Connecting Google Ads lets Setpilot pull your daily Google Ads spend automatically and include it as Marketing cost in CM3. The first sync runs right after you connect, and spend then refreshes every 6 hours in the background.
Before you start
Setpilot uses Google OAuth, so the Google account you connect with must have access to the Google Ads accounts you want to sync. For agencies, connect the manager (MCC) account to pull spend for all client accounts under it.
Requirement | Details |
Google account | The account that can log into ads.google.com and see the accounts you want to sync. |
Role on the ad account | Standard or Admin access (read-only is not enough for the reporting API). |
Permissions granted | Read-only access to Google Ads campaign and spend data. |
MCC support | If you connect a manager account, all sub-accounts you manage become selectable. |
Connect your account
Go to Settings → Connections → Google Ads.
Click Connect Google Ads. A Google consent screen opens.
Sign in and approve Setpilot read-only access to your Google Ads data.
Select the ad accounts to sync. For MCC, each sub-account is listed separately.
Click Save. Setpilot backfills the last 90 days of spend and then refreshes every 6 hours.
What gets synced
Field | Source | Where it appears |
Daily spend | Google Ads Reporting API, per account, per day | Marketing cost on the dashboard, split by day |
Account currency | Google Ads account settings | Converted to shop currency using that day FX rate |
Account name | Google Ads account metadata | Shown in the Marketing breakdown tooltip |
Setpilot does not pull keywords, campaigns, or ads — only total spend. Campaign-level drill-down is on the roadmap.
Sync schedule
After the initial backfill, Google Ads spend re-syncs every 6 hours. The last 3 days are re-fetched on each run because Google finalises spend with a short delay. Conversions and attribution updates therefore land automatically.
Token refresh
Setpilot stores a Google refresh token and uses it to mint short-lived access tokens in the background. You do not need to reauthorise regularly. If you change the Google account password, revoke Setpilot access in your Google security settings, or the user loses access to the ad account, the connection will break and you will see an Expired state in Settings.
Disconnect
Go to Settings → Connections → Google Ads and click Disconnect. Already-synced spend stays on your dashboard; new data stops flowing. You can revoke access directly from your Google account permissions page too.
Troubleshooting
Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
No accounts to pick during connect | Google account is not linked to any Google Ads account. | Log in to ads.google.com with that email first and confirm the account shows up. |
Connection says Expired | Refresh token was revoked or the user was removed from the ad account. | Reconnect from Settings → Connections → Google Ads. |
Spend missing for one account | That account was not selected during connect. | Disconnect and reconnect, selecting all relevant accounts. |
Spend numbers differ slightly from Google Ads UI | FX conversion to shop currency, or late attribution updates. | Wait one sync cycle (6 hours). Small variance is expected. |
Related articles
Marketing costs — how Google spend fits into CM3.
Connecting Facebook / Meta Ads — same flow for Meta.
Connecting Axon — for Axon.ai users.