How to automate Google Ads with Claude Code

You came here from the YouTube video. This is the setup that runs every agent on this site.

You do not need to be a developer. The kickoff prompt below tells Claude Code itself to do all the technical work for you. Your job is to paste it, say “yes” when Claude asks to install something, and paste any error messages back. About 30 minutes of clicking, mostly waiting.

⚠️ The single most important rule of using Claude Code: if you ever get stuck, see an error you don’t understand, or aren’t sure what to do next — paste the problem back into Claude Code and ask it for the path forward. That’s literally what it’s there for. It will install missing tools, fix broken credentials, write you a new script, or rewrite its instructions in simpler language. You can’t break it.

Step 1 — Download Claude Code

Get the desktop app. Mac and Windows, runs locally, easiest first-run experience.

👉 Download Claude Code →

Sign in with your Claude account (the Pro / Team / Max plan includes Claude Code).

What is Claude Code? It’s Claude with hands. The chat Claude you know lives in a browser and can only talk. Claude Code lives on your machine and can read files, run commands, install software, and call APIs. That’s the unlock — it can actually do the Google Ads work, not just describe it.

Step 2 — Find your Google Ads developer token

Good news: every Google Ads account now has experimental API access automatically. No 1-3 week approval wait, no application form. You just need to grab the token.

1. Sign in to Google Ads → Tools & Settings → API Center.
   • If you don’t see API Center, create an MCC manager account first (free, takes a minute) and use that account.
2. Copy your Developer Token from that page. Keep it open in a tab — you’ll paste it into Claude Code in the next step.

That’s it for Step 2. The OAuth credentials (Client ID, Client Secret, refresh token) Claude Code will walk you through in Step 3.

Step 3 — Paste the kickoff prompt into Claude Code

Open Claude Code. You’ll see a chat input. Paste this entire block into it and hit enter:

You're going to set me up to automate Google Ads with Claude Code.
I am NOT a developer. Walk me through everything one step at a time,
ask me to confirm before each step, and if I get confused just
rewrite the instruction in simpler words.

Do these in order:

1. Create a workspace folder at ~/ppc-workspace (or wherever is
   conventional for my OS — pick something simple). Move into it.

2. Check whether I have git, Python 3.10+, and pip installed. If
   anything is missing, give me the SHORTEST possible install
   instruction for my OS and wait for me to confirm before continuing.
   I trust you — if you ask me to run a command, I'll run it.

3. Help me wire up Google Ads API access. I already have the
   Developer Token (Google now grants experimental access to every
   account automatically). Walk me through:
     a) Pasting in my Developer Token (ask me for it)
     b) Creating a new project in Google Cloud Console, enabling
        the Google Ads API, and creating OAuth Desktop credentials.
        Give me exact click-by-click instructions with the URLs.
     c) Writing a small Python script that runs the OAuth flow so I
        can generate my refresh token, then asking me to run it and
        paste the resulting refresh token back to you.

4. Add my credentials as environment variables in my shell profile
   (~/.zshrc on Mac, ~/.bashrc on Linux, system env vars on Windows):
   GOOGLE_ADS_DEVELOPER_TOKEN
   GOOGLE_ADS_CLIENT_ID
   GOOGLE_ADS_CLIENT_SECRET
   GOOGLE_ADS_REFRESH_TOKEN
   GOOGLE_ADS_CUSTOMER_ID  (my MCC or account ID — no dashes; ask me)

5. Install the google-ads Python library.

6. Create a CLAUDE.md file in the workspace root. It should tell
   future-you (the next Claude session that opens this folder):
     - That I run Google Ads accounts
     - The Python snippet for connecting to the API (using the env
       vars above)
     - My account-level context — ask me for my target CPA, target
       ROAS, and rough industry/vertical, and put those in
     - Instructions for you to always pull real data before reasoning,
       quote specific campaign / keyword names, and rank actions by
       impact (not "review your keywords" generic advice)

7. Run a real test query: pull last 7 days of campaign performance
   for my account. If it returns data, summarise what you see and
   tell me one specific action to take in the next 60 minutes. If
   it errors, diagnose the error and walk me through the fix — don't
   give up, don't hand me a generic troubleshooting list.

When you're done, tell me which agent prompt from
https://ppc.io/youtube I should run next based on what you saw in
my 7-day data.

Start now with step 1.

That’s the whole setup. Claude Code does the rest.

Step 4 — Say yes, and paste errors back

This is the part people overthink. While Claude Code runs through the kickoff prompt, three things will happen:

1. It’ll ask permission to install something (git, Python, the google-ads library, etc.). Say yes. It’s not going to break your computer.
2. It’ll ask you to copy a value back to it (your Developer Token, your Customer ID, your target CPA). Just paste it. The values live on your machine — they’re not being sent anywhere except your own Google Ads account.
3. Something will fail at least once. A package won’t install, your OAuth scopes will be wrong, your customer ID will have dashes. Paste the exact error message back into Claude Code and say “help me fix this.” It will. That’s the whole game.

🔁 If you get really stuck: paste the entire conversation context plus “I’m lost — start over from where you think I’m actually at and walk me forward.” Claude Code can reset and figure out where you are. You cannot get permanently stuck.

Step 5 — Run your first real agent

Once the kickoff prompt finishes and you’ve seen real campaign data, you’re done with setup.

Go back to /youtube, pick any agent, and paste its prompt into the same Claude Code conversation. Same workspace, same credentials, just a different prompt. They all work. Audit agent, negative-keyword agent, ad-copy agent, budget-pacer — every one of them plugs into this exact setup.

If a specific agent needs something extra (an API key, a different MCP server, a permission), it’ll tell Claude Code, Claude Code will tell you, and you’ll handle it the same way you handled everything else in Step 4: say yes, paste values, paste errors back.

Quick reference

Built by Stewart Dunlop · PPC.io. Reply on any YouTube video if anything in this guide is unclear and I’ll fix it.