Google Ads MCP: how to connect Google’s server to Claude

Is the Google Ads MCP server read-only?

By default it is not, despite the sentence on Google’s page.

Google Ads MCP server

Read-only. This implementation is strictly read-only. It cannot modify bids, pause campaigns, or create new assets.

The README lists seven tools, and three of them read: search, get_resource_metadata and list_accessible_customers.

The other four write: create_asset, upload_video_asset, manage_labels and manage_label_associations. Each one uses a step Google calls Propose and Confirm. The tool first returns a description of the change and a checksum, a code tied to that exact request. It runs only when that code comes back after your approval.

None of the seven can change a bid, pause a campaign or edit a budget. To lock the server to reading, set labels: false and assets: false in tools_config.yaml.

What access does the server need?

You need a Google Cloud project with Google Ads API access, an OAuth sign-in and a Google login that can see the account. OAuth is the “sign in with Google” window. Google’s token page says “We sunset developer tokens on September 9, 2026”, and that access levels are now “granted to your Google Cloud Console project”.

Explorer allows 2,880 production operations a day, which covers a single account’s reports. Google’s server page asks for Explorer, Basic or Standard, so a project on Test cannot read a real account.

Mind a fault Google lists: some projects upgraded after 9 September get AUTHORIZATION_ERROR on production calls. Google calls a new Cloud project with a fresh Explorer application a temporary workaround while its fix rolls out.

How to connect Google Ads to Claude

These steps follow Google’s README, for Claude Code. The server runs on your own machine.

1. Install pipx, the tool that runs the server, and Google’s gcloud command-line tool, which handles the sign-in.
2. In a Google Cloud project, enable the Google Ads API, then apply for Explorer on the API Overview page.
3. Create an OAuth client. Add the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords to the consent screen, and add yourself as a test user if it shows Testing. In Testing, Google’s audience rules let only listed test users sign in, and each sign-in expires after seven days.
4. Sign in, then copy the credentials path it prints:

gcloud auth application-default login \
  --scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform \
  --client-id-file=YOUR_CLIENT_JSON_FILE

5. Add the server under mcpServers in ~/.claude.json, or in a project’s .mcp.json. Google’s README names ~/.claude/settings.json, while Claude Code’s MCP docs name these two:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-ads-mcp": {
      "command": "pipx",
      "args": ["run", "--spec", "git+https://github.com/googleads/google-ads-mcp.git", "google-ads-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID": "YOUR_PROJECT_ID",
        "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS": "/path/to/credentials.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

6. Working through a manager account (MCC)? Add GOOGLE_ADS_LOGIN_CUSTOMER_ID to the same env block.
7. Restart, then ask Claude to list your accessible customers.

Claude on the web takes a longer road. A custom connector needs a server address on the internet, so you host this one on Cloud Run with an OAuth client. Google warns against deploying with --allow-unauthenticated without that client, since anyone could then use the container’s account.

One safety step costs nothing. The adwords scope covers reads and changes alike, so the read-only limit lives in the tool list. Sign in with a Google login whose Ads role is Read-only, and Google’s access rules stop campaign edits at the account itself.

What can the server read?

It reads anything GAQL can reach. GAQL (Google Ads Query Language) is Google’s reporting language, and Claude writes it for you. Campaigns, search terms, budgets, statuses and change history are all in reach through the search tool.

Use the Google Ads server. For the last 30 days, list search terms with spend and no conversions.
Sort by spend, show the top 50, and give spend in my account currency. Change nothing.

Check the money in the answer. The API returns amounts in micros, and Google’s reference sets one million micros to one unit of your currency. Ask Claude to show one conversion before you trust a table.

Your account data also goes to the model. The README says the server “will expose your data to the Agent or LLM that you connect to it”, which matters for client accounts.

Three jobs to hand over, three to keep

Reading is where this server earns its setup. Anything that moves money stays with you, and the server’s tools cannot do it anyway.

Smart Bidding is Google’s automatic bidding. A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad for a search.

Creatify’s Google Ads Agent drafts the changes for you

Creatify’s Google Ads Agent is a route for people who want the second half of that table done with a yes. Its pricing page lists Ad Agent for Meta, TikTok and AppLovin with no mention of Google, so check your plan with Creatify before you pay.

You sign in with Google, and owners or admins of your Creatify workspace pick the accounts, manager accounts included. It works through the official Google Ads API.

It reads search terms, impression share, Quality Score, auction insights and 30 days of change history. Every pause, budget, keyword or negative then shows on a card with the values before and after, and it runs after you approve. Cards you ignore expire after 72 hours. It never deletes.

Three limits sit on Creatify’s own page. It creates Search campaigns and adds new ads to existing ad groups, and it does not create Performance Max campaigns. It won’t draft keyword bids under “Maximize conversions”, target CPA or target ROAS. And scheduled routines “ask before acting unless you choose otherwise”, so leave that alone.

Creatify prices no action: the agent “runs on credits”. Users report that credits go faster than the pricing suggests, and name agent runs among the causes (15 of 61 sources: Trustpilot, Reddit).

Creatify is the wrong pick for a Search-only account with no video plans. Creatify itself says Google’s Recommendations and Ads Advisor overlap with its agent and are “free inside Google Ads”.

By its own account, the agent adds three things. It reads Google beside your other ad accounts, explains changes from your history and makes new ads in the same chat. AI media buyers compares the wider field.

Where video fits: Performance Max, Demand Gen and YouTube

Video is where Creatify’s agent goes past Google’s server. It can make a video and add it to an existing Performance Max asset group after you approve. Performance Max is Google’s all-channel campaign, and an asset group is its bundle of ads.

Its page does not mention Demand Gen or YouTube campaigns. For those, make the file in Creatify and carry it across yourself. Demand Gen is Google’s campaign for visual ads on YouTube, Discover and Gmail, and its video rules are firm:

• Videos must already be on YouTube. “You can’t upload an offline video”, though an unlisted video works.
• The minimum is 5 seconds, and “Videos shorter than 10 seconds won’t serve on YouTube In-stream.”
• Each ad takes 1 to 5 videos, and Google recommends 1080 by 1920 for YouTube Shorts.

Google’s server now helps with the middle step. In local mode, upload_video_asset sends a video file to YouTube, and create_asset registers it as an asset, each behind the confirm step. The tool list has no way to attach that asset to a campaign, so you finish in Google Ads.

Making a video ad in Claude or ChatGPT gets you the file from a chat. YouTube Shorts ads covers the format.

Questions about the Google Ads MCP server

Do I still need a developer token for the Google Ads MCP?

No. Google ended developer tokens on 9 September 2026. Access now follows the Google Cloud project behind your OAuth sign-in.

Is the Google Ads MCP server free?

Neither Google page names a price. You run the code yourself, and Cloud Run hosting bills through your Google Cloud account.

Can the Google Ads MCP pause a campaign or change a budget?

No. The README’s seven tools run queries and handle assets, labels and video uploads. None of them changes a bid, a campaign’s status or a budget.

Does it work with the Claude app as well as Claude Code?

Yes, with more work. Claude Code runs it locally from a config file. The Claude web app needs the server hosted on the internet with an OAuth client.

Can one setup reach several client accounts?

Yes. Set GOOGLE_ADS_LOGIN_CUSTOMER_ID to your manager account, and the server reaches the accounts under it that your login can see.

More pages for Creatify users, sorted by job, in the Creatify hub →