform-specific limitations.

Publishing Workflow

Understand how publishing works for fetched campaigns and when updates are applied.

Platform Limitations

Explore platform-specific constraints when working with existing campaigns.

Cross-Account Transfer

Learn how to transfer campaigns between different ad accounts.