Run Your Google and Meta Ads from OpenClaw

Why OpenClaw is a good fit for ad accounts

Most AI chats wait for you to open them. OpenClaw is a gateway that runs on your own hardware or a server and connects the agent to the chat apps you already use: Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams and more. It can also run work on a schedule with cron jobs. That combination is what ad accounts need. The questions are small and frequent ("did anything overspend today?"), the answers matter most when you are away from a laptop, and the useful checks are the ones that happen every morning whether or not you remember them.

MCP Ads is the part that reaches the ad platforms. It is a hosted MCP server (and an open-source one, MIT licensed) that connects Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, GA4, Search Console, Tag Manager, Merchant Center and WordPress. OpenClaw talks to it like any other remote MCP server.

Connect OpenClaw in 2 minutes

Before you start, create an MCP Ads account and connect the ad accounts you want OpenClaw to see. It only ever sees what you connected there. Then create an API key: in the MCP Ads dashboard, open Manage → Connect MCP → API keys, name it "OpenClaw" and copy it. It is shown once. A key is the simplest choice for a gateway that runs on a server, because there is no browser sign-in to complete on that machine.

Add the server to OpenClaw. The entry below goes under mcp.servers in your OpenClaw config; you can also add it in the Control UI under Settings → MCP → Add server, choosing Streamable HTTP. Then check it with openclaw mcp doctor mcp-ads --probe, which connects and lists the tools the server offers. The full setup, with OAuth and troubleshooting, is in the OpenClaw setup guide.

{
  mcp: {
    servers: {
      "mcp-ads": {
        url: "https://mcp-ads.com/mcp-slim",
        transport: "streamable-http",
        headers: {
          Authorization: "Bearer mcp_live_...",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Prefer a browser sign-in? Use OAuth

MCP Ads also supports OAuth, so you can skip the key. Save the server with auth set to oauth, then run openclaw mcp login. OpenClaw prints an authorization URL; approve it in the browser with the login that owns your MCP Ads account, and the token exchange finishes on its own. If the gateway runs on a server and your browser is on your laptop, the redirect cannot reach the server. OpenClaw handles that case: copy the code from the redirect and pass it with --code. Note that while auth is oauth, OpenClaw ignores a static Authorization header on that server, so use one method or the other.

openclaw mcp set mcp-ads '{"url":"https://mcp-ads.com/mcp-slim","transport":"streamable-http","auth":"oauth"}'
openclaw mcp login mcp-ads
# browser on another machine:
openclaw mcp login mcp-ads --code <code-from-the-redirect>

Five things to ask first

Send these from whichever chat app OpenClaw is connected to. Start with the check below to confirm the connection: "List the ad accounts you can see through MCP Ads, then tell me which one spent the most last week." If it lists nothing, the server is connected but no ad account is yet; connect one in the MCP Ads dashboard and ask again.

1. "Which campaigns spent money with zero conversions in the last 30 days? All connected accounts, Google and Meta." OpenClaw pulls campaign performance from each account, keeps the ones with spend and no conversions, and returns one list sorted by spend with the account on every line. 2. "Pause them." It names each campaign it is about to pause, with the account and its spend, and asks you to confirm. Nothing is paused until you reply. Pausing is reversible: "resume the second one" puts it back.

3. "In Google Ads, list search terms with spend and no conversions in the last 30 days, grouped into negative keyword themes. Do not add anything yet." It reads the search terms report and groups queries into themes such as jobs, free, a competitor’s name or the wrong city, then proposes negatives for you to approve. 4. "Create a Google Ads search campaign for emergency plumber Leeds, $40 a day, three ad groups with two responsive search ads each. Keep it paused and show me what you built." It builds the campaign, ad groups, keywords and ads through the Google Ads API. New campaigns are created paused, so it spends nothing until you turn it on.

5. Put it on a schedule. This is where OpenClaw differs from a chat window: set a cron job with "Every weekday at 14:00, check budget pacing across all ad accounts and message me only if a campaign has used more than 90% of its daily budget." On quiet days you hear nothing.

If you manage more than one ad account

One MCP Ads connection covers every account your logins can reach: Google Ads manager (MCC) accounts and the client accounts under them, several Meta ad accounts, TikTok advertisers and LinkedIn ad accounts. A manager account holds no campaign data of its own, so OpenClaw reports on the client accounts beneath it. Name the client in the message ("for Acme Dental only…") when it matters. When more than one account fits, MCP Ads tells the agent to ask which one rather than guess.

The payoff is the cross-account question. "Across all clients, whose cost per conversion rose most this month, and what changed in that account?" is one message instead of a dozen logins. MCP Ads is a flat $49 a month, not priced per ad account or per client.

What it will not do without you

MCP Ads tells every agent that writes hit live accounts, and that anything that creates, updates, pauses, publishes or deletes real spend or public content must be stated plainly and confirmed before it runs. Write tools are also marked as writes, not read-only. New campaigns are created paused on Google Ads, Meta and TikTok, and LinkedIn campaigns start as drafts, so even an approved build spends nothing until it is enabled. In an MCP Ads workspace, viewer seats are read-only.

Because OpenClaw can act on a schedule, put the rule in its standing instructions as well: "Never change a budget, status, bid or keyword without my explicit yes in this chat." To cut access entirely, revoke the API key in the MCP Ads dashboard; the next call is refused.

Honest limits

Performance Max reports search categories without spend through the Google Ads API, so OpenClaw cannot build a PMax wasted-spend list the way it can for Search. Auction Insights competitor domains are only in the Google Ads interface. Answers are only as good as your conversion tracking. If conversions misfire, "zero conversions" may be a tracking fault, not a bad campaign; the conversion tracking guide is the place to start.

Model usage is billed by whichever model provider you run OpenClaw with, not by MCP Ads. MCP Ads has a 7-day free trial, then $49/month flat, and the server is open source under MIT. See pricing or the quickstart.