What a Google Ads manager account (MCC) is, and how to create one for your agency

A Google Ads manager account (MCC) is a separate Google Ads account that lets you view and manage multiple Google Ads accounts, including other manager accounts, from one sign-in. You create it from Google's manager account homepage with Go to Manager Accounts, give it the name your clients will see, and pick a country, plus a time zone and a currency that cannot be changed later. It is not an upgrade of an existing account, and it counts toward the 20 Google Ads accounts one email address can have.

This page is for agencies and freelancers setting one up, and for clients who have been asked to accept one and want to know what it can do. The steps to link a client's account are in our manager link guide.

What a manager account is, and what it is not

Google's overview describes it as an umbrella account with individual Google Ads accounts linked under it. For access, these points matter:

• It is a new account. Google says it isn't an upgrade of your Google Ads account. Your agency's own advertising account, if you have one, stays as it is and can be linked under the manager.
• Links, not passwords. A client account is linked to the manager account, and your team works in it from the manager with their own sign-ins.
• Clients see only their own account. Google says users of a client account don't get access to the manager account, or to the other accounts linked to it, and that admins of a client account can unlink at any time.
• Some things stay with the client. Google says a manager can't change proprietary information of a client account, such as its sign-in information.
• Monthly invoicing needs one. Google says a manager account is required for accounts that use monthly invoicing.

Create one

Google's creation article gives these steps:

1. Go to the Google Ads manager account homepage and select Go to Manager Accounts.
2. Sign in with the email you want to manage the new manager account with.
3. Give the manager account a name. Google says this is the name your clients will find in their client account, and URLs are no longer accepted in account names.
4. Choose how you plan to use it: to manage your own Google Ads accounts, or other people's accounts.
5. Select your country and time zone. The time zone is used for reporting and billing and cannot be changed.
6. Select a permanent currency. Client accounts are still billed in their own currencies.
7. Select Explore your account.

Three choices are worth making on purpose:

• The name. Clients check a link request by this name before they accept it, so use the agency's real trading name.
• The address you sign in with. Use a named person's address on the agency's own domain. Google says shared agency logins are not compatible with passkeys, which Google Ads can ask for before linking accounts and changing users, and it is piloting a rule that blocks free addresses such as gmail.com from those actions.
• Time zone and currency. Neither can be changed later.

If the sign-up fails, Google's own checklist is short: check that you are signed in with the right Google account, check your connection, clear the browser's cache and cookies, try another browser, then contact Google Ads support.

To add a sub-manager later, for a team or a group of clients, open the manager account, select the Accounts icon, then Sub-account settings, select the blue plus button and choose Create new manager account.

What linking a client gives you, and what it does not

What the client's side keeps (history, sign-in, users, billing) is in our manager link guide, with the steps on both sides. The part that matters when you set up your own team is what your people can do in a linked account. Google's linking introduction says your manager account does not get administrative ownership by default, and its manager access levels article spells out what that means for your admins:

• Without ownership, they can view, edit and manage the client's account, and do a few user tasks: invite users with Standard, Read only or Email only access, and switch users between Standard and Read only.
• They cannot add new admin users, remove other manager accounts or reactivate the account. For those, Google says the manager account needs ownership, or the person has to sign in to the client's account directly as an admin.

Ownership is something an admin on the client's account turns on for one manager under Admin > Access and security > Managers. Google recommends it only when the manager needs those rights.

Creating a client's account under your manager: who owns it

You can also create a new Google Ads account from inside the manager account: Accounts icon, Sub-account settings, the plus button, then Create new account. Google links it automatically.

The difference from linking matters later. Google's ownership article says a manager that creates an account automatically becomes its owner. Ownership is transitive: every manager above yours owns it too. The owner's admins can invite and remove the account's admins, accept or decline other managers' link requests and unlink other managers.

If the account is meant to be the client's, set it up so the client can leave without your help:

• Invite a client person as Admin on the new account. Google needs at least one admin user on the account before an owner manager can turn ownership off, and refuses any change that leaves an account with neither an admin user nor an owner manager.
• Know how ownership moves. Admins of the owner manager can transfer ownership to another manager account or remove it. The client's own users cannot transfer ownership, but they can always unlink your manager, and then turn ownership on for a different one.
• Billing between agencies. When a client later moves to another agency and the account is billed through your manager, Google's Change Who Pays process (in beta) is started by the previous agency, which is you. See Google's transfer article.

Your own team's access levels

Google's manager access levels give five levels to people on your manager account:

• Administrative: everything in the manager account, including linking accounts, accepting link requests, inviting and removing users. Sending a link request needs this level; without it Google shows "You need administrative access to perform this action."
• Standard: view, edit and manage everything except those administrative tasks, in the manager account and in linked client accounts.
• Read only: browse the manager account, and browse and run reports in linked client accounts.
• Email only: receive notification emails.
• Billing: view and edit billing information.

Give Administrative to the people who link and unlink clients, and Standard to the people who run campaigns. Google says what a person can do in a linked client account depends on two things: their level on your manager account, and whether your manager account owns that client account.

Limits

These come from Google's help pages:

• One email address can have up to 20 Google Ads accounts, manager accounts included.
• A manager account can be linked to up to 85,000 non-manager accounts, counting active, inactive and canceled ones. How many can be active depends on the highest monthly spend of all client accounts over the last 12 months. A new manager account with no spend can have 50 active accounts.
• A manager account can have up to 20 pending link requests.
• A client account can have up to five managers linked directly; a manager account can have only one manager directly above it.
• A client account can be linked only once within the same hierarchy.

Keep it secure

One sign-in to a manager account reaches every client account linked to it, so a person who gets into an admin's sign-in can reach all of them. Google gives you these controls:

• Security mandates. On your manager account, open Admin > Access and security, then the "Security" tab. Under Authentication, select 2-Step Verification, choose "This manager account and all accounts it owns", pick the date it is required from (it defaults to 7 days ahead) and click Save. Under Allowed domains, Add domain restricts which email domains can be invited. Google says mandates apply to the accounts your manager has administrative ownership over, and an owned account can be stricter but never weaker; it does not describe them reaching accounts that are only linked. Admins of the owned accounts get an email and a banner in Google Ads.
• Passkeys, one person each. Google Ads can ask for a passkey before sensitive actions such as linking accounts or changing users. Google says a passkey can't be shared, and that agencies should move to individual user access: each employee invited with their own address.
• A second admin. On accounts with more than three administrators, Google asks another administrator to approve sensitive changes, including a manager linking an existing account. See our multi-party approval guide.
• Few admins. Keep Administrative access to the people who need it, and remove people who leave.

Before you send your first request, the client needs your manager account's name and you need their customer ID. Our page on finding the customer ID shows where it is, and the access checklist covers the rest of a new client's accounts.