Connect Claude to Google Ads, with no key and no code

The first version of the connector asked you to create a read key in SaveAds, then paste it into the connector’s address. It worked, but it forced an advertiser to handle a secret: copy it at the right moment, understand that it travelled inside a URL, create a new one if it got lost. An address that carries a key also ends up, sooner or later, in a browser history or a screenshot.

Claude can now run the OAuth flow the MCP protocol defines, and SaveAds has followed suit. You paste the bare address; Claude discovers on its own that approval is needed, and you are the one asked, in a SaveAds window. There is nothing left to copy, and nothing to lose.

Connectors already set up with a key keep working. To switch to approval, remove the old connector in Claude, add it again, then revoke the key you no longer need. ChatGPT, whose custom connectors do not always offer OAuth, may still require one.

Three conditions. When Claude says it “cannot see anything”, the second one is almost always missing.

• A Google Ads account connected to SaveAds — through the usual Google approval, revocable from your Google account. Claude does not plug into Google Ads: it plugs into SaveAds, which reads Google Ads.
• Data already synced — the figures come from data SaveAds has already imported, not from a live call to Google. An account connected five minutes ago may not have a single row yet.
• A Claude subscription that allows custom connectors — this depends on your Anthropic plan and, in a company, on your administrator’s settings. On the SaveAds side, the connector is open on every plan, free included.

An MCP server does not grant “access to the account”: it exposes specific tools, each with its own parameters and bounds. Here is the full list, under the names Claude shows when it calls them.

• list_ad_accounts — the connected accounts across every platform, with their currency and status. Claude starts here so it never makes up an account name.
• get_performance — spend, clicks, impressions, conversions and cost per acquisition over a period, day by day, with the portfolio total and the breakdown per account.
• list_campaigns — campaigns from the biggest spender down, with budget, maximum CPC, conversions and status.
• list_search_terms — the queries people actually typed, with their cost and conversions. Google Ads only: the other platforms do not expose this data.
• list_recommendations — SaveAds recommendations, their confidence level, and what was accepted, applied or dismissed.
• list_optimizations — the log of changes actually made — budget, bid, negative keyword, pausing — with their date, author and reason.
• search — a search across the whole workspace: account names, campaign names, search terms, recommendations.
• fetch — the full detail behind a result found with search.

A connector added on claude.ai belongs to your Claude account, not to your browser: you find it again in the desktop app and on mobile, without repeating the setup.

In Claude Code, the command-line assistant, the same address is added with one command: claude mcp add --transport http saveads https://save-ads.com/api/mcp. The /mcp command then starts the same approval, in the browser. It is the right choice if you generate your reports by script or keep them in a repository.

Everywhere, it is the same server, the same eight tools and the same approval, which you withdraw in one click.

Every tool call draws one request from your monthly SaveAds AI allowance — the same allowance as the built-in assistant and the analyses. So what counts is not the question, but the number of tools Claude calls to answer it.

A full audit usually goes through six tools: accounts, performance, campaigns, search terms, recommendations and the change log. Count at least six requests, more if Claude explores the workspace with search and fetch. A targeted question, such as “how much did I spend last week?”, costs one or two.

Two habits keep the allowance from running dry: group your questions in a single message, and ask Claude to announce the tools it intends to call before calling them. Every server response also states what is left, and Claude is instructed to warn you before it reaches zero.

History follows the same rule. If you ask for twelve months and your plan covers three, the response flags it, and Claude has to tell you rather than present three months as a year.

Claude is at its best on long tasks that chain several readings and need reasoning that holds together from start to finish. The requests that work best give it an order of work and a precise deliverable.

• The ordered audit — “Audit my Google Ads account over thirty days: conversion tracking first, then wasted spend, then budgets. Put a figure on every finding.”
• The waste hunt — “List the search terms that cost money without converting, group them by intent and suggest negative keywords.”
• The investigation — “My cost per conversion jumped in mid-August: cross the day-by-day curve with the change log and tell me what changed that day.”
• The second opinion — “Here are the pending recommendations: which ones look questionable to you, and what data is missing to decide?”
• The client report — “Write a one-page note for a non-technical director: what worked, what cost money, what we change next month.”

Claude receives neither your Google password nor the token that lets SaveAds read Google Ads. It talks only to the SaveAds MCP server, with a token that can do exactly one thing: read your account.

On the SaveAds side, no token is stored in clear: the database keeps only its fingerprint. The approval exchange is protected by PKCE, and the access token expires after one hour — Claude renews it on its own for as long as the approval exists.

Your subscription is checked on every request. If a payment fails, Claude does not hit a silence: it receives a message explaining the cause, with the billing link, and passes it on to you. Access resumes as soon as the subscription is up to date.

To cut everything off, open the Claude / GPT tab in SaveAds and withdraw the approval: access stops within a minute, whatever conversation is running.

The server’s error messages are written to be read by Claude, which passes them on to you. The five most common cases:

• No account found — Google Ads is not connected to SaveAds yet, or its first sync has not finished.
• An authentication error when adding it — the connector’s authentication settings were changed. Leave them as they are: Claude detects them on its own.
• Unknown, expired or revoked access — the approval was withdrawn. Remove the connector in Claude and add it again.
• Too many requests — a limit protects the server from call loops. Wait a minute and group your questions.
• A shorter period than requested — that is your plan’s history depth, which the response flags.