CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-ads-api
Martin Taleski
Martin Taleski

Reputation: 6448

Can I use the same AdWords developerToken and clientCustomerId for different accounts?

I am making a web application that will automate some actions on Google AdWords. The web application can be used by anyone that has an AdWords account.

I am a bit puzzled by the AdWords API, as it is a different from other Google APIs, in terms that it needs two additional config parameters: developerToken and clientCustomerId, a per their documentation:

https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/first-api-call

When constructing the AdWordsClient object, I need to provide the developerToken and clientCustomerId, in order to push data to AdWords.

My question is whether these two parameters (developerToken, clientCustomerId) need to be different for each user that will use my web application?

It seems that I am able to post data to different accounts with an unrelated developerToken, which does not make sense.

Can I get the clientCustomerId from an API endpoint, so I don't require my users to manually input tokens and ids to the web app, and do the complete authentication with oAuth?

My code is working, I am asking more of the philosophy why I need these two parameters, and if I can avoid asking the user to manually copy them from the AdWords dashboard into my application?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 142

Answers (1)

dorian
dorian

Reputation: 6272

The developer token identifies a given Adwords API developer and is used for RMF enforcement, rate limiting and the like. As you mentioned, this is different from other Google APIs, which I think has to do with the fact that it's not a publicly available API. You always have to use the developer token that was given to you as part of your API sign-up process and are not allowed to use another developer's one (thus there's no possibility to have a user of your application enter it on their own).

The clientCustomerId parameter refers to the specific Google Ads account that you want to interact with. As a given user (identified by the OAuth2 access token that you include in your request) might have access to a whole lot of different accounts, this always needs to be included.

As for how to obtain a list of accessible account given a user's credentials, you can use the CustomerService.getCustomers endpoint for that purpose. Quoting the docs, it will "return details of all the customers directly accessible by the user authenticating the call."

Upvotes: 1

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