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Google asks for a passkey when I connect Google Ads

When you connect Google Ads to Adspirer, Google may ask you for a passkey before it returns you to the account picker. That screen comes from Google, not from Adspirer. Since 5 August 2026, Google requires a passkey to authorize new Google Ads API access. Every tool that works with the Google Ads API is covered by this — Google Ads Editor, Google Ads scripts, BigQuery Data Transfer Service, and Adspirer. A password, an SMS code, or an authenticator app is no longer enough on its own.
Already connected? Nothing changes for you. Google only applies this when new API access is authorized. An existing Adspirer connection keeps working and will not ask you for anything — unless you disconnect and reconnect.

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Find your screen below

You created a passkey, and Google holds a brand-new passkey for up to 7 days before it will accept it. This is a Google security measure. Nothing shortens it — not Adspirer, and not Google’s own support.Your options:
  • Use an older passkey. If the same Google account already had a passkey before this one, it works today.
  • Use a device that already signs you in. A phone or laptop that Google already trusts for this account will usually get you through.
  • Wait it out. The connection works normally once the delay passes. Come back to Connections and connect Google Ads again.
In the meantime, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn connect with no passkey step, and the rest of Adspirer works as usual.
Your Google account has a passkey, but not one this device can use. Try these in order — most people are connected by the second one.
1

Open an incognito or private window

Sign in there and connect again. Google stops offering a stored passkey it cannot use, and falls back to a method that works. This is the fix that resolves it most often.
2

Choose "Try another way"

On Google’s passkey screen, this lets you pick a different method or another device — for example approving on your phone instead.
3

Add a passkey on the device you're actually using

Go to Google’s passkey settings and create one there. Note that a brand-new passkey carries the up-to-7-day delay described above.
To authorize new Google Ads API access you now need one. There is no password-only path any more, for any tool.It is a smaller change than it sounds:
  • Setting one up takes about a minute, at g.co/passkeys.
  • It does not change your Google password, and it does not change anything in your Google Ads account or settings.
  • A passkey can be your phone’s screen lock, your laptop’s fingerprint reader or Windows Hello, or a hardware security key. You do not need a working fingerprint sensor specifically — a PIN or screen lock is enough.
Google’s own guide: Use a passkey with Google Ads.
Some Google Workspace organizations block passkey sign-in. If that is your account, the passkey screen is a dead end until your administrator changes it.Two ways forward:
  • Ask your Google Workspace admin to allow passkeys or security keys for your account.
  • Connect with a different Google login. Add a personal Google account as a user on the Google Ads account in Google Ads, then connect that login to Adspirer instead. This usually gets you running the same day.
If Google accepted your passkey and told you that you were all set, but Adspirer never showed the account picker, try once more in an incognito window with browser extensions turned off.If it still doesn’t complete, that one is worth reporting — contact us from the in-app chat and say that the passkey succeeded but the connection did not land, and we’ll look at it.

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What Adspirer cannot do

We are asked this often, so to be direct: Adspirer cannot turn the passkey requirement off, skip it, or get you an exception. The check happens inside your Google account, before Google hands anything to us — we never see the attempt. It is identical on every Adspirer plan, so upgrading does not change it either.
Last modified on September 17, 2026