## Summary

When you link an existing [Google Ads](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/start) account to a
manager account, the Google Ads account and its history don't change. The
original advertisers don't lose access to billing or sign-in.

You can also link another manager account to your manager account, which lets
you manage and view data for all of the Google Ads accounts under that manager
account.

A manager account can only have one manager account directly above it.

An individual Google Ads account can be linked to no more than five manager
accounts, and your manager account structure can be no more than six levels
deep.

## Manual steps

### Request link

1. [Find the Google Ads customer ID](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704344) for the account you want to manage in the top right corner of the Google Ads account.
2. Sign in to your manager account on the [Google Ads UI](https://ads.google.com).
3. Click the **Accounts** tab.
4. Click the **Performance** tab.
5. Click the **+** plus button.
6. Click **+ Link existing account**.
7. Once you've reviewed the terms, enter the Google Ads Customer ID. To link multiple accounts at once, enter one Customer ID per line.
8. Click **SEND REQUEST**. The Google Ads account receives an account notification and email that invite them to link to your manager account.

A pending notification appears in your manager account's **Pending link
requests** . Once the invited account accepts your invitation, you receive an
email confirmation and the accounts are linked. See [Link accounts](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7459601) for more
information.

### Accept link

Any user with administrative access on the invited account or on a linked
manager account can accept your invitation with the following steps:

1. Click the gear icon.
2. Choose **Account settings** from the drop-down menu.
3. Select **Account access** from the side navigation, then click **Accept
   invitation**.

Manager accounts can be assigned the following levels of access:

- Administrative
- Standard
- Read only
- Email only

See [About access levels](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9978556) to learn more.

## Automatic steps

Linking accounts must be initiated by the manager account and accepted by the
individual account. The state of the link is stored in the `status` field of the
[`CustomerClientLink`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/CustomerClientLink) or
[`CustomerManagerLink`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/CustomerManagerLink).

See the [list of
valid statuses](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/ManagerLinkStatusEnum.ManagerLinkStatus). Use
`PENDING` to initiate the link, and `ACTIVE` to accept the link.

Linking two pre-existing Google Ads accounts can be accomplished through these
steps:

1. While authenticating as the manager account, extend an invitation to the client account by creating a [`CustomerClientLink`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/CustomerClientLink) with status `PENDING`.
2. While authenticating as the manager account, query the [`GoogleAdsService`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/GoogleAdsService) to find the [`manager_link_id`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/CustomerClientLink#manager_link_id) of the [`CustomerClientLink`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/CustomerClientLink) you created.
3. While authenticating as the client account, accept the invitation from the manager account by mutating the [`CustomerManagerLink`](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v26/CustomerManagerLink) to have status `ACTIVE`.

If you don't have access to the sub-account, use one of the following
options based on your implementation:

Web flows
:   Use the [OAuth web app authentication model](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/oauth/cloud-project) to set up OAuth2 authentication
    for your software on behalf of the sub-account. For instructions on how
    to set up multiple-user authentication, follow the instructions in the [client
    library](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/client-libs).

Other apps
:   You may want to implement a waiting system that checks for pending invitations
    periodically.

For code samples on how to manage Google Ads accounts with the Google Ads API
(including advanced, sub- and test accounts), see [Account Management](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/account-management/overview).

See
[Linking to manager accounts](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/account-management/linking-manager-accounts#procedure)
for more details.