Connect Google Ads to Adswave
How the Google Ads connection works: the one Ads API scope, which cannot be read-only, the three read endpoints Adswave calls, manager accounts, reconnecting and revoking.
Adswave reads Google Ads through the official Google Ads API, signed in with your Google account. This page covers what you will see during the connection, which accounts to use, and how to undo it.
What the consent screen asks for
Google's Ads API has exactly one scope, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords,
and it covers reading and writing. There is no read-only variant for any tool
to request, so the consent screen will say Adswave can manage your campaigns.
Adswave does not: it calls three endpoints, all reads, and no mutate endpoint
is reachable from the product. Alongside the Ads scope, the sign-in also asks
for your basic Google identity (openid, email and profile). Why Google Ads asks for full access
lists them and explains how to check.
Which Google account to use
Sign in with the account that already sees the ad accounts you want in Adswave.
For an agency that is usually the manager (MCC) account login. Each organisation
has one Google Ads connection, so every account you want must be reachable from
that one login. Adswave calls customers:listAccessibleCustomers to find the
accounts it can reach, lists the enabled client accounts under a manager, and
you pick the ones to link to each client.
Plan limits set how many Google accounts each client can have linked: one on Basic, two on Standard, three on Pro.
Steps
- Open Connections in the dashboard and choose Connect for Google Ads. Only owners and admins can connect or disconnect.
- Sign in with the Google account described above and approve the request.
- Wait for the status to show connected. Adswave completes the token exchange in the background; the page refreshes itself.
- Go to Clients, open a client, and link the Google Ads accounts that belong to it.
Reconnecting
Tokens expire or get revoked on Google's side from time to time. When that happens the dashboard shows a reconnect dialog, and the pacing view marks Google Ads data as unavailable on the affected clients. Repeat the connect step from Connections; nothing else needs to change.
Revoking access
Disconnecting Google in Adswave revokes the token at Google and destroys the stored secret versions, rather than disabling them. Figures already held in memory expire on their own, within 30 minutes (24 hours for spend windows that ended more than 28 days ago). You can also remove Adswave from your Google Account under third-party access; Adswave will then ask you to reconnect.
What Adswave stores
Credentials are stored in Google Cloud Secret Manager, never in the database. There is no table of spend or performance data and no nightly import: figures are fetched when a view needs them and cached in memory, for 5 to 30 minutes (24 hours for spend windows that ended more than 28 days ago). The database does keep your account structure, budgets, and the values recorded when an alert fires. The security page describes this in detail.
Troubleshooting
- No accounts listed after connecting. The Google login used has no access to any ad account or manager account. Reconnect with a different login.
- An account is missing. It is not reachable from the login you used, or it is a manager account rather than a client account. Adswave links client accounts.
- Status stays on connecting. Wait a minute and refresh. If it persists, disconnect and connect again, then contact support.