List your Google Ads accounts
“List my google ads accounts.”
Guide · Google Ads MCP
How to Connect Google Ads to Claude
This guide walks you through connecting Google Ads to Claude with the AdPlug Google Ads MCP server. In about five minutes Claude reads live performance data, audits search terms, drafts negatives, and previews safe campaign changes, without leaving the chat.
Updated May 13, 2026 · 5 minute read
Google Ads MCP server URL
Paste this into Claude.ai → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.
https://api.adplug.app/mcp/google-adsWatch or read
Two-minute video walkthrough
See the entire flow end-to-end before you sign up: AdPlug account, Google OAuth, adding the custom connector in Claude, authorising access, and the first prompt. Prefer reading? Every step of this video is also captured as a step-by-step image walkthrough just below.
TranscriptRead the full video transcript
Two minutes. That's all it takes to give Claude direct access to read and manage your Google Ads account using AdPlug. Let's dive in.
Step one is creating your AdPlug account, which is as simple as signing in with Google. Next, you'll breeze through a quick three-step onboarding process to tailor your dashboard. Just select how you manage media, your primary platforms, and what specific tasks you want the AI to handle, like pulling performance reports or surfacing optimization opportunities.
With your account set up, it's time to connect your ad platform. Click Connect Google Ads and complete the standard Google authentication flow to authorize access.
Now for the powerful part, connecting AdPlug to Claude as an AI assistant. Select the Google Ads only scope, copy the server name provided, and click the button to open Claude's connector settings. In Claude, click the plus icon to add a custom connector. Paste in that server name, then jump back to the AdPlug dashboard to copy your unique MCP URL. Paste that into Claude and click Add. Click Connect to authenticate the server.
Once linked, you can manage your tool permissions. For safety and control, it's best practice to leave read-only tools on Always Allow, but set any write or delete tools to Needs Approval, so nothing changes in your campaigns without your final say.
Let's test the connection. Open a new chat in Claude and type a simple prompt, like "list my google ads accounts". Within seconds, Claude securely pulls your live account architecture right into the chat. Setup is complete and you're ready to start optimizing.
Need machine-readable captions? Download the WebVTT file. The full guide is also available as Markdown for LLM clients.
01
What the Google Ads MCP does
AdPlug Google Ads is a Model Context Protocol server that gives Claude read and scoped-write access to your Google Ads accounts. Claude calls 16 tools under the hood to answer your question, run a report, or stage a change. The full feature list and FAQ live on the Google Ads MCP overview.
Read tools paginate at 200 rows per page (max 1,000) with cursor tokens, so cross-account reports stay fast. Write tools always preview first: Claude shows the exact resource path, field, current value, and new value, and waits for your confirmation before executing.
Read tools
List accounts, account performance, campaign performance, daily trends, conversions, search terms, shared negative sets, keyword ideas, and a GAQL escape hatch for anything custom.
Write tools
Add negative keywords (campaign or shared-set), pause or enable campaigns, rename, and adjust budgets. Always with a preview step before anything changes.
02
Setup in 5 steps
From a fresh AdPlug account to Claude running real queries against your Google Ads data takes about five minutes.
Create your AdPlug account
Go to adplug.app/signup. Sign in with Google or email, answer three short onboarding questions, and you land on the AdPlug dashboard.
AdPlug sign-up. One click with Google or email and you are in. Connect Google Ads to AdPlug
On your AdPlug dashboard, click Connect Google Ads (or open the Connections page). AdPlug walks you through the Google OAuth flow with read and write scopes for the Google Ads API. Use the Google identity that has access to the accounts you want Claude to see.
From the AdPlug dashboard, click Connect Google Ads to start the OAuth flow. If you manage clients through a Google Ads manager (MCC), connect the manager identity. AdPlug auto-resolves the manager link when running mutations on child accounts, so a single connection covers your whole hierarchy. Agencies running multi-client books should also see Google Ads MCP for agencies for MCC reporting and approval flows.
Google Ads connected. The card shows the authorising email and the date you connected. Add the Google Ads connector to Claude
Back on your AdPlug dashboard, AdPlug now points you at the next step: connecting your AI assistant. Each platform shows a ready-to-paste MCP server URL. Copy the Google Ads only URL (the one ending in
/mcp/google-ads).
AdPlug surfaces a copy-ready Google Ads MCP server URL once your account is linked. In a new browser tab, open claude.ai/customize/connectors and click Add custom connector, or jump straight to the modal at claude.ai/customize/connectors?modal=add-custom-connector.
Name the connector Google Ads — AdPlug (or whatever you want), paste the server URL below, and click Add.
https://api.adplug.app/mcp/google-ads
The Claude Add custom connector modal. Name on top, server URL below, then Add. The same URL also works in Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code with GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and any other MCP client that supports Streamable HTTP and Dynamic Client Registration. For background on Claude's connector model, see Anthropic's MCP connector docs.
Authorise Claude to use AdPlug
After clicking Add, the modal closes and a new connector tile appears. Click Connect on the tile. Claude opens a popup, sign in with the same email you used on AdPlug, then click Approve on the AdPlug authorise screen.
The AdPlug authorise screen. Click Approve to grant Claude access to your AdPlug account. The connector turns Connected and the 16 Google Ads MCP tools become available in any new Claude chat.
Test the connection in Claude
Open a new chat in Claude with the Google Ads — AdPlug connector enabled and paste this prompt:
“List my google ads accounts.”
Claude calls the
google_ads_list_accountstool and returns the accounts you have access to, with currencies, timezones, and the MCC hierarchy. If you see your accounts listed, the Google Ads MCP is working end-to-end.
Claude responding to the test prompt with your live Google Ads account list. If Claude returns zero accounts or a permission error, jump to Troubleshooting.
03
What you can ask Claude
These prompts work out of the box once your account is connected. Replace the example account name with your own, or let Claude pick. More patterns, including weekly checklists and pacing checks, live on the PPC specialists page.
Audit an account
“Audit my Google Ads account for HomeStagingAI. Flag campaigns with no conversion tracking, ad groups with zero impressions in the last 30 days, and anything with quality score below 5.”
Cross-account spend report
“Pull last 30 days spend, conversions, cost per conversion, and ROAS across all my Google Ads accounts. Sort by spend descending.”
Campaign performance
“Show me last 30 days performance for all enabled campaigns in HomeStagingAI. Include impressions, clicks, CTR, average CPC, conversions, and conversion rate.”
Keyword research
“Suggest keyword ideas around “virtual home staging in London”. Include average monthly searches, competition, and top of page CPC.”
Add negative keywords
“Find search terms with more than $50 spent and zero conversions in the last 60 days. Preview adding them as campaign-level negatives, then I will confirm before you execute.”
Find wasted spend
“Across all my accounts, find keywords with cost per conversion more than 3x the campaign average over the last 30 days. List the worst 20.”
Optimise campaigns
“Pause campaigns with ROAS below 1.5 over the last 14 days that have spent at least $200. Preview the change first.”
See it in action
04
Privacy and security
AdPlug stores the minimum needed to make your connection work: your account email, Google identity, and an encrypted refresh token for the Google Ads API.
Encryption at rest
Refresh tokens are encrypted with Fernet (AES-128-CBC + HMAC-SHA256) before they hit the database. AdPlug does not store ad creatives, click-level data, or cached report exports.
Authentication uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and Dynamic Client Registration. Every MCP request is verified against a Supabase-issued JWT before any Google Ads API call is made. Disconnecting from the AdPlug dashboard revokes the token and stops Claude's access immediately.
Full detail in the Privacy Policy, Data Processing Agreement, and Google API disclosure.
05
Troubleshooting
Click any item to expand the answer.
Claude says USER_PERMISSION_DENIED on a report
The Google identity you connected does not have access to the customer ID Claude tried to query. Open ads.google.com, confirm the email has at least Read Only access on the account, then retry. If you only have access via an MCC manager, run the prompt without specifying an account ID and let Claude list accessible accounts first.
The connector shows zero accounts
You connected a Google identity that has no Google Ads access. Disconnect from the dashboard, then reconnect with the email that owns or manages your accounts.
OAuth window does not open in Claude.ai
Some browsers block popups for the auth flow. Allow popups for
claude.ai and try again. If you are on a managed device, your IT policy may block third-party OAuth, so contact your admin to allow the AdPlug connector.A mutation says preview is required
Write tools always run a preview step first. Ask Claude to preview the change, then say execute (or run with the preview token) to apply it. This is by design and protects against accidental writes.
Hitting the monthly request limit
Each call to a tool counts as one request. If you regularly hit the free or Pro cap, upgrade from the dashboard. The cap resets on the first of every month.
Claude returns stale data
Google Ads API data lags real time by a few hours for some metrics. For same-day reporting, request a date range that ends “yesterday” or older. Cost and conversion finalisation can take up to 24 hours.
06
Track your usage
Every tool call is logged to your AdPlug Usage & Audit Log. You can see how many calls you have left this month, watch the audit trail in real time, and search for individual tool runs to confirm what Claude actually did on your behalf.
If a Claude prompt does not return what you expected, the audit trail is the fastest way to see which tool ran, how long it took, and whether it returned an error.
07
Get help
Email support@adplug.app with bug reports, feature requests, or setup questions. Most replies come back the same business day.
The AdPlug status indicator at the bottom of every page turns amber when something is wrong with the API.