How to give an agency access to Google Merchant Center

To give an agency access to Google Merchant Center, go to Access and services, open the People and access tab, select Add person, enter the agency person's email, choose Standard and select Add user. They accept from Google's email. If the agency uses Merchant Center for Agencies, which Google says is available on a limited basis, it sends a link request instead, and you approve it on the same page under Partners.

This guide is for the shop that owns the Merchant Center account. Both routes are described below, and both leave the account in your hands.

Two ways in

• Add a person. You invite one agency person by email and choose their access type. This works for every Merchant Center account.
• Approve an agency link. The agency has a Merchant Center for Agencies account and sends a request from it. You approve it once, and the agency then decides which of its own people work on your account. Google's article on Merchant Center for Agencies describes it as available on a limited basis, so not every agency has it.

If you do not know which one your agency uses, ask it for an email address. If it answers that it will send a request, wait for the request.

Add a person

Google's people and access article gives these steps:

1. Go to Access and services in your Merchant Center account. It is also under Settings in the left menu.
2. In the People and access tab, under People, select Add person.
3. Enter the agency person's email address.
4. On the next page, choose the access type: Admin or Standard.
5. Select Add user.

The agency person gets an email asking them to accept. Their access shows as pending until they do. The email address must be linked to a Google account.

Approve an agency link request

When an agency asks for access from its Merchant Center for Agencies account, Google tells your account's admin in two places: by email, and on the People and access page under the Partners table. The admin approves or rejects it there.

If you approve, the agency gets the access level it asked for. Google offers two:

• Admin: full administrative control of your Merchant Center account.
• Standard + performance and insights: standard access plus the performance reports.

After approval, the agency's individual people are not listed on your People and access page. You see the agency as one partner, and you can remove it from the Partners section at any time. If someone at the agency is already an Admin on your account, Google approves the link without asking you.

Google's article tells agencies that Admin is the recommended level for them, because it lets them change access without asking you again. That is convenient for the agency. As the owner, you can ask for the Standard level instead if the agency does not need to manage people on your account.

What each access type allows

Google's descriptions:

• Admin: can add, remove and edit people. Only admins can add or remove apps and stores.
• Standard: can sign in and use nearly everything, including product and feed edits, website verification and account settings such as the business address. Cannot manage people, add or remove apps and stores, work with reports, view performance insights, turn on programs, or link Google Ads accounts.
• Read-only: can see what a Standard user sees, but cannot change account settings or product data.
• Email-only: no access to the account. Receives emails based on preferences.
• Performance and insights: can read, change and delete custom reports, and read the predefined dashboards and reports.

Google also lists roles for super admins (people from a connected Business Manager), the YouTube Shopping affiliate program and API developers. This guide does not cover them.

Which access to give

For an agency that manages your product feed, Standard is the right start. It covers the feed and product work and keeps people and links with you.

Standard does not include reports or linking Google Ads. If the agency needs reports, Google lists Performance and insights as its own access type. If Merchant Center has to be linked to your Google Ads account for Shopping ads, an Admin on each side does that link (see below), and you can do it yourself instead of making the agency an Admin.

Linking Merchant Center to Google Ads

Shopping ads need a link between Merchant Center and the Google Ads account. Google's linking article says only an admin in Merchant Center can start the link and only an admin on the Google Ads account can approve it. If one person is admin on both, the link is approved at once. A Google Ads manager account cannot be linked to Merchant Center, so the link goes to your own Google Ads account, not the agency's manager account.

To give the agency access to Google Ads itself, see how to give an agency access to your Google Ads account.

Troubleshooting

The agency person shows as pending

They have not accepted Google's email yet. Ask them to look for it, including in spam, and to accept with the address you invited.

The address cannot be added

Google says email addresses must be linked to a Google account. The agency person can create a Google account with their work address, or send you one that already is.

You cannot add people

Only an Admin can add, remove or edit people. Ask an admin on the account, or the super admin of the connected Business Manager.

The agency says it will send a request, but none arrives

Merchant Center for Agencies is available on a limited basis. If your agency cannot send a request, use Add person instead.

Remove access later

To remove a person:

1. Go to Access and services, then the People and access tab.
2. Under People, select Manage next to the person.
3. Under Account Status, select Remove person.

Check first that your website verification is not tied to that person. Google warns that removing them would also remove your verification and claim, and you would have to verify and claim the website again with someone else. To remove an agency that came in through a link, use the Partners section of the People and access page.

The last admin cannot remove themselves while no other admin exists. See how to remove an old agency's access for the other platforms.

Doing it with an access link

Our access link covers the first route on this page, adding a person, as a guided step. It shows the steps beside Merchant Center's own screen, with the agency's Google account to copy. Nobody signs in through the link for this: you add the person and say when it is done, and the agency confirms once it has accepted Google's email. What an agency can ask for is on the Merchant Center integration page.