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Connect Google Ads
Connect Google Ads to bring your Google Ads data into Nexus. The connection also supports ad deployment and audience sync. Find it at Settings > Integrations, on the Google Ads card.
Problem and intended user
The media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads) needs Nexus to read and deploy to the right Google Ads account. A missing conversion goal can block Target ROAS bidding, a missing logo or business name can make a deployment fail, and a missing Merchant Center account limits Shopping campaigns. Connect it once in Settings > Integrations.
Current workflow
Without Nexus, the media buyer works in Google Ads and Merchant Center, copies results into a spreadsheet to compare with store data, and re-enters logos and the business name for each campaign.
Prerequisites
To connect with Google sign-in:
- Google account: one with access to a Google Ads account. A manager (MCC) account also works.
- Browser: allow pop-ups. The Google sign-in opens in one.
To connect with a service account:
- Google Cloud project: one with the Google Ads API enabled.
- Service account JSON key: a key that you download from that project.
- Customer ID: the ID of your Google Ads account.
To use a feature after you connect:
- Merchant Center: an account linked to the same customer, for Shopping campaigns.
- Conversion action: at least one enabled action, for Target ROAS bidding.
- Brand assets: a square logo and a business name, for Responsive Display, Demand Gen and Performance Max ads.
- YouTube channel: one that your Google account owns, for Demand Gen video ads.
How Nexus works
Nexus reads Google Ads data from the customer you choose, and deploys ads and syncs audiences to it. Fixed rules do this work. AI does not take part.
You approve access in the Google pop-up or by inviting the service account. You then approve each choice in Nexus with Confirm, Save or Use this channel. Each choice feeds one feature:
| Setting | What Nexus uses it for |
|---|---|
| Customer | The Google Ads account that Nexus reads from and deploys to. |
| Merchant Center | Shopping and retail Performance Max campaigns. |
| Conversion tracking | The conversion goal that conversion campaigns optimize toward. |
| Brand assets | Logos and a business name for Responsive Display, Demand Gen and Performance Max ads. |
| YouTube channel | Demand Gen video ads. |
To deploy ads, see Review and deploy ads. To send audiences, see Audiences.
Connect with Google sign-in
- Go to Settings > Integrations and click the Google Ads card.
- Stay on the Connect via OAuth tab.
- Click Connect Google Ads.
- Sign in and approve access in the pop-up window.
Nexus refreshes access for you. The card shows Last verified with a date, not an expiry date.
Connect with a service account
- Open the Google Ads card and select the Enter Token tab.
- In Google Cloud Console, enable the Google Ads API. Create a service account and download a JSON key.
- In Google Ads, open Tools & Settings > Account Access > Invite user. Invite the service account email with Standard or Read-only access.
- Paste the JSON key into Service Account JSON Key.
- Enter your Customer ID, in the format
xxx-xxx-xxxx. - Click Save & Validate.
Choose a customer
After an OAuth connection, Nexus asks you to choose a customer. Open the Google Ads card at any time to change your choices. On Select Google Ads Customer, select an account and click Confirm. Manager accounts carry an MCC label, and test accounts a Test label.
Choose a Merchant Center account
- On the Merchant Center row, click Select.
- Select your account and click Confirm.
Leave Advanced (feed label, sales country) blank unless your feed uses several country labels and you want a campaign limited to one.
If the step says No Merchant Center accounts are linked to this Google Ads customer yet, install the Google & YouTube channel app in Shopify. Link it to the same customer, approve the link, then click Refresh.
Set the conversion goal
The Conversion tracking panel appears after you choose a customer.
- Under Optimization target for conversion campaigns, keep Account default (all conversion goals), or pick one conversion action. Click Save. The choice applies to conversion campaigns only.
- With no enabled conversion action, Target ROAS bidding is blocked. Nexus cannot create one. Create it in Google Ads under Goals > Conversions, or install the Google & YouTube app in Shopify. Then click Refresh.
Set brand assets
The Brand assets panel holds what Google needs for these ad types. Nexus imports your logo from Shopify when you connect. You can replace it.
| Asset | Rule |
|---|---|
| Square logo (1:1) | Required. Without it, the panel warns No square (1:1) logo is set. and deployment of these ad types fails. |
| Landscape logo (4:1) | Optional. It improves placement coverage. |
| Business name | Required. Up to 25 characters. Click Edit to change it. |
Logos must be PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF files of 5 MB or less. The square logo must be at least 128x128 px, and the panel recommends 1200x1200 px. The landscape logo must be at least 512x128 px. A logo must have the 1:1 or 4:1 shape, or the upload is refused with a message. Use Upload, Replace or Remove.
If your business name differs from your Google Ads account name, a warning shows. A mismatch can lower click-through rate.
Link a YouTube channel
Nexus links a channel when you allow YouTube access during sign-in. To change it, click Change or Select on the YouTube channel row, then click Use this channel next to a channel. Only channels that your Google account owns appear. Click Remove to unlink it. Nexus uploads generated videos to it as unlisted.
Check or reconnect
Click Check connectivity to test the connection. Click Disconnect to remove it from Nexus.
Disconnect acts at once and asks for no confirmation. It deletes the stored Google Ads sign-in and clears your Merchant Center account and YouTube channel choices. Your conversion goal and brand logos stay. It does not delete ads you already published. It does not remove Nexus from your Google account. To remove it there, use Google's own settings.
WARNING
If you see Reconnect required for audience sync, click Disconnect, then connect again. This grants the permission that audience sync needs. Disconnect removes your customer, Merchant Center account and YouTube channel. Select them again after you reconnect. Your brand assets and conversion goal stay.
Nexus encrypts your credentials before it stores them.
Reconnect when Google denies access
Google can deny Nexus access to the selected account, for example when your access to it ends. The ad sync then stops. Nexus shows this in two places:
- Performance > Ad performance shows the card Google Ads needs to be reconnected. It says: "The ad sync stopped. Reconnect to import the missing days." If Meta Ads has the same problem, the title reads Meta Ads and Google Ads need to be reconnected.
- On Settings > Integrations, the Google Ads card shows the ERROR badge. Open the card. The dialog shows Connection error with the message "Google Ads denies access to the selected account. Reconnect Google Ads to resume the ad sync".
How you reconnect depends on how you connected.
If you connected with OAuth
WARNING
An OAuth reconnect clears your customer choice. Select the customer again, or the sync cannot resume. Your Merchant Center account and YouTube channel choices stay.
- Click Reconnect on the card. The accessible name is Reconnect Google Ads. The Google Ads dialog opens.
- Click Reconnect Google Ads.
- Sign in with a Google account that has access to the customer, and approve access.
- Select your customer again.
If you connected with a Service Account
The dialog has no Reconnect Google Ads button. It says "Enter a new Service Account key below" and shows the key form.
- Open the Google Ads card.
- Paste a new Service Account key and enter your Customer ID again.
- Click Save & Validate.
Nexus imports the missing days on the next sync. Use Sync Now on Performance > Ad performance to start it sooner. If you restore access in Google without reconnecting, the next sync can clear the card by itself.
Set your ad budget
Nexus needs an ad budget for each platform before it deploys ads. Once the Google Ads dialog shows Connected, it also shows Set up ad budget.
- Open the Google Ads card and click Set up ad budget.
- Enter the Monthly Budget. The dialog shows the daily amount under it.
- Select a Bid Strategy: Lowest Cost, Cost Cap, Target ROAS or Maximize Value. Cost Cap asks for a Target CPA. Target ROAS asks for a Target ROAS (×).
- Click Save.
The dialog then shows Ad Budget with the Monthly and Daily amounts, the Strategy and the number of campaigns. Click Edit to change them.
WARNING
Rebalance acts at once and asks for no confirmation. It splits the daily budget equally across your campaigns and updates the daily budget of campaigns already deployed on Google. It stays off until more than one campaign uses the budget.
Without a budget, the deploy dialog warns Set up a budget pool for Google Ads first before deploying ads. and links to Go to Integrations. To deploy, see Review and deploy ads. To create campaigns, see Campaigns.
Exact output
The customer list
The Select Google Ads Customer step lists your accounts.
The connected dialog
The dialog shows the status (Connected, Connection expired, Connection error or Status unknown) and the method (OAuth or Service Account), with a date next to Verified. Rows for Customer, Merchant Center and YouTube channel each show your choice with a Change or Select button. The Conversion tracking and Brand assets panels sit below.
The card shows Last verified with a date, and YouTube: not connected until you link a channel. The date is not a sync time. When the status is Connected, the Ad Budget panel appears below.
Where Google Ads data appears
Nexus updates Google Ads data on its own. Settings > Store Status shows the row Google ads sync with its last run. See Store Status.
- Performance > Ad performance. See Ad performance.
- Lifecycle. See Lifecycle.
- Creative synthesis. It also opens with competitor ads. See Creative synthesis.
- Campaigns. See Campaigns.
- Launch Monitor. See Launch Monitor.
- Audiences. Imported audiences need an ad account. Built audiences also open with your order history.
- Create > Ads, where Deploy to Google sends an ad to your account.
- The ad KPI cards on Home.
Before you connect an ad account, these views show Connect a platform to unlock this view with Connect an ad account. When the account is connected but holds nothing yet, they show Nothing here yet with Check your ad account connection. Campaigns and Imported audiences show their own empty state when the account is connected but empty. The Home ad KPI cards read No ad data for these dates.
What to do with it
| What you see | Decision or action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads needs to be reconnected, or the ERROR badge on the card with the message "Google Ads denies access to the selected account. Reconnect Google Ads to resume the ad sync" in the dialog | With OAuth, click Reconnect, sign in, and select the customer again. With a Service Account, enter a new key and your Customer ID, then click Save & Validate. | media buyer |
| Reconnect required for audience sync | Click Disconnect and connect again. | media buyer |
| No enabled conversion action | Create one in Google Ads, outside Nexus, then click Refresh. | media buyer |
| The Merchant Center list is empty | Install the Google & YouTube channel app in Shopify, outside Nexus. Link it to the same customer, then click Refresh. | ecommerce manager (the person who runs the store) |
| No square logo, or a name warning | Click Upload or Edit in Brand assets. | media buyer |
| YouTube: not connected | Click Select on the YouTube channel row. | media buyer |
| Set up ad budget on the card, or the deploy warning about a budget | Click Set up ad budget, enter a Monthly Budget and a Bid Strategy, then click Save. See Campaigns. | media buyer |
Expected value and measurement
A complete connection can help you compare Google results with store data. A conversion goal, a square logo and a business name can help you avoid a blocked Target ROAS campaign or a failed deployment.
Check it in Settings > Integrations: the Google Ads card shows CONNECTED. Then open Performance > Ad performance, choose Google, and compare You spent with Google Ads for the same dates. For audience sync, read the Status column on Performance > Audiences. It reads Synced, Syncing…, Building…, Not synced or Sync failed.
You cannot isolate the effect of your conversion goal from budget or offer changes made at the same time.
Limitations and exceptions
- OAuth only. Change and Select on the Customer and Merchant Center rows need OAuth, and the YouTube channel row shows only for OAuth. A service account uses its Customer ID. A blank one shows Please enter a Customer ID. Audience sync to Google needs the Google sign-in connection.
- No Google Ads accounts. The dialog says there is nothing to select. Click Disconnect in the dialog footer, then connect with an account that has one.
- No YouTube channel. The banner No YouTube channels on this Google account says how to create one. Then click Retry.
- Brand asset errors. A wrong logo file shows Logo must be PNG, JPEG, WebP, or GIF. or Logo must be 5 MB or smaller. An empty name shows Business name cannot be empty.
- Denied access. When Google denies access to the selected account, the ad sync stops until you reconnect. Nexus keeps the data it already imported. It imports the missing days on the next sync after you reconnect. See Reconnect when Google denies access above.
- Unhealthy connection. When the status is not Connected, the dialog says to use Check connectivity, or to disconnect and reconnect. A failed save shows a red message.
- Demo Mode. Connecting and disconnecting are blocked, with a message such as Disable demo mode to connect real integrations. Choosing a customer or Merchant Center account is simulated. Saving a conversion goal or a YouTube channel does nothing in Google.