Connect Google Ads

Connecting Google Ads lets Pace read your campaigns and act on your budgets. It adjusts daily budgets and pauses or enables campaigns to keep your spend on track. This walkthrough covers the Google-specific details: the access you need, the sign-in flow, manager accounts, and connecting more than one person. For the generic connect flow shared across every platform, see how to connect your first account.

What you'll need

A seat in your Pace workspace. Any member can connect.
A Google account with write access (Standard or Admin) to the Google Ads accounts you want managed. Pace can pause campaigns or change budgets only where your sign-in has write access; read-only access won't allow pacing.
A few minutes.

Permissions required: Any workspace member can connect Google Ads, and add or reconnect a person's Google sign-in. Removing someone's sign-in is for owners and admins.

Open Linked Accounts in Pace.
In the platform tabs at the top, select Google Ads.
On the Google Ads card, select Connect Google Ads. Pace sends you to Google's own sign-in screen.
Google asks which account to use. Choose the Google account that can reach the ad accounts you want, then approve the requested access on Google's consent screen.

You never type your Google password into Pace. Once you approve, Pace returns you to Linked Accounts, syncs the accounts you can reach, and the Google Ads card shows Connected.

Link the accounts you want managed

Connecting and linking are two separate steps. Signing in imports no accounts on its own. Pace lists everything you can reach as Unlinked, and nothing is managed until you link it.

Open the Unlinked tab. Use Search accounts... if the list is long.
Tick the accounts you want Pace to manage.
Select Link. They move to the Linked tab.

Manager accounts and sub-MCCs

Sign in with a manager account (MCC) and Pace fetches its child ad accounts for you. The MCC itself isn't a manageable account. Only the ad accounts under it are, so those are what you link. In the Linked and Unlinked lists, Pace groups accounts under their manager, with a header like Acme MCC — 123-456-7890. Groups larger than ten accounts start collapsed.

Nested sub-MCCs work too. Pace discovers accounts several layers deep beneath your top-level manager. Sign in once with the manager account you already use, and Pace reaches every ad account below it. You don't authorise each sub-MCC separately, so there's nothing extra to configure for agency structures.

If two people on your team reach the same client through different manager accounts, that's fine. Pace remembers each person's route to each account and uses the right one for whoever it's working through.

Connect more than one Google account

A Pace workspace can hold several people's Google sign-ins at once. If different people on your team can see different clients in Google Ads, connect each of them and Pace works with everyone's access.

This helps when no single login sees every client. Plenty of agencies split Google Ads access that way on purpose, or keep clients under more than one manager account. Connect each person, and the accounts you can add in Pace cover everyone's access between them.

Open Linked Accounts and select Google Ads.
On the Google Ads card, select Manage profiles.
Select Add another profile.
Google shows its account chooser. Pick the person you're adding, or choose Use another account and sign in as them. Then approve the access.
The new person appears in Manage profiles with a green Connected badge.

Your browser stays signed in to Google between visits, so check who's selected in the account chooser before you continue. Choosing someone who's already connected refreshes their sign-in and doesn't add anyone new.

If your Google Ads connection was set up before Pace recorded whose it is, Add another profile stays unavailable until that connection is reconnected once. Ask the person who set it up to open Manage profiles, select Reconnect on their row, and sign in as themselves. After that, you can add more people. If that person has left, anyone who can reach the same ad accounts in Google Ads can reconnect it instead, and the connection becomes theirs.

Each person you add widens the list under Unlinked. It shows every Google Ads account any connected person can reach, with duplicates removed. If Pace can't finish checking one person's access at that moment, it says so above the list, so you know the list may be short. Pace checks again when you come back to the page in a few minutes. If it keeps happening, reconnect that person from Manage profiles.

What the name badges mean

Once two or more people are connected, each row on the Linked tab carries a small badge naming who Pace reaches that account through. Hover a badge to see that person's email. Two people can be named on the same account when both have access. Rows show up to two names, then a +N badge for the rest.

Name badges appear on linked accounts only, never on the Unlinked tab. With only one person connected, no name badges appear.

Pace only uses a person's Google access for accounts that person can reach. It never falls back to someone who isn't named on the account.

"No Google profile" on an account

This badge means no connected person can reach that account any more, usually because the person who could was removed, or lost access in Google Ads. Pace stops pacing it until that's resolved. It can appear even when only one person is connected.

To fix it, open Manage profiles, select Add another profile, and connect someone who has access to that account in Google Ads. Then open Linked Accounts on the Google Ads tab. Pace re-checks who can reach each account while the page loads, and the badge clears once that check finishes. If it's still there, come back to the page in a few minutes.

Hand the connection to a colleague

Once Pace knows whose a connection is, it stays tied to that person. Signing in as someone else through Connect Google Ads or Reconnect doesn't swap it over to them. Pace refuses that sign-in.

If Add another profile is unavailable, reconnect the existing login first, as described above.

To move the connection to a colleague:

Open Manage profiles and select Add another profile.
Sign in as your colleague and approve the access.
Select Disconnect on the original person's row. Pace lists any accounts only that person could reach before you confirm.

Remove one person

In Manage profiles, select Disconnect on that person's row. Pace checks what depends on them first and names any accounts that would be left with no connected Google profile, before you confirm with Remove profile. Nobody else's access changes, and nothing is transferred to anyone else. A removal can take a few minutes to apply everywhere.

Disconnect Google, from the card's ⋮ menu or the foot of Manage profiles, is different: it removes every connected Google person at once, after you confirm. Pace stops syncing and pacing your Google Ads accounts. When you reconnect, they come back once Pace re-checks them on the Linked Accounts page.

How you'll know it worked

The Google Ads card shows a green Connected badge, a line reading 1 profile connected (or the number you've added), and who connected it and since when. Below it, a note reads "Secured with OAuth 2.0. Your credentials are encrypted and tokens rotate automatically." OAuth 2.0 is the standard "sign in with Google" method: Pace never sees your password, only a key Google hands it that Pace refreshes on its own. The accounts you chose sit under the Linked tab.

When a sign-in stops working

If a connected person's Google sign-in stops working, for example because their Google account was closed or someone removed Pace from it, Pace sends one alert. It goes to the bell and to your workspace's alert email recipients. On Pro and above, it also goes to your default Slack channel if Slack is connected. The alert names the person by email and says which linked accounts use their login.

You get it once per outage. It has no on/off switch, because the account can't be paced until someone reconnects. The Google Ads card shows a banner that points you to Manage profiles, where that person's row reads Needs attention. Any linked account that no working sign-in reaches shows Needs reconnecting. To fix it, open Manage profiles, find the person marked Needs attention, and select Reconnect. Google usually suggests that person in the account chooser. Everyone else's accounts keep running, and your pacing settings stay as they are.

If something goes wrong

You declined access on Google's screen. You'll see "You declined access to Google Ads. Reconnect whenever you're ready." Select Connect Google Ads again and approve access.
The connection didn't complete. A "Couldn't connect Google Ads" message with a Try again button means something went wrong mid-flow. Select Try again.
"Different Google account". You signed in as someone other than the person Pace expected. That happens when you reconnect a row as the wrong person, or use Connect Google Ads as someone new when Pace already knows whose the existing connection is. When Pace knows who it expected, the message gives that person's email. Pick the right person in Google's account chooser and try again, or use Add another profile to connect this person alongside the others.
"Reconnect the existing Google login first". You selected Add another profile before Pace knew whose the existing connection is. Ask the person who first connected Google Ads to open Manage profiles and select Reconnect. Then add the new person.
"No access to your Google Ads accounts". The Google login you signed in with can't reach any of the ad accounts already linked in Pace. If those accounts have moved, unlink them and connect again. Otherwise ask the person who first connected Google Ads to reconnect.
"Couldn't verify Google Ads access". Pace couldn't finish checking this Google login. Nothing changed. Try again in a minute.
"Google is set up differently in another workspace". If this workspace's owner has another Pace workspace that reaches the same Google Ads accounts through a different Google login, Pace won't add a login here that would cut the other workspace off. If you're a member of that workspace, the message names it. Change Google in that workspace first, or email [email protected] and we'll help you sort it out.
"Google didn't confirm who was signing in". This shows under "Couldn't connect Google Ads" after Google's screen. It's almost always temporary, so try again in a minute.
"The sign-in took too long or was started in another tab". Start the connection again, and finish it in the same tab.
"Couldn't link those accounts yet". Pace couldn't finish checking your Google logins, so it can't confirm the accounts you picked. Wait a minute and select Link again.
The card shows Needs attention. If a connected person's sign-in has stopped working, the banner points you to Manage profiles (see When a sign-in stops working above). If some linked accounts have no connected person who can reach them, the banner offers Add accounts to re-check access (see "No Google profile" on an account above). For the full reconnect flow across platforms, see managing permissions and re-authentication.

If an account connects but doesn't appear or update, see why your ad account isn't syncing.

Your credentials stay protected

You never share your Google password with Pace. You approve access on Google's own sign-in screen. Pace holds the access key Google returns on its server, stored encrypted and kept separately for each workspace. That key is never sent to your browser, never put in a web address, and never written into Pace's activity logs. Each connected person's access is stored separately, and removing one leaves the others untouched.

Every request to Google Ads runs through Pace's servers, so your browser never contacts Google Ads directly. Pace renews its own access automatically, so you won't have to reconnect routinely.

Connect Google Ads

What you'll need