Ad Manager Account Setup: Settings You Can't Change Later

Opening a Google Ad Manager account takes a few minutes. Undoing a wrong choice made in those minutes can be impossible. If you are an AdSense publisher getting ready for AdX, your Ad Manager network is the foundation everything else sits on: your ad units, your tags, your MCM relationship and your reports. This guide covers how to create a Google Ad Manager account, the settings that become permanent, the details partners will ask you for, and the habits that keep the account secure from day one.

Before you start: the AdSense account requirement

Google's sign-up page is clear on one point: you need a valid AdSense account to sign up for Ad Manager. If you do not have one, you create it first. Google adds that the AdSense account is only required to set up Ad Manager, and you are not required to keep actively using AdSense afterwards.

Two details matter more than they seem:

• The link is permanent. Google says your Ad Manager account is permanently linked to the AdSense account you sign up with.
• Pick the right AdSense account. If you have more than one, Google tells you to make sure you sign up with the right one. Use the account that belongs to the person or company that owns the sites, because the same identity will later go through verification.

If your AdSense account has open policy issues, fix them first. Starting a new network on top of an account with problems only moves those problems along. Our guide comparing AdSense and Ad Manager explains how the two products relate.

To sign up, go to admanager.google.com, click Create account, and choose For myself or To manage my business. Then follow the prompts. Google notes that you may need to speak with a Google representative to complete the setup.

Time zone and currency: set once, never again

This is the most important part of this guide. Google says that once you have created your first order, the network time zone and currency are permanently set and cannot be changed. Up until then, you can still edit them.

So before you build anything, check them:

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Go to Admin > Global settings > Network settings.
3. Review the time zone and currency.
4. If you change anything, click Save.

How should you choose?

• Time zone: pick the one you want your reports and day boundaries to follow. Most site owners choose their own business time zone, so "yesterday" in reports means the same thing as yesterday in their calendar.
• Currency: pick the currency you think in and plan your business in. It is the currency your network works in from then on.

If you are not sure, wait. Nothing forces you to create an order on day one, and the time spent checking is far cheaper than living with the wrong setting.

Network name, network code and what partners will ask for

Every Ad Manager network has a name and a network code. You will see both under Admin > Global settings > Network settings.

Google describes the network code as a unique, numeric identifier for your Ad Manager network. It is not confidential: it appears in the Google Publisher Tags on your pages, so anyone who views your page source can see it. That is normal.

You will need the network code in a few situations, including when an MCM partner sends you an invitation and when you link other Google products. When you start talking to a partner, expect to share:

• Your network code.
• The domains of the sites you want to monetize.
• The name of the person or company that owns those sites.

What you should not expect to share is your password. That leads to the next section.

Users and roles: invite people, don't share logins

Ad Manager is built for teams. Every person who needs access should have their own user, tied to their own Google Account. Google says each Ad Manager user must have a Google Account (if someone already uses Gmail or Google Ads, they have one).

To add someone:

1. Go to Admin > Access & authorization > Users.
2. Add a new user and enter their details.
3. Select a user role.
4. Save.

Roles control what each person can see and change. You can view the built-in roles and their permissions under Admin > Access & authorization > Roles. A few points from Google's help pages are worth knowing early:

• The Administrator role includes permission to edit users, roles and teams. Keep the number of administrators small.
• Access to Ad Exchange features is controlled by role permissions under "Trafficking and delivery". If someone cannot see AdX settings later, check their role before anything else.
• You can create custom roles. Google notes that when it adds new permissions to Ad Manager, you have to add them to custom roles manually.

When someone leaves, deactivate their user in the same place. Google says deactivation revokes their access to your network immediately.

Why does this matter so much? Because shared passwords make it impossible to know who changed what, and they hand over far more than Ad Manager: the same Google Account usually controls email, AdSense and payments. A legitimate MCM partner works through an invitation from its own network, not your login. Google also notes that an Ad Manager account may be suspended if all of the Google Accounts associated with it are disabled, which is another reason to keep at least one administrator account that you fully control.

API access and when it is needed

Ad Manager has an API that lets software read and change your network: pulling reports, creating line items, and so on. Many small publishers never need it. You might, if a reporting tool or a partner's system needs to connect.

According to Google:

• Only users with the Administrator role can turn API access on.
• It lives under Admin > Global settings > Network settings, under General settings, as an "API access" toggle.
• Turning it on requires you to confirm the API Terms and Conditions, then click Save. Access does not activate until you save.

Treat API access like a user account. Turn it on when there is a clear reason, know which tool or partner is using it, and turn it off when it is no longer needed.

Billing alerts and impression thresholds

The standard Google Ad Manager account is free up to a monthly impression threshold. Above it, Google requires you to enter a paid contract for the extra impressions. Ad Manager 360 is a separate, paid account type. Our guide to Ad Manager vs Ad Manager 360 covers the differences.

Google's billing page lists these free monthly limits:

• Non-video ad units: 90 million impressions in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; 200 million in a long list of other countries; and 150 million in all other locations.
• Video ad units: 800,000 impressions a month, regardless of location.

How impressions are counted matters too. With Google Publisher Tag, Ad Manager bills both filled and unfilled impressions. With Ad Exchange tags, which can only serve Ad Exchange impressions, Ad Manager does not bill filled or unfilled impressions. Impressions filtered as invalid traffic are never billed.

What happens if you go over:

• If you are an administrator, an alert appears in Ad Manager when your network exceeds the threshold. You resolve it by signing up for billing and adding a payment method.
• Once you sign up, Google says you are charged for impressions above the threshold from the month you sign up, not for previous months.
• If you keep exceeding the threshold without a payment method, Google says the account will be converted to read-only mode and may ultimately be suspended.

Whether you are anywhere near these limits depends on your traffic and on the tags you use, so it is worth knowing where to look. Run a monthly report of total and unfilled impressions so the alert never comes as a surprise.

A first-day checklist

Here is a short list to work through on the day you create your network, before you build ad units or tags:

1. Confirm the AdSense account you signed up with belongs to the site owner.
2. Check time zone and currency under Admin > Global settings > Network settings, and save any changes before your first order.
3. Note your network code from the same page. You will need it for tags and for an MCM invitation.
4. Secure your own Google Account with a strong password and two-step verification.
5. Add users individually under Admin > Access & authorization > Users, with the smallest role that does the job.
6. Leave API access off until a specific tool or partner needs it.
7. Plan your inventory before you create it. Our guide to ad units and inventory structure shows a simple layout for a content site.
8. Write down what you set and why. A one-page note saves confusion later, especially if you bring in a partner.

None of these steps takes long, and several of them cannot be redone later.

Next step

A clean Ad Manager network, owned and controlled by you, is the starting point for AdX through MCM. Once your settings are right and your sites and policy record are in order, an MCM partner can send you an invitation, subject to Google's own checks. Review the requirements to see where you stand, then Get AdX access when you are ready.