Share Access on Google Ads

Share Access on Google Ads

Access in Google Ads functions as a hierarchy. The goal is for oxbird to manage your agency's account, and for your agency to manage the advertiser's account. There are two methods for linking Google Ads accounts: one account can manage another, or multiple users can be added to the same account. Because of limitations with the second method, we only use the first method to access Google Ads accounts.

Google only allows a single user to be associated with up to 20 Google Ads Ad Accounts, so it is not possible for all our agency partners to add us as a user on their Ad Accounts. Similarly, our partners often cannot add themselves as users to all of their client accounts because of this limitation.

We recommend and require that our agency partners use Google Ads Manager Accounts to manage and share access to their client's Ad Accounts. Manager Accounts can be linked to as many as 85,000 non-manager accounts, though new Manager Accounts will be limited to 50 Ad Accounts until they meet certain monthly spend thresholds. This is the way Google Ads is designed for you to manage your client's accounts.

Manager Accounts can also manage other Manager Accounts (which are then called sub-Manager Accounts), in addition to Ad Accounts. A single sub-Manager Account can be managed by up to 5 other Manager Accounts, while a single Manager Account can manage an unlimited number of sub-Manager Accounts (in our experience, anyways).

One major difference with this method is that access must be requested by the Manager Account (i.e. via the 10-digit customer ID) and then accepted by the sub-Manager Account but cannot be shared (e.g. by adding a user's email).

Setup your Google Ads Manager Account

  1. Sign in to the Google account you'd like to use as the administrator on your Google Ads Manager Account.
  2. Navigate to the Google Ads Manager Account homepage and click Create a Manager Account.
  3. Input the name of your agency in the Account display name field. This is the name your clients will see.
  4. Select Manage other people's accounts as the Primary use of the account.
  5. Select your country, time zone, and currency.
  6. Send us the 10-digit customer ID number for your manager account by submitting a ticket.

Once we receive your customer ID, we will send a link request to you. You'll receive an email from Google notifying you that "advertiser.assets@gmail.com wants to link your Google Ads account (XXX-XXX-XXXX) to their manager account Advertiser Assets (729-781-6540)."

Please accept our request to manage your Google Ads Manager Account by following the Accept Request link in the email or by going to the Account access section of your Google Ads Manager Account. Once this is done, we'll be ready for Ad Accounts.
  1. Sign in to your Google Ads Manager Account.
  2. Navigate to Tools & Settings > Setup > Account access and security.
  3. Select Managers in the top left.
  4. Accept the pending invitation from Advertiser Assets.

Link your client's Ad Account

If your client does not yet have an Ad Account, please let us know in the Service Request form and we'll create one for them in your Manager Account. We can also share administrative access for their Ad Account with them if you provide their email address.
  1. Obtain the 10-digit customer ID number for your client's Ad Account (if one of you logs in, you can find it by clicking the help icon in the top right corner and looking for "Customer ID" at the bottom of the menu).
  2. Sign in to your Google Ads Manager Account.
  3. From the page menu on the left, click Settings, then click Sub-account settings at the top of the page.
  4. Click the blue plus button.
  5. Click Link existing account.
  6. Enter the 10-digit customer ID number for your client's Ad Account. To link multiple accounts at once, enter one Customer ID per line.
  7. Click Send invitation.

Your client will receive an email from Google notifying them that "[agency email] wants to link your Google Ads account (XXX-XXX-XXXX) to their manager account [Agency Name] (XXX-XXX-XXXX)." They will need to accept your invitation by clicking the Accept Request link in the email or by going to the Account access section of the Google Ads Ad Account:
  1. Sign in to the Google Ads Ad Account.
  2. Navigate to Tools & Settings > Setup > Account access and security.
  3. Select Managers in the top left.
  4. Accept the invitation you sent them.

Please ask your client to accept your request to manage their Google Ads Ad Account. Once that is done, you will be able to access their Ad Account by logging into your Manager Account. We'll be able to access and manage it as well.

If you're not comfortable managing the process to link to your client's account(s), we are happy to send the link request on your behalf. Simply provide the Customer ID in the service request form, and our team will take care of the rest.

Feel free to link additional Ad Accounts to your Manager Account as well; our team will only make changes to an Ad Account if you submit a service request.

Use a second Manager Account for oxbird

If you are uncomfortable allowing our team to view Ad Accounts in your Manager Account that we are not responsible to manage, you will need to create a second Manager Account and configure the access separately.
  1. Sign in to the Google account you'd like to use as the administrator on your second Google Ads Manager Account (we recommend using the same Google account as your first Manager Account, for simplicity).
  2. Navigate to the Google Ads Manager Account homepage and click Create a Manager Account.
  3. Input the name of your agency in the Account display name field. This is the name your clients will see. You may want to differentiate the name of your second Manager Account from the first one for the sake of clarity.
  4. Select Manage other people's accounts as the Primary use of the account.
  5. Select your country, time zone, and currency again.
  6. Provide us with the 10-digit customer ID number for your second Manager Account (you can find it by clicking the help icon in the top right corner and looking for "Customer ID" at the bottom of the menu). We do not need the 10-digit Customer ID for the first Manager Account since we will not be managing that one.

Once we receive your customer ID, we will send a link request to you. You'll receive an email from Google notifying you that "advertiser.assets@gmail.com wants to link your Google Ads account (XXX-XXX-XXXX) to their manager account Advertiser Assets (729-781-6540)."

Please accept our request to manage your second Google Ads Manager Account by following the Accept Request link in the email or by going to the Account access section of your Google Ads Manager Account. Once this is done, we'll be ready for Ad Accounts.
  1. Sign in to your Google Ads Manager Account.
  2. Navigate to Tools & Settings > Setup > Account access and security.
  3. Select Managers in the top left.
  4. Accept the pending invitation from Advertiser Assets.

Once this is done, you'll need to follow the steps above for How to link your client's Ad Account twice, once for each Manager Account. If you have any accounts that you do not want to share with oxbird, you'll only link them to your first Manager Account.

Learn more about linking Ad Accounts to your Google Ads Manager Account in Google's help doc.

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