Google Ads Manager Account (MCC): What It Is, Who Needs One and How to Link Clients

The name confuses people. It sounds like a setting you switch on inside your own account, and it isn't. It's a different account that sits above your clients' accounts like an umbrella, and that one fact explains most of the questions people ask about it.

What a manager account gives you

Google lists these benefits on its help page:

• A single sign-in to all your client accounts.
• One dashboard to search and move between them.
• Creating and managing client campaigns from the manager account itself.
• Comparing performance and running reports across accounts.
• Linking to a payments profile for monthly invoicing.
• Alerts so you can keep an eye on linked accounts.
• Creating new accounts and linking existing ones from inside it.
• Giving different people different access levels.

For a freelancer, the first and last points are the ones you'll feel straight away: no more juggling logins, and you can give a junior or a contractor access to some client work without handing over everything.

It isn't an upgrade of your current account

Google puts it plainly: a manager account isn't an upgrade of your Google Ads account. It's an entirely new Google Ads account you create, and your individual accounts are then linked to it. You can link new accounts, existing accounts and even other manager accounts.

That's good news in practice. Your own advertising account stays just as it was, with its own campaigns and its own spend, and the manager account becomes the place you work on clients from. Your spend and theirs don't get mixed up, which is the whole point.

What a manager account can't do

There are limits, and they're there to protect the client. With a manager account you can't change proprietary information for a client account, such as its sign-in details. And if your manager account doesn't own the client account, the client's admin has to grant ownership before you can do certain things. Ownership is also what lets the manager account manage user access for that client account, so if you need to add or remove people on a client's account, ask for it.

Clients keep their privacy too. After linking, people who use the client account sign in as usual, and they don't get access to your manager account or to any other accounts linked to it. Users with administrative access can end the relationship at any time, so a client is never locked in.

The 20-account rule

This is the detail most people don't know until they hit it. Up to 20 Google Ads accounts, including manager accounts, can be associated with a single email address. Google's advice is that if you manage more than 20, or you want to monitor performance or track conversions across accounts, a manager account is probably the best option.

There's one more hard rule: a manager account is required for Google Ads accounts that use monthly invoicing. If a bigger client wants to be invoiced monthly rather than paying by card, the manager account isn't optional.

Question	Answer from Google's help page
Is it an upgrade?	No, it's an entirely new Google Ads account
Can it change a client's sign-in details?	No
Do clients see other clients?	No
How many accounts per email address?	Up to 20, including manager accounts
Monthly invoicing?	Needs a manager account
Can the client end the link?	Yes, users with administrative access can end it at any time

How to link a client account

Google's steps for linking an existing account are short. In your manager account, select the Accounts icon, open the Sub-account settings drop down, and enter the client's Customer ID. If you're linking several, put one Customer ID per line. Preview, then send the request.

The people with access to that client account then get an email invitation. Once they accept, you get a confirmation and the account links automatically. Nothing happens until they say yes, so the link is always the client's decision. If you're starting a brand new account for a client, you create it from the same menu inside the manager account.

Setting up a manager account, step by step

1. Create a new manager account. Remember it's a separate account, not a setting in your existing one.
2. Link existing client accounts by Customer ID, or create new ones from inside it.
3. Wait for each client's admin to accept the link request.
4. Ask for ownership where you need to manage user access on the client account.
5. Set access levels for your team and turn on alerts for the accounts you watch.

Managing many accounts? The desktop Editor makes bulk changes less painful.

Using a manager account with Google Ads Editor

If you make bulk changes in Google Ads Editor, the manager account saves you a lot of signing in and out. Google's Editor help says you can edit managed accounts by signing in with the manager account email, not the managed account's own login. You then download the client accounts you need and work on them from one place.

For campaigns that run across all channels, read about Performance Max.

Do you need a Google Ads manager account?

If you're a freelancer with two or three clients, you can survive without one, and plenty do. But the moment you're managing more than a handful, it's the sane way to work. One login, one dashboard, reporting across clients, and your clients' accounts kept separate from your own spend.

Just never treat it as a shortcut into someone's account. The link only happens when the client accepts, and that's how it should be. Once you're set up, it's worth running every account through a Google Ads health checklist and looking for the budget leaks small businesses miss. If you're comparing tools to run alongside it, here's my roundup of PPC management software.

Frequently asked questions

Is a Google Ads manager account the same as an MCC?

Yes. MCC is the older name. Google now calls it a manager account, and it lets you view and manage multiple Google Ads accounts from a single location.

Can I turn my existing Google Ads account into a manager account?

No. Google says a manager account isn't an upgrade of your Google Ads account. It's an entirely new account you create, and you then link your existing accounts to it.

Can my clients see each other in my manager account?

No. Users of client accounts sign in as usual and don't get access to the manager account or other accounts linked to it.

How many Google Ads accounts can one email address have?

Up to 20 Google Ads accounts, including manager accounts, can be associated with a single email address. Past that, Google suggests a manager account is probably the best option.