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Authorization and HTTP Headers

Video: Authentication

You need both OAuth 2.0 application credentials and a developer token when calling the Google Ads API. If you're making API calls with a Google Ads manager account, you also need to specify a login-customer-id header with each request. This page describes how to set these values and documents several additional API-specific HTTP headers that are sent and received when using the REST interface.

OAuth 2.0 credentials

The Google Ads API uses application credentials for identifying and authorizing API requests. Both OAuth 2.0 clients and service accounts can be configured. For more details about configuring client-side authorization, see OAuth2 in the Google Ads API.

If you are new to Google APIs, you can use oauth2l or the OAuth 2.0 Playground to experiment with application credentials and the Google Ads API before writing the code for your app.

Using desktop or web app flows

Follow the steps to configure a Google API Console project for the Google Ads API. Record the client ID and client secret, then come back to this page.

Once you've created an OAuth client, follow the desktop app flow instructions or the web app flow instructions to generate a refresh token and an access token.

Using service accounts

Follow the common instructions in the Service Accounts guide to set up service account access for the Google Ads API.

Once you've set up a service account to access your Google Ads account, follow the Using OAuth 2.0 for Server to Server Applications guide, making sure to select the HTTP/REST tab. The scope to use for Google Ads API access is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords.

Generating new access tokens

Once you have a client ID, client secret, and refresh token, you can generate a new access token for use in API calls with the curl command line tool:

curl \
  --data "grant_type=refresh_token" \
  --data "client_id=CLIENT_ID" \
  --data "client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET" \
  --data "refresh_token=REFRESH_TOKEN" \
  https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v3/token

You then use the access token returned by the curl request in the Authorization HTTP header of every API call to the Google Ads API:

GET /v18/customers:listAccessibleCustomers HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN

Request headers

Developer token

The Google Ads API also requires a developer token in order to make calls to the API. You can apply for a token for your manager account directly from the Google Ads UI. For more details about getting set up with a developer token, see Obtain Your Developer Token.

You need to include your developer token value in the developer-token HTTP header of every API call to the Google Ads API:

GET /v18/customers:listAccessibleCustomers HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN

Login customer ID

For Google Ads API calls made by a manager to a client account (that is, when logging in as a manager to make API calls to one of its client accounts), you also need to supply the login-customer-id HTTP header. This value represents the Google Ads customer ID of the manager making the API call.

Including this header is equivalent to choosing an account in the Google Ads UI after signing in or clicking on your profile image at the top-right corner of the page. When specifying the customer ID, be sure to remove any hyphens (—), for example: 1234567890, not 123-456-7890.

GET /v18/customers:listAccessibleCustomers HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN
login-customer-id: MANAGER_CUSTOMER_ID

Linked customer ID

This header is only used by third-party app analytics providers when uploading conversions to a linked Google Ads account. See the API Call Structure guide for more details.

...
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN
login-customer-id: MANAGER_CUSTOMER_ID
linked-customer-id: LINKED_CUSTOMER_ID

Response headers

The following headers are returned in HTTP responses from the API.

Request ID

The request-id is a string that uniquely identifies the API request. When debugging or troubleshooting problems with specific API calls, the request-id is an important identifier to have handy when contacting Google developer support.

request-id: 2a5Cj89VV7CNhya1DZjjrC

Introduction

Overview