Claude can now manage your Google Ads account directly. Not by reading a CSV you paste in — by querying your live account data in real time, pulling reports on demand, and executing approved changes without you leaving the conversation. This is made possible by the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and the Digital Face MCP server. This guide walks you through the complete setup in under 15 minutes.
The Digital Face MCP server is a hosted integration layer that sits between your AI client and your Google Ads account. It exposes a set of structured tools — list campaigns, get search term performance, pause keywords, pull spend by date range, and more — that any MCP-compatible AI client can call. Claude calls those tools the same way it would use a calculator or a web search: automatically, within the conversation, returning results grounded in your real account data.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard developed by Anthropic that defines how AI models discover and use external tools. It is supported by Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and a growing list of other AI clients. When you add an MCP server to your client, the AI gains access to every tool that server exposes — no plugins, no custom integrations, no API keys you have to manage yourself.
Before you start, you need three things: a Google Ads account you want to connect, Claude Desktop (free at claude.ai) or Cursor, and a Digital Face account. The free plan on Digital Face is sufficient for this integration — no credit card required.
Step one: create your Digital Face account. Go to digital-face.nl/signup and sign up with Google. Once logged in, navigate to Settings and click Connect Google Ads. You will be redirected to a Google OAuth consent screen. Digital Face requests read access for reporting and write access for keyword and bid management. You can revoke this access at any time from your Google account security settings. The connection typically takes about 60 seconds.
Step two: get your MCP server URL. After connecting your Google Ads account, go to Settings in your Digital Face dashboard and open the MCP & Integrations tab. You will see your personal MCP endpoint URL. It follows the format digital-face.nl/api/mcp/[your-token]. Copy this URL — you will use it in the next step. This URL authenticates you automatically because it includes your session token, so you do not need to manage API keys separately.
Step three: add the server to Claude Desktop. On a Mac, open Terminal and run: open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude. This opens the Claude configuration directory. Open the file claude_desktop_config.json in a text editor. If the file does not exist, create it. Add a mcpServers section with a key of digital-face pointing to your URL, a transport of http, and the url field set to your MCP endpoint copied in step two. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop. On Windows, the config file is at %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json — the same structure applies.
Step four: test the connection. In a new Claude conversation, type: what is the status of my Google Ads campaigns? Claude will call the Digital Face MCP server, fetch your live campaign data, and respond with a structured summary of your campaigns, their status, budget, and recent spend. If you see your real campaign names in the response, the connection is working. If Claude says it does not have access to Google Ads tools, restart Claude Desktop and try again — the server sometimes needs a fresh session to appear.
Once connected, here are five queries to run first. Ask Claude: which search terms have spent more than $50 with zero conversions in the last 30 days — this surfaces your top negative keyword candidates immediately. Ask: show me all campaigns where CPA exceeded my target this week — Claude fetches live conversion data and calculates CPA per campaign. Ask: what was my total Google Ads spend yesterday and how does it compare to my daily budget — a simple sanity check that used to require navigating three reports. Ask: which ad groups have the lowest quality scores — Claude ranks your ad groups by quality score and flags the ones dragging down impression share. Ask: pause all keywords in the Search campaign with more than $100 in spend and zero conversions this month — Claude confirms the list before executing, so you review before anything changes.
For Cursor users, the setup is slightly different but equally straightforward. Open Cursor settings, navigate to the MCP section, and click Add MCP Server. Enter digital-face as the name, select HTTP as the transport, and paste your MCP endpoint URL. Save and reload the window. You can then use Digital Face tools in Cursor's AI chat panel with the same natural language queries. This is particularly useful if you manage your landing pages or ad scripts in Cursor — you can query campaign performance alongside your code without switching applications.
Other MCP-compatible clients that work with Digital Face include Claude Code (add via the command: claude mcp add --transport http digital-face [your-url]) and any client that implements the MCP HTTP transport spec. ChatGPT does not currently support MCP natively, though OpenAI has announced MCP support on their roadmap. Once available, the same Digital Face endpoint will work.
A note on security: your MCP endpoint URL acts as an authentication token. Treat it like a password — do not share it or commit it to public repositories. If you believe it has been exposed, regenerate it from the Digital Face dashboard under Settings → MCP & Integrations. All write operations (pausing keywords, adjusting bids) require Claude to confirm the action with you before executing. Digital Face never makes campaign changes autonomously without your approval in the conversation.
The full quickstart reference, including configuration file examples for all supported clients, is available at digital-face.nl/docs/quickstart. To go deeper on what you can do once connected — including automated daily monitoring, search term reports, and cross-platform Google and Meta analysis — start a free account at digital-face.nl/signup. No credit card required.