Google Ads MCP — with write operations

An MCP server that lets Claude (or any MCP client) read and change a Google Ads account.

This is a rebuilt fork of cohnen/mcp-google-ads. The original is query-only — it exposes 12 read tools and cannot modify anything. Google's own googleads/google-ads-mcp is read-only too: it wraps GAQL search and resource metadata, with no mutate operations at all.

So if you want an agent that actually manages campaigns — pauses ads, updates budgets, pushes negative keywords — neither of those will do it. This fork adds that layer.

What's different from upstream:

• 16 write tools built on a shared _mutate() helper (upstream had none)
• Google Ads API v19 → v24 (v19 and v20 are deprecated)
• Credentials are read from .env everywhere — no hardcoded secrets, and .gitignore actually covers them (upstream's last entry was glued together by a missing newline, so it matched nothing)
• Helper scripts: OAuth re-authorization, a standalone GAQL runner for debugging

Tools

Read — run_gaql, execute_gaql_query (arbitrary GAQL), get_campaign_performance, get_ad_performance, get_ad_creatives, get_image_assets, download_image_asset, get_asset_usage, analyze_image_assets, get_account_currency, list_accounts, list_resources

Write — create_campaign, create_ad_group, create_rsa_ad, add_keywords, update_keyword_status, add_negative_keywords, remove_negative_keywords, create_shared_negative_set, add_to_shared_negative_set, attach_shared_set_to_campaign, update_campaign_status, update_ad_status, update_campaign_budget, update_campaign_geo_targeting, add_sitelink_extensions, add_callout_extensions

Not covered — keyword/ad-group level bids, bidding strategies, Performance Max assets, audiences, ad scheduling. Do those in the UI, or extend _mutate().

What you need

1. Google Ads developer token — MCC account → Tools → API Center. A fresh token starts at Test level, which only sees test accounts; request Basic access to work against live accounts.
2. OAuth client ID + secret — Google Cloud Console → create a project → enable the Google Ads API → APIs & Services → Credentials → Create OAuth client ID → type Desktop app.
3. Refresh token — you don't get this by hand; reauth.py generates it (step 3 below).

Setup

python3 -m venv .venv && ./.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

cp .env.example .env          # fill in the developer token and OAuth pair from above

./.venv/bin/python reauth.py  # opens a browser for consent, writes client_secret.json

Then point your MCP client at it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-ads": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/google_ads_server.py"],
      "env": { "GOOGLE_ADS_AUTH_TYPE": "oauth" }
    }
  }
}

Everything else is picked up from .env — the server loads it via python-dotenv.

Helper scripts

File	Purpose
reauth.py	get or refresh the OAuth refresh token when it expires
gaql_rest.py	run a GAQL query straight over REST, bypassing MCP — handy for debugging
pause_ads.py	example: bulk-pause ads by ID
gaql-google-ads-query-language.mdc	GAQL syntax cheatsheet

Secrets

They live in .env and client_secret.json only. Both are gitignored — don't commit them. If you add your own scripts, pull values with os.getenv(); never inline them.

License

MIT, inherited from cohnen/mcp-google-ads (Copyright © 2025 Ernesto Cohnen — ixigo). See LICENSE. Modifications © 2026 Vlad Petruk.