Google Ads Manager Account (MCC) for Agency Clients: Linking, Access, Billing, and Unlinking

What a Google Ads manager account is

A Google Ads manager account — still widely called an MCC, from its old My Client Center name — is a container account that lets an agency link and manage multiple separate Google Ads accounts from one location. Google describes the structure as a tree: a top-level manager account can branch out to manage individual accounts or other manager accounts, and those can branch further.

Structural limits Google documents:

• An individual Google Ads account can't be directly managed by more than 5 manager accounts.
• A manager account can't be directly managed by more than 1 other manager account.
• A client account structure can be no greater than 6 levels deep.
• The maximum number of active, non-manager accounts a manager account can link to depends on the accounts' monthly spend over the last 12 months.

For you as the client, the important point is what a manager account is not. Linking is not a transfer of your account. When an agency links your existing Google Ads account to its manager account, the original account remains unchanged and its account history stays intact; your sign-in and permissions stay the same.

Three distinct things are easy to confuse, and each is controlled independently:

• User-level access: individual people invited to your account or to the agency's manager account, each with their own access level.
• Account-level linking: the relationship between your Google Ads account and the agency's manager account.
• Ownership and billing: separate flags and setups that determine who can administer users and who is financially responsible for spend.

Evaluate each layer separately before accepting a link request.

Linking and the invitation flow

The link always starts with the agency and ends with your approval. Google's documented flow:

1. The agency signs in to its manager account, goes to Accounts > Sub-account settings, selects the plus button, chooses Link existing account, and enters your Google Ads Customer ID.
2. You receive an email invitation, and the request appears inside your account.
3. A user with administrative access to your account (or to a linked manager account that has administrative ownership of it) signs in, goes to Access and security > Managers, and selects Accept or Decline under Link request. You can also accept directly from the email invitation.
4. Once accepted, you receive a confirmation email and the account appears in the agency's manager account automatically.

What linking does not do:

• It does not change your sign-in, your existing users, or your campaign history.
• It does not change your billing. Google states that the original users keep access to billing, and invoicing and payment methods do not change unless consolidated billing is set up.
• It does not grant the agency administrative ownership. Ownership must be turned on separately by a user with administrative access to your account, under Access and security > Managers, by setting the Owner column to Yes.

The agency can withdraw a sent request at any time before you accept, and you can decline without any effect on your account.

Access levels and what each one can do

Google documents 5 access levels for users of a manager account:

• Administrative: view, edit, and manage any part of the manager account, including hierarchy management — linking and unlinking accounts, inviting and removing users, and changing access levels.
• Standard: view, edit, and manage any part of the account except those administrative tasks.
• Read only: browse the manager account and linked client accounts, and edit and run reports, but make no changes.
• Email only: receive notification emails and emailed reports; no changes.
• Billing: view and edit billing information. For client accounts on automatic or manual payments, Billing users can view and edit billing in those accounts; for accounts on monthly invoicing, billing information is stored at the manager account level and cannot be managed at the client level.

Two factors determine what an agency user can actually do in your account: their access level on the manager account, and whether the manager account is an administrative owner of your client account. Without ownership, even an agency admin can only perform limited administrative actions in your account — for example, inviting users with Standard, Read only, or Email only access. With ownership, agency admins can invite and remove administrative users on your account, change users to or from Administrative, accept and decline link requests from other managers, unlink other manager accounts, transfer ownership, and turn remarketing list sharing on or off.

Google's own guidance is that a manager should be made owner if and only if the manager account requires those privileges. Ownership is also transitive: if the agency's manager account owns your account, every manager above it in the hierarchy has ownership too.

Separately, your own account's access levels (Email-only, Billing, Read-only, Standard, Admin) still govern what people you invite directly can do. Only admins on your account can accept or reject manager link requests and unlink manager accounts — so the agency's access never replaces keeping your own admin in place.

Who pays: consolidated versus direct billing

Who pays is determined by the billing setup, not by the link itself. Google defines a paying manager as the manager account that controls monthly invoicing billing setups used by the Ads accounts beneath it. A single Google Ads account can only have one active billing setup — and therefore one paying manager — at any given time, even if it is linked to several manager accounts.

Two common configurations:

• Direct billing (your responsibility): your account keeps its own automatic or manual payments, or its own invoicing setup. Linking to an agency's manager account does not change this by default; Google states the original users keep access to billing, and payment methods do not change unless consolidated billing is set up.
• Consolidated billing (agency responsibility): the agency places your account on a billing setup under its paying manager account. The same billing setup can be used for multiple client accounts, producing one consolidated invoice per month. The payments profile attached to the setup determines who is financially responsible for the spend.

If you are moving from a previous agency, Google documents a Change Who Pays process: the previous agency (the current paying manager) must initiate the request; the new agency's admins review and approve it, choose a paying manager and billing setup, and submit; Google Support then reviews the transfer, with a documented expectation of approval within 48 hours if there are no issues. Note the feature is in beta and some options are unavailable — for example, automatic unlinking after transfer is not currently available, and the client account must be linked to the new manager account within 7 days of the transfer or ads stop running.

You can verify who pays at any time: in your Google Ads account, select the Billing icon, then Settings — the paying manager name and account ID appear at the top.

Unlinking and what survives it

Either side can end the relationship. A user with administrative access to the manager account or to the client account can unlink the two accounts. From your side as the client, the path is Admin > Access and security > Managers, then Remove access next to the manager account; Google shows a preview of the effects before you confirm.

What survives unlinking:

• Your account, its campaign history, and feature access. Google states an individual account that unlinks from a manager account won't lose its own campaign history or access to any Google Ads features, and it can be linked to a new manager account afterward.
• Your data. Even where the agency had ownership, the client account still owns its data and can remove ownership access by unlinking.

What does not survive:

• Shared remarketing assets. If your account used the manager's remarketing tag or shared lists, those lists stop populating in your account, you lose access to the manager's shared lists, and any ad groups targeting those lists — or campaigns excluding them — stop running.
• Cross-account conversion tracking. The manager's cross-account tag stops recording conversions for clicks that take place after unlinking. Clicks before unlinking keep recording for the duration of the conversion window (typically 30 days), and if your own conversion tag was previously installed on the site, it resumes tracking.
• Monthly invoicing under the agency's paying manager. If the unlinked manager was your paying manager, the account stops serving after unlinking. To keep ads serving, you must change the billing setup beforehand so the new setup sits under a manager account the account will be linked to.

One constraint worth knowing: a manager account can terminate the relationship at any time only as long as the client account has at least one user with access, or is linked to a manager account that has administrative ownership of it. Keep at least one active admin of your own on the account at all times so you are never dependent on the agency to act.

Questions to ask before accepting a link request

Before you accept a link request, get written answers to these questions:

1. Will you request administrative ownership, and why? Linking alone doesn't grant it. Google recommends ownership only when the manager genuinely needs privileges like managing your admin users or unlinking other managers. If the agency asks for ownership, ask which specific actions they need it for.
2. Who is the paying manager on my account? Check Billing > Settings. If the agency becomes paying manager, your ads depend on that relationship — unlinking without a new billing setup in place stops serving immediately.
3. Am I on consolidated invoicing or my own payment method? Consolidated billing means the agency's payments profile is financially responsible; direct billing means yours is. Ask which applies and how invoices will reach you.
4. Whose conversion tag and remarketing lists will my account use? If you adopt the agency's cross-account tag or shared lists, those assets break on unlinking and campaigns using them stop running. Know what you would need to rebuild.
5. How many of my own admins stay on the account? Keep at least two. Google notes that a single-admin account risks losing tag access if that person becomes unavailable, and unlinking requires admin access on one side of the relationship.
6. What is the offboarding path? If the agency is your paying manager, a Change Who Pays transfer must be initiated by the current paying manager, and after a transfer the account must be linked to the new manager within 7 days or ads stop running. Agree on this sequence before you need it.
7. Where does my account sit in the hierarchy? An account can have up to 5 direct managers but only one owner, and ownership is transitive upward. Ask whether any manager above the agency's account would gain ownership of your account.