How VMG uses the Google Ads API
VMG is a marketing agency that manages Google Ads accounts on behalf of small local-service businesses (plumbers, contractors, and similar trades) under a monthly management retainer. This page describes, in detail, the specific automation VMG's internal system performs through Google's official Ads API.
Business model
Clients pay VMG a monthly fee for hands-on management of their Google Ads account. Ad spend itself is billed directly to the client by Google, separate from VMG's management fee. VMG does not resell, white-label, or offer this tool to other developers or agencies — it is built and used exclusively for VMG's own client accounts.
How the connection works
VMG operates one Google Ads Manager (MCC) account. Each client's existing Google Ads account is linked underneath that Manager account through Google's own account-linking permission flow — the same mechanism any advertising agency uses to manage a client account, extended here with API-driven automation on top of it. VMG's backend authenticates via OAuth 2.0 against the Ads API; client login credentials are never seen, requested, or stored by VMG at any point.
What the automation actually does
Budget pacing
Spend is checked against each campaign's monthly budget on a regular schedule via the API's reporting endpoints, so a campaign can't silently overspend or underspend between manual check-ins.
Negative-keyword cleanup
Search-term reports are pulled via GAQL (Google Ads Query Language) and reviewed for irrelevant or wasteful search terms, which are then added as negative keywords through the API to stop future spend on them.
Disapproval monitoring
Ad and asset status is polled via the API so a policy disapproval is caught and addressed the same day, rather than discovered days later during a manual login.
Conversion tracking
Because these are local-service businesses, the primary conversion action is a phone call. Call conversion data is read back through the API to inform budget pacing decisions and client reporting.
Performance reporting
Campaign performance data is pulled via the API on a regular basis to produce clear, ongoing reporting for each client — no manual export/spreadsheet work required.
Access and scope
- Internal tool — only VMG staff operate it. Clients grant account access but never interact with the API or the tool directly.
- Search campaigns only, currently. Budget pacing, keyword cleanup, disapproval monitoring, and reporting are built and used specifically for Search campaigns.
- Not Display, Shopping, Video, or Performance Max campaigns — not currently supported by this tool, not claimed as supported.
- Not resold, licensed, or offered to other developers or agencies — single-tenant, VMG's own internal use only.
- Not a wrapper around a third-party API product — calls Google's official Ads API client library directly.
Data handling
See VMG's Privacy Policy for full detail on how account and campaign data accessed through the API is stored and used. In short: data is used only to operate the automation described above and to produce client-facing reporting — it is not sold, shared with third parties, or used for any purpose outside managing the client's own advertising account.