Keep your account secure

The Google 2-Step Verification is a simple way to protect your account against password theft. When you set up 2-Step Verification, you’ll sign into your account using a password and a second verification step. The second verification step can involve a:

• Call
• Google Authenticator App from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store
• Google prompt on a compatible mobile device
• Security key
• Text message (SMS)

The 2-Step Verification ensures potential attackers can't access your account even if they have your password.

If you don’t want to enter a 2-Step Verification code or use your security key every time you sign in to your Google Account, you can mark your computer or mobile device as trusted and not be asked again.

Account administrators can require all users of their Google Ads accounts to enable 2-Step Verification, as described above. When you set up 2-Step Verification, you’ll sign into your account using a password and a second verification step. The second verification step can involve a:

• Call
• Google Authenticator App from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store
• Google prompt on a compatible mobile device
• Security key
• Text message (SMS)

The 2-Step Verification ensures potential attackers can't access your account even if they have your password.

Users who try to access your Google Ads account without first enabling 2-Step Verification will see a message prompting them to set up 2-Step Verification.

Change authentication settings in your Google Ads account

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. At the top right corner of the page, click Settings & Billing .
3. Under “Account", click Access and security.
4. At the top of the page, click the Security tab.
5. Click the Authentication method to expand the panel.
6. You’ll have to do one of the following:
   • Select 2-Step Verification.
   • If the “2-Step Verification” option is disabled:
     1. Click the link to set up 2-Step Verification.
     2. Follow prompts on the screen to add your phone number, confirm that it works, and click Turn On to finish the setup. Once complete, you’ll see “2-Step Verification is ON”. You can now close this page.
     3. Navigate back to your Google Ads Account and refresh the page to unlock the setting.
     4. Select 2-Step Verification.
7. Click Save.

Change authentication settings across your managed accounts

From a Google Ads manager account, you can enable authentication settings on your own manager account, and on individual client accounts where you're an administrative owner.

To change the authentication setting across your child accounts, you can either navigate to these individual accounts or update the setting in bulk.

1. Sign in to your Google Ads manager account.
2. From the page menu on the left, click Accounts, then click Management at the top of the page.
3. Select the accounts you want to edit.
4. Click Edit, hover over “Change security settings”, and select Change authentication method.
   • Select 2-Step Verification.
   • If the “2-Step Verification” option is disabled:
     1. Click the link to set up 2-Step Verification.
     2. Follow prompts on the screen to add your phone number, confirm that it works, and click Turn On to finish the setup. Once complete, you’ll see “2-Step Verification is ON”. You can now close this page.
     3. Navigate back to your Google Ads Account and refresh the page to unlock the setting.
     4. Select 2-Step Verification.
5. Select the date you want the setting to become effective for existing users.
6. Click Save.

By adding allowed email domains in your security settings, you can ensure that users from outside your organization don’t get invited to access your Google Ads account. For instance, if you set “example.com” as the allowed email domain for your account, you'll only be able to invite user@example.com to the account, but not user@gmail.com. Note that only users with admin access can add allowed email domains to accounts.

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. At the top right corner of the page, click Settings & Billing .
3. Under “Account", click Access and security.
4. At the top of the page, click the Security tab.
5. Click Allowed domains to expand the panel.
6. Click Add Domain to add a domain to the list.
7. Click the "x" icon to the right of a domain to remove it.
8. Click Save.

Manager account security mandates are minimum security settings enforced on all current and future sub-accounts that a manager account has administrative ownership over. These security settings are available to admin users of manager accounts and can be applied to all current and future sub-accounts owned by the manager.

Sub-accounts can decide to have stricter security settings. Manager account security mandates only ensure that no sub-account has weaker security settings.

When a manager account security mandate is applied, admin users of owned sub-accounts will receive an email and will see a banner notification in Google Ads that informs them of the change.

Authentication strength

Using the Authentication setting, admin users of manager accounts can require that users of owned sub-accounts enable 2-Step Verification or Advanced Protection on their accounts to login.

When 2-Step Verification is configured, users can specify a date for it to take effect. This date is relative to this manager account’s time zone and defaults to 7 days in the future. If today’s date is selected, the setting will be effective immediately.

Update your authentication settings

1. Sign in to your Google Ads manager account.
2. Click the tools icon .
3. Click Setup, and select Access and security.
4. Click the "Security" tab.
5. Click Authentication, and select 2-Step Verification.
6. Choose whether the setting is set for "This manager account" or "This manager account and all accounts it owns".
7. Next to "Required as of," select the date (relative to the manager account’s time zone) on which accounts owned by this manager will require 2-Step Verification.
8. Click Save.

Allowed domain

The Allowed domains security setting allows admin users of manager accounts to restrict which email domains are allowed to be invited to access the manager account and the sub-accounts it has administrative ownership over. This helps reduce the likelihood of unauthorized users accessing your accounts.

Add an allowed domain

1. Sign in to your Google Ads manager account.
2. Click the tools icon .
3. Click Setup, and select Access and security.
4. Click the "Security" tab.
5. Click Allowed domains, and click Add domain.
6. Enter the domain name you’d like to allow.
7. Choose whether the setting is set for "This manager account" or "This manager account and all accounts it owns."
8. Click Save.

Step 1: Disable the 2-Step Verification requirement in Google Ads

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
   • If you see a message saying you must set up 2-Step Verification to log in, follow the instructions to set up 2-step verification on your Google Account. This can be disabled later.
2. At the top right corner of the page, click Settings & Billing .
3. Under “Account”, click Access and security.
4. At the top of the page, click the Security tab.
5. Click Authentication method to expand the panel.
6. Set the authentication method to Standard.
7. Click Save.

Step 2: Disable 2-Step Verification on your Google account

1. Go to your Google Account.
2. On the left navigation panel, click Security.
3. On the "Signing in to Google" panel, click 2-Step Verification.
4. Click Turn Off.