Troubleshoot Google Ads manager and client-account access
Separate sign-in success, developer-token access and customer-account permissions when Ads discovery fails.
Google Ads access has several layers. OAuth identifies and authorises the user, account permissions determine accessible customers, and API access also relies on the application’s developer token. A completed consent screen therefore does not guarantee a successful customer report.
Work through it, step by step.
Confirm the Google identity and the customer ID you expect to read. Distinguish a manager account from the client account whose campaigns hold the data.
Check the user’s account access and any manager relationship involved. Preserve the provider’s error category when a report request fails.
Verify application configuration with the service owner rather than sharing secrets in a support message. Retry a small account-discovery or read request after a confirmed correction.
Make it concrete.
A user can see a manager account but requests campaign data using the wrong customer context. The sign-in can succeed while the reporting request still needs the appropriate client-account selection.
What to keep in mind.
Reconnecting OAuth cannot fix every developer-token or account-access problem. Repeated consent attempts without reading the error can obscure the actual issue.
Your next useful step.
Record the account IDs, requested operation and sanitised error. Confirm a small successful report before running a broad campaign analysis.
Working with this in Liftaven
Work within one ad account, currency and reporting window at a time. Keep the conversion action definition beside the result. Liftaven supports read-only Google Ads analysis; campaign edits, experiments and measurement configuration belong in Google Ads or your tagging tools.
Explore the workspaceSources & context
This note combines original practical guidance with the reporting references below. Follow provider documentation for current definitions and availability; suggested investigations are not guarantees of a particular result.