How Do I Get Admin Access to My Google Ads Account?

You pay for the ads, so the account should answer to you. But Google Ads does not care who pays. It cares which logins hold which access level. If a freelancer or an agency set the account up for you, their login may be the only one that can add people or change who is in charge.

Google has 5 access levels: Email-only, Billing, Read-only, Standard and Admin. Only Admin can give access, change access levels, accept or reject a manager link, and unlink a manager. So "I can log in" is not the same as "I control it". Read what you can and cannot do, and you already know most of the answer.

The fix is one invite. Someone who already has Admin adds your email at the Admin level. Here is how they do it, in Google's own steps. They open the Admin menu, then Access and security. They click the plus button, type your email, pick Admin, and click "Send invitation". You accept it from the email, and you are in.

If you are already in the account at a lower level, it is even faster. An admin finds you in the user list, points at your level in the Access level column, and picks Admin from the arrow.

Ask for Admin, not Standard. Standard can edit campaigns, but it cannot add people or unlink a manager. Those are the two things you need if you ever want to change who runs your ads.

If their manager account owns your account (Google calls this administrative ownership), the admins of that manager account can invite Admin users into yours. So the person to ask is whoever has Admin on their manager account.

Keep the message short and friendly. Something like: "Please add my email as Admin on our Google Ads account. Nothing else changes, I just need my own login." It costs them nothing, and Google itself suggests an account should have more than one admin.

Sometimes the only admin left the company, changed email, or stopped replying. Google's help page says that if you have lost all administrative access, you may need to contact an existing administrator or send Google an account access request.

So try the people first. Send one clear request in writing, and give a date. If that goes nowhere, contact Google Ads support and ask for access to your account. Have your customer ID and your billing details ready, so you can show the account is yours. Google does not publish how long this takes, so plan for it to be slow and keep your ads running while you wait.

One thing not to do: open a brand new account to get around it. You lose all the history, and your old account keeps spending if nobody pauses it.

Here is the rule I give every store owner, from running 400+ store accounts at ZenoX Media: you are always an admin on your own account, on an email you control. Then add a second admin, like a business partner. Google itself warns that with only one admin, you may lose access to your tags if that person becomes unavailable.

Next, look at the Managers tab under Access and security. If someone still runs your ads, leave their manager account linked. Linking is how they work. If you are ending the work, you can remove it yourself: find the manager and click "Remove access" in the Actions column, then confirm the unlink. Google says the people in your account cannot transfer ownership, but they can always unlink a manager that owns it.

Last, check who you pay. Keep billing on your own card or your own invoice, so your ads never stop because someone else stopped paying.

Scaley cannot get you access. That part is between you, your current admin and Google. Where Scaley helps is the next question every owner asks: "What has my money been doing?"

Scaley Media Buyer ($99/mo for all your stores + 1% of total ad spend) is the level for that. Disclosure: we build it. It connects to Google Ads read-only through Google's own sign-in, with no password shared. You ask "where is my money leaking?" and it reads your live campaigns, products and search terms and answers right away. It never changes a setting and never runs on its own.

There are two other levels, too. Scaley Consultant ($99/mo flat, for all your stores) connects to nothing. It reads screenshots and CSVs you upload, so it works even before you have Admin. Export the search terms report as a CSV and ask what to cut. Scaley Suite ($199/mo for all your stores + 4% of total ad spend) finds the fixes and queues each one with the reason. Only Scaley Suite writes to an account, and only after your yes on each change.

Media Buyer and Suite carry the Leak Guarantee. Every month, if the wasted ad spend Scaley shows you is smaller than that month's bill, we refund the whole bill. The conditions are in the questions below. Every level starts with a 3-day free trial, card required.