Linking Service Account to Google Ads Account

[Online Store]

I have a service account that I use for managing shopping content and I also have a Google Ads account. When I try to use my service account to make API calls for Google Ads, I get the NOT_ADS_USER error back. So, I need to link my service account to my Google Ads Account. I tried adding my Service Account email (which is a google-generated email that I can't check) as a user on my Google Ads account, but the request is still sitting in pending after two days. 

Does anyone have any idea how to link a Service Account to a Google Ads account?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Ads API team. I hope you are doing well today.

With regards to your concern, I can see that you have received the NOT_ADS_USER (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/best-practices/common-errors#NOT_ADS_USER) error. The NOT_ADS_USER error is encountered when the service account has not been correctly linked to the Google Ads account. Since you are using a service account, please make sure that the email address you are impersonating have access or is associated with a Google Ads account. 

For additional reference, you will need to have the prerequisites listed in this guide (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/oauth/service-accounts#prerequisites) for service accounts in order to connect to Google Ads API. As stated in the guide, Google Ads does not support using service accounts without impersonation.

In addition, we strongly recommend using OAuth2 desktop app or web app flow (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/oauth/cloud-project#select_an_app_type) instead of service accounts unless you need a domain-specific feature (for example, impersonation). OAuth2 desktop app and web app flows do require an initial user interaction for granting access to the account, but are much simpler to set up.

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2naBgJ:ref"

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team