To properly and securely assign and revoke employees, freelancers, and partners access to your Google Ads accounts.
You have full control over who has access to your Google Ads accounts, and have successfully assigned or revoked access to your employees or partners.
Prerequisites or requirements:
You need a Google Account;
If your Google Ads accounts aren’t properly accounted for and managed, you can easily lose track who has access to what.
Where this is done:
In the Google Ads platform.
When is this done:
Every time you want to grant, request, or revoke access to your Google Ads or Google Ads Manager accounts.
Who does this:
The person responsible for managing access to Google Ads Accounts.
Understand user-access levels
Google Ads account access levels:
Email only - This user will not be able to sign in to your Google Ads account.
E.g: If you want to share your Google Ads reports and alerts with your other teammates without allowing them to actually access the Ad Account.
Billing - Individuals holding Admin or Billing access levels possess the authority to modify an organization's payment profile details, including:
i) Name and address
ii) tax identification
iii) language preferences
iv) the addition or editing of payment methods.
These alterations can be executed by Admin or Billing access users, irrespective of their status as Payments profile users. Moreover, Google Ads admins are now empowered to undertake the entire sequence of steps involved in the advertiser verification process, a privilege previously confined solely to Payments profile users.
Read-only - This user can sign in to your account, browse your dashboard, campaigns, and assign read-only access to other users.
E.g: If you want to share your Google Ads data with your Content or SEO team but do not want to allow them to make changes.
Standard - This user can perform almost all the actions that an Admin can except for managing access levels.
E.g: If you want to have an employee work on your Ad account, managing your campaigns.
Admin - This is the highest user-access level Google Ads has to offer. Only assign this level to people you absolutely trust.
E.g: If you want to give access to your company’s Google Ads account to a business partner.
Please refer to the full details here.
Google Ads Manager user access levels:
Email only - This user will not be able to sign in to your Google Ads Manager account.
E.g: If you want to share your Google Ads reports and alerts with your other teammates without allowing them to actually access the Ad Account.
Billing - This user (or an Admin user) can view and edit billing information for your client and manage monthly invoice including:
i) Name and address
ii) tax identification
iii) language preferences
iv) the addition or editing of payment methods.
Read-only - This user can sign in to your account, browse your dashboard, campaigns, and assign read-only access to other users.
E.g: If you want to share your Google Ads data with your Content or SEO team but do not want to allow them to make changes.
Standard - This user can perform almost all the actions that an Administrator can except for managing access levels both on your Ads Manager account and within the managed accounts.
E.g: If you want to have an employee work on your Ad account, managing your campaigns;
Admin - This is the highest user-access level Google Ads has to offer. Only assign this level to people you absolutely trust.
Depending on whether the Ads Manager account is an Admin owner of the managed accounts this user might also be able to downgrade other Administrators in the managed accounts or assign new Administrators.
E.g: If you want to give access to your company’s Google Ads account to a business partner.
Designing the best account structure for your organization
Before we start, you need to understand what’s the difference between a Google Ads Manager Account (formerly known as MCC Account), a Google Ads Account, and a Google Account (it’s a confusing naming convention—we know)
Google Account - A Google account allows you to use the full suite of Google services using a single login. If you have a Gmail account you already have a Google Account.
Google Ads (non-manager) Account - A Google Ads account lets you manage and create advertising campaigns on Google’s Advertising network.
Google Ads Manager Account - A manager account is a Google Ads account that lets you easily view and manage multiple Google Ads accounts - including other manager accounts - from a single location. (Source: Google)
Does your business manage multiple Google Ads Accounts?
NO - Create a simple Google Ads account following SOP 014 (web version)
Do you have employees, freelancers, or agencies that you will need to grant access?
NO (it’s just you) - You don’t need user management—you don’t need the rest of this SOP. This is how your account structure will look like:
YES (your team needs access to your ad account) - this is how your account structure will look like:
YES (you’re managing multiple ad accounts) - You’ll need to use at least one Google Ads Manager account to manage all your Ad Accounts.
Do you need to restrict your employees or teammates access to specific Ad Accounts?
NO (it’s ok if every employee can access all Ad accounts in my Ads Manager account) - Use a single Google Ads Manager account with all the Google Ads Accounts your business is managing.
This is how your structure will look like:
YES (I want to control which Ad accounts my employees or teammates can have access to) - you will need to create a “Master” Google Ads Manager account and group Ad Accounts using “Siloed” Ads Manager Accounts.
This is how your account structure will look like:
Master Google Ads Manager Account - This Google Ads Manager Account will tie all your other siloed Google Ads Manager Accounts.
Account Group #1, #2, #3, #X - These Google Ads Manager Accounts will group the accounts that will be shared among the different team members/employees working on them.
E.g: Internal Employees, External Freelancers, External Agencies—you will have to define what makes sense for your specific case.
Use this template to design your own siloed structure.
Click here to edit this template according to your needs and share it with your organization so everyone clearly understands how Google Ads Accounts are structured. (Remember: Click “File” → “Make a copy” to be able to edit)
Then, follow the next steps on this SOP to create your Ad Manager accounts according to the structure you created.
Creating a Google Ads Manager account
1. Open the Google Ads Manager account homepage,here.
2. Click “Go to Manager accounts” and sign in with your business gmail account:
3. Enter your account name, billing country, time zone and currency and click “Submit” :
Note: You won’t be able to change the country, time zone, and currencylater.
Name your account: Any name will do, but bear in mind your clients or teammates will see this name when you request access to their Ad Accounts.
And that's it! You’re done. Click “Explore your account” to head to your ad account.
Request Access to a Google Ads Account from a Google Ads Manager Account
Access given: Multiple available.
Typical scenario: An agency starts working with a client for the first time and wants to access the client’s Google Ads account;
Who performs this action: The entity that wants access to the other’s Google Ads account. (Typically this is the Agency that wants to request access to the client’s Google Ads account)
Inputs needed: You will need your client’s (if you are an agency) Customer ID (or the Customer ID of whichever account you want to link to your Google Ads Manager Account. If you don’t have it yet, request it from your client or whoever is currently managing the Ad account that you want to link.
1. Log into your Google Ads Manager account here On the top bar, click on the “Tools and settings” followed by “Access and security”:
2. Next, click on the plus icon:
3. Enter the email address and set the access expires to “Never”:
4. Choose the Google Ads permissions you want to grant them and hit “Send Invitation”:
They will receive an email notification that they have gained access to the account and will need to click "ACCEPT INVITATION":
That’s it, you’ve just sent your access request, the owner of the account now has to accept your request:
Once the owner of the account confirms your request, you’ll find the account on your “Accounts” section:
Grant access to your Google Ads Manager account to employees or freelancers so they can work on the Ad Accounts you manage
Access given: Multiple access-levels.
Important: All Google Ads accounts linked to that Google Ads Manager account will be available to the added user at the selected access level.
Typical scenario: An agency wants to assign an employee access to the accounts that are managed by that Google Ads Manager account.
Who performs this action: The person that wants to grant access.
E.g: PPC Team leader grants access to the team’s MCC to a new member of the team.
Inputs needed: You will need your employee’s / teammate’s email address;
1. Log into your Google Ads Manager account here.
2. From the page menu on the left, click “Settings” and then click “Sub-account settings”:
3. Click the plus button and click “Link existing account”:
4. Enter the Google Ads account's Customer ID number. To link multiple accounts at once, enter one Customer ID per line. Finally, click “Send Request”:
Customer IDs can be found on the top right corner just beside the notification icon:
Users with access to the Google Ads account you sent a link request to will receive emails inviting them to link to your account. Once the invited account accepts your invitation, you'll receive an email confirmation and the account will be automatically linked to your manager account.
Invitee instructions: After clicking “ACCEPT REQUEST”, the link will take them straight to Google Ads Manager where they can click "Accept":
They then need to click a box that says "Grant access" and that’s it!:
Granting an Employee / Freelancer access to your Google Ads account
Assess if the person you want to grant access is using a Google Ads Manager account or a simple Google Account.
If they are using a Google Ads Manager account: Ask that person to follow the first chapter of this SOP: “Request Access to a Google Ads Account from a Google Ads Manager Account”, and send them your Customer ID as well.
To locate the Google Ads Account Customer ID:
1. When logged in to the Ad Account that you want to give access to, you will find your Customer ID on the top right corner of your dashboard:
If they are using an individual Google Account: Proceed to step 2.
2. Log in to your Google Ads Manager account here.
3. On the header click “Tools and settings” → “Access and security”
4. Click the blue ‘+’ button → Insert the details of the person you want to invite (typically your employee’s email address) → “Send Invitation”:
Note: If you are unsure about the kind of access you should provide. Refer to the first chapter of this SOP, section“1) Google Ads Account access levels”.
5. Your request will be pending until your invitee accepts it:
Note: Once the person you invited accepts your invite you will see them on your user list along with the assigned access level:
(Next Steps) Instructions for the invitee:
The invitee will receive an email prompting him to grant access to your Google Ads Manager account:
6. Open the email, and click “Accept Request”:
7. Click “Continue” to confirm your email address:
That’s it! Your Google Account now has access to that Manager Account.
Revoking access to your Google Ads or Google Ads Manager account
1. Log in to your Google Ads account.
Note: Make sure you have user-management access level. You can check the respective user-levels on the first chapter of this SOP.
2. On the header click “Tools and settings” → “Access and security”
Note: Alternatively you can click here.
3. On the top, select “Users” if you are removing an employee or partner that is not using a Google Ads Manager account, or “Managers” if you are removing one that is using a Google Ads Manager account.
Note: If you are unsure just check both tabs.
4. Locate the employee or partner that you want to remove → click “Remove access”
5. Confirm by clicking “Remove access” once again.
That’s all!
Unlinking a Google Ads or Google Ads Manager account from your Google Ads Manager account
1. Log into your Google Ads Manager account
Note: Make sure you have administrative access level. You can check the respective user-levels on the first chapter of this SOP.
2. On the sidebar click “Accounts” → Locate and ‘tick’ the account you want to unlink → Click “Edit” → Click “Cancel accounts”:
3. Confirm by clicking “Cancel account” and that’s it!:
