As a manager account admin, you can now reuse an existing payments profile that is already linked to your manager account when creating a new child account.
If you have admin access to both the manager account and the payments profile, you can link that payments profile to your manager account. This allows other admins and billing users of the manager account to use the same payments profile.
We are gradually rolling this feature out, so you should see this option in your account soon if it’s not there yet.
On this page
- How can I link my manager account to a payments profile?
- How can I unlink a manager account from a payments profile?
- Implications of linking and unlinking
- Check which payments profiles are linked
- Billing and payments permissions
How can I link my manager account to a payments profile?
When you create a new child account from a manager account, you'll see a "Payments profile" section on the "Billing Configuration" page. If you have the option, you can check the box to link the existing payments profile to your manager account. If not, you can uncheck the box to avoid linking, then click Submit.
If you're trying to link an existing Google Ads account to a manager account for consolidated monthly billing, you'll need to send a linking request from the manager account. The user of the existing Google Ads account will then need to approve this request in their account settings.
How can I unlink a manager account from a payments profile?
Admin users of a manager account can unlink a payments profile if the payments profile is on automatic or manual payments. (If you’re an invoicing customer, refer to the link permissions and guidelines for invoicing customers.)
To unlink a payments profile from a manager account, follow these steps:
- Go to the Billing icon
and select Payments profile in your Google Ads manager account.
- Select the specific automatic or manual payments profile you want to unlink.
- Under the "Linked to manager" field, select Unlink manager account.
- When you unlink your payments profile, there’ll be an alert showing the impacted accounts whose ads will stop running as a result.
- When you unlink a payments profile from a manager account, billing setups of all Google Ads accounts that are using this linked payments profile will be deactivated. Therefore, those Google Ads accounts will stop serving.
- A new billing setup is required for these Google Ads accounts to continue serving.
Implications of linking and unlinking
Linking your manager account to a payments profile allows you and other admin and billing users to perform certain billing and payment actions.
- All admin and billing users of the Ads manager account can now use its payments profile and associated payment methods to set up billing for both existing and new Ads accounts under that manager account.
- Linking your manager account to a payments profile won't impact the billing setup for any existing child accounts. Instead, these accounts will simply start using the payments profile through the manager account.
A billing setup contains information about your business and how you make payments.
What does this mean for your accounts?
Example scenario:
You have a manager account with "Child account 1" and "Child account 2". "Child Account 1" uses "Payments profile 1" and "Child account 2" uses "Payments profile 2".
As an admin on the manager account, you now create a new "Child account 3" and want to reuse "Payments profile 1".
Before linking manager account - payments profile
As you are trying to reuse an existing payments profile ("Payments profile 1" in this example), you may now be provided the option to link "Payments profile 1" to your manager account.
If the box is checked for linking, all child accounts using "Payments profile 1" ("Child account 1" in this example) will now consider the manager account as their paying manager.
A paying manager is a manager account that can set up billing for the Ads accounts beneath it. After a payments profile is linked, your manager account becomes the paying manager for any child accounts using that profile. You can find the paying manager name and ID for a Google Ads account by navigating to its "Billing settings" page.
After linking manager account - payments profile
- After the payments profile is linked to the manager account, the manager account’s admin and billing users now also have certain admin permissions to "Payments profile 1", including using the payments profile to set up billing for all of its child accounts. For existing child accounts using "Payments profile 1", they are now using "Payments profile 1" through their manager account.
- If the payments profile is unlinked from the manager account, any Google Ads accounts under that manager account using that payments profile will stop serving. In the example above, if "Payments profile 1" is unlinked from the manager account, both "Child account 1" and "Child account 3" will lose their billing setup and stop serving.
- New billing setups will be required for "Child account 1" and "Child account 3" to resume serving.
- If a Google Ads account that's using the manager account’s payments profile is unlinked from the Manager account, that Ads account will lose its billing setup and stop serving. In the example above, if "Child account 1" is unlinked from the manager account, it will stop serving.
- A new billing setup will be required for "Child account 1" to continue serving.
Check which payments profiles are linked
To see a list of payments profiles linked to your manager account, go to the Payments profile page.
- Go to the Billing icon
- Select a payments profile from the table to check the payments profile’s information card and the list of all manager accounts linked to it.
Billing and payments permissions
Linking your manager account to a payments profile grants you and other admin and billing users on the account certain permissions.
The table below summarizes the billing and payments actions for users with admin or billing access, based on whether the manager account is linked to a payments profile.
| Action | Manager account has not linked to a payments profile | Manager account has linked to a payments profile |
| Can view billing information | ||
| Can edit billing information | ||
| View all payments profiles linked to manager accounts within hierarchy | ||
| View all billing setups and budgets within the hierarchy | ||
| Use the linked payments profile and the payment methods within it to set up billing for new Ads accounts under that manager account |
