Upcoming Google Ads change – switching user accounts and account settings to a business email

Google Ads is rolling out a new feature that allows the account administrator to request its users to switch from a regular personal email address (for example [email protected]) to a business email address (for example [email protected]). We are making this change to improve account security and reduce potential surface for abuse. This is an informational post to highlight how this feature could affect the Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts developers.

To use this feature, the account administrator sends a request to an account user from the Google Ads UI to switch their personal email to a business email. If the user accepts, then the following steps are bundled behind the scenes:

• A business email address is added to the Google Ads account.
• A grace period of one month starts, where both the personal email address and business email address are active users in the Google Ads account.
• The personal email address is removed from the Google Ads account at the end of the grace period.

Refer to our help center guide to learn more about this feature.

As a developer, you may need to do the following additional steps:

1. If the user has authorized your application to make API calls to the Google Ads account using their personal email address, then the OAuth 2.0 refresh token will stop working once the personal email address is removed from the Google Ads account. You need to authorize the user with the new business email address.
2. This change only works with Google Ads accounts. If the user manages other accounts, such as Google Analytics or Google Merchant Center, then the email address needs to be switched manually in those accounts. See the help center page for a more comprehensive list of locations where you might have to make a change.
3. If you have authorized and scheduled Google Ads Scripts with the personal email address, you need to authorize the scripts with the business email address after this change.

If you have any questions or need help, check out the Google Ads API support page or Google Ads scripts support page for options.

 - Anash P. Oommen, Google Ads API Team