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Access levels

Access levels are the roles in a Google Ads account that decide what each user can see and change, from receiving emails to managing other users.

How it works

Everyone invited to a Google Ads account gets one of five levels:

  • Email only receives notifications and reports.
  • Billing handles payments and billing information.
  • Read only views campaigns and runs reports, but cannot edit campaigns.
  • Standard edits campaigns.
  • Only Admin gives access beyond Email only, changes access levels, accepts or unlinks manager accounts and adds or removes product links.

So the Admins control the account, even when someone else runs the campaigns. Google warns that an account with a single Admin can lose access to its tags if that person becomes unavailable. For a five-minute check, see who owns your Google Ads account.

Apps and AI agents connected through the Google Ads API get the access level of the Google account they sign in with: the API has no separate read-only scope.

Where you see it

  • Google Ads: Admin → Access and security, the “Access level” column; the Managers tab shows linked manager accounts and the owner.
  • GetProfit portal: it can read your data through a separate Google account set to Read only. The step-by-step guide shows how.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop’s two co-owners are Admins. The contractor running its campaigns has Standard: they edit campaigns but cannot change access levels or unlink manager accounts. The accountant has Billing; the reporting tool uses a separate account set to Read only.

Not to be confused with

  • Manager account (MCC) — a linked account, not a user. Its admins can manage your campaigns. If it owns your account, its admins can also edit your users; a manager that creates an account becomes its owner automatically.
  • Merchant Center access — a separate list of people with its own access types.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “We pay for the account, so we control it.” Right: control belongs to the Admins and to a manager account with ownership. Check that your own team holds Admin.
  • Wrong: “The AI agent only reads, because we told it to.” Right: what stops it from making changes is the access level of the account it signs in with, such as Read only.

Sources