Google Ads

Connect direct and MCC-managed Google Ads customer accounts for read-only campaign, keyword, search-term, cost, and conversion analysis.

Connect Google Ads to analyze live advertising performance with GAQL queries. Better Analyst supports directly accessible customers and customers managed through a Google Ads manager account (MCC).

Prerequisites

  • A Google account with access to at least one Google Ads customer
  • An active Google Ads customer account or manager account

The connector cannot create campaigns, change budgets, edit ads, or perform any other mutation. It only uses the Google Ads Search endpoint.

Setup

  1. Open Connectors and choose Google Ads.
  2. Click Connect with Google and authorize Google Ads API access. Google provides one Google Ads OAuth scope rather than a narrower reporting-only scope; Better Analyst restricts its implementation to read-only account discovery and Search requests.
  3. Better Analyst discovers direct customers and traverses accessible MCC hierarchies.
  4. Select one or more serving customer accounts and click Save.
  5. Attach one Google Ads account to a chat or dashboard.

Manager accounts are shown to explain hierarchy but cannot be selected as serving accounts.

Permission and data use

Better Analyst requests these Google permissions:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords to discover accessible Google Ads customers and run the reports you request. Google does not provide a separate read-only reporting scope.
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email to label the connected Google account in connector settings.

The connector stores encrypted OAuth tokens, selected customer and manager metadata, saved GAQL queries, query audit records, and generated report artifacts. This information is used to answer your questions and rerun saved dashboard queries. Relevant report data may be processed by Better Analyst's hosting, storage, sandbox, and AI service providers as described in the Privacy Policy; it is not sold or used for advertising.

Disconnecting Google Ads removes Better Analyst's stored OAuth connection and selected customer connectors, which stops new API access. Existing chats, query logs, and generated reports remain subject to your normal retention settings. You can also revoke the grant from your Google Account connections.

Available reporting

  • Campaign and campaign-status performance
  • Ad-group and ad performance
  • Keyword and match-type reporting
  • Search-term reporting, subject to Google's privacy thresholds
  • Impressions, clicks, CTR, average CPC, and cost micros
  • Conversions, all conversions, and conversion value
  • Date, device, network, and compatible conversion segments

Google Ads fields must be compatible with the resource in the GAQL FROM clause. Better Analyst composes and corrects GAQL for you.

Dates, currency, and timezone

  • Rolling questions use supported GAQL ranges such as LAST_7_DAYS or LAST_30_DAYS and roll forward when a dashboard refreshes.
  • Literal ranges such as BETWEEN '2026-06-01' AND '2026-06-30' remain fixed on refresh.
  • Cost fields such as metrics.cost_micros are returned in micros; divide by 1,000,000 for currency units.
  • Better Analyst carries the selected customer's currency and timezone into analysis context.

Example questions

  • "Show campaign spend, clicks, conversions, and conversion value for the last 30 days"
  • "Which keywords spent more than $100 without a conversion?"
  • "Trend CPA and ROAS by week this quarter"
  • "Which search terms drove the most conversions?"
  • "Compare enabled campaigns by device"

Use in Data Flows

Google Ads can be the source of a Data Flow. Save a report once, then deliver it to Google Sheets or a database on a schedule.

Troubleshooting

Reconnect required

Open Connectors → Google Ads, reconnect the Google account, and select the customer again.

Account inaccessible

Confirm the signed-in Google user still has access to the customer. For MCC-managed customers, verify the manager relationship still exists.

Configuration error

If Google Ads reports a configuration error, contact support. You never need to share Google credentials or tokens in chat.

Invalid field combination

Google Ads enforces resource and segment compatibility. Retry with fewer fields, remove the incompatible segment, or split the question into separate reports.

Quota or throttling

Wait before retrying. Better Analyst paginates Search results and caps a single chat dataset at 250,000 rows. A Data Flow reads at most 100,000 rows per run, so narrow the date range or add filters before scheduling a large report.

Next steps