Google Ads Connector API

The Google Ads Connector API lets an unattended integration deliver hashed identifiers from a Narrative dataset into Customer Match user lists in your Google Ads account. A person signs in once to create an API key, and the integration uses that key from then on. Complete the prerequisites and set up API access on this page before you follow the guide.

Choose a guide

Customer Match delivery

Upload hashed emails and deliver them into a new or existing Customer Match user list.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite	Who does it	How often
API key	A Narrative admin	Once
Google Ads Connector installed	A Narrative admin	Once
Google Ads account linked to Narrative	A Google Ads user, in Google Ads	Once per Google Ads account
A Google Ads profile	Your integration, or anyone in the Narrative UI	Once per Google Ads account

API key

Create the key under Settings → API Keys with read and write on datasets and connections, write on uploads, and read on installations, apps, and app_profiles. Add read and write on webhooks if you want delivery notifications. See API Keys for the procedure and the Permissions Reference for what each resource covers. Create it from a shared team account rather than a personal login, so the integration keeps working when someone changes roles.

Google Ads Connector installed

The Google Ads Connector is app 14. Find your installation of it:

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/installations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# find the record with "app_id": 14 and note its "id"

To read that installation on its own:

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/installations/{installation_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → {"id": <INSTALLATION_ID>, "app_id": 14, "company_id": <COMPANY_ID>, "tier_id": "free",
#    "permissions": [{"access": "read", "resource": "app_profiles"}, ...], ...}

Record the installation ID. If no record has "app_id": 14, install the Google Ads Connector from the Narrative Marketplace.

Google Ads account linked to Narrative

Narrative delivers to Google Ads as a Customer Match partner, so you link your Google Ads account to Narrative I/O once, before you create a profile for it. In Google Ads, open Tools → Data manager, click Narrative I/O, and authorize the link request. See Link your Google Ads account. The customer ID is the ten-digit number at the top of Google Ads. The API takes it as a number without dashes, so 123-456-7890 becomes 1234567890.

Set up API access

The guide talks to two hosts, and each takes its own credential:

Host	Base URL	Credential	Handles
Narrative API	`https://api.narrative.io`	Your API key	Datasets, uploads, connections, webhooks
Google Ads connector	`https://googleads.narrativeconnectors.com`	An installation token	Profiles, connection settings schemas

Get an installation token

The Google Ads connector authenticates requests with an installation token, which you get by exchanging your API key. Use the installation ID from Google Ads Connector installed:

curl -s -X POST https://api.narrative.io/installations/{installation_id}/token \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → {"access_token": "<INSTALLATION_TOKEN>", "access_token_expires_in": 10799,
#    "refresh_token": "<REFRESH_TOKEN>", "refresh_token_expires_in": 86399}

Store access_token as $INSTALLATION_TOKEN. It lasts about three hours, so request a new one at the start of each run of your integration. Confirm that both hosts answer:

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/company-info/whoami \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → {"id": <COMPANY_ID>}

curl -s https://googleads.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN"
# → {"records": [{"id": "<PROFILE_ID>", "google_ads_customer_id": <GOOGLE_ADS_CUSTOMER_ID>,
#    "name": "Example Brand", "status": "enabled", ...}]}

Send the API key to api.narrative.io and the installation token to googleads.narrativeconnectors.com.

API keys contain characters that shells mangle. Read the key from a file or an environment variable rather than pasting it inline.

Find your profile

A profile ties your Narrative company to one Google Ads customer ID, and every connection names the profile it delivers through. GET /profiles lists them all. To read one:

curl -s https://googleads.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles/{profile_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN"
# → {"id": "<PROFILE_ID>", "created_at": "...",
#    "google_ads_customer_id": <GOOGLE_ADS_CUSTOMER_ID>, "name": "Example Brand",
#    "status": "enabled", "updated_at": "..."}

Use a profile whose status is enabled and whose google_ads_customer_id is the account you want to deliver to. Record its id. The Narrative API lists the same profiles by name and status:

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/installations/{installation_id}/profiles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → {"records": [{"id": "<PROFILE_ID>", "name": "Example Brand", "status": "enabled", ...}]}

Create a profile

Create one profile for each linked Google Ads account. Send the customer ID as a number without dashes:

curl -s -X POST https://googleads.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Example Brand",
    "description": "Customer Match lists for Example Brand",
    "google_ads_customer_id": 1234567890
  }'

description is optional. Record the id of the new profile, then enable it:

curl -s -X POST https://googleads.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles/{profile_id}/enable \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN"
# → {"id": "<PROFILE_ID>", "google_ads_customer_id": <GOOGLE_ADS_CUSTOMER_ID>,
#    "name": "Example Brand", "status": "enabled", ...}

You can also create the profile in the Narrative UI, under Installed Apps → Google Ads Connector. See Installation.

Read the connection settings schemas

Each kind of Google Ads connection has a JSON schema for its quick_settings. The connector serves the schemas without a token, and the Narrative API serves the same content:

curl -s https://googleads.narrativeconnectors.com/interfaces

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/apps/14/interfaces \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"

The guide uses audience_first_party_new and audience_first_party_existing.

What the connection does

A connection’s quick_settings choose the interface and say how the connection delivers. The fields depend on the interface.

New user list (`audience_first_party_new`)

The connector creates the user list in Google Ads when you create the connection.

Field	What it does	Allowed values	Default
`name`	Name of the user list in Google Ads	Any string	The connection ID
`description`	Description of the user list	Any string	Empty
`membership_duration_days`	How many days a member stays in the list after an upload includes it. Set once, when the list is created	1 to 540	540
`historical_data_enabled`	Whether the connection also delivers data already in the dataset	`true`, `false`	`false`

Existing user list (`audience_first_party_existing`)

Field	What it does	Allowed values	Default
`user_list_id`	The user list to add members to. The list keeps its own membership duration	The numeric ID of a Customer Match user list in the profile’s Google Ads account	None. Required
`historical_data_enabled`	Whether the connection also delivers data already in the dataset	`true`, `false`	`false`

Existing and new rows

A connection delivers every snapshot written to the dataset after the connection is created. The historical_data_enabled quick setting decides whether the connection also delivers data that was already in the dataset when you created it:

With historical_data_enabled set to true, the connection first delivers data already in the dataset, then keeps delivering new snapshots as they land.
With historical_data_enabled set to false, the connection delivers only snapshots written after it was created.

How far back the first delivery reaches depends on the connector, and each connector’s guide states it. For Google Ads, historical_data_enabled delivers the dataset’s snapshots from the 30 days before the connection was created. After that, each new snapshot is delivered as it lands. Every delivery adds members to the user list, and the connection never removes them. A member leaves the list when its membership duration runs out. When you overwrite the dataset, the connection adds the rows in the new snapshot, and members that are missing from it stay in the list until their membership duration ends.

Delivery notifications

The Google Ads Connector reports each delivery as an app webhook event. Subscribe a webhook to app 14 to receive them:

curl -s -X POST https://api.narrative.io/webhooks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "webhook_subscription_app",
    "app_id": 14,
    "url": "https://your-host.example/hooks/narrative",
    "name": "google-ads-deliveries"
  }'
# → {"id": "<WEBHOOK_ID>", "app_id": 14, "name": "google-ads-deliveries",
#    "secret": "<WEBHOOK_SECRET>", "status": "active",
#    "url": "https://your-host.example/hooks/narrative", ...}

Keep the secret to verify each delivery. The connector sends these events:

Event	Sent when
`audience.delivery.completed`	A delivery to a Customer Match user list finishes
`audience.delivery.failed`	A delivery to a Customer Match user list fails

Read a subscription with GET /webhooks/{webhook_id}, and stop the notifications with DELETE /webhooks/{webhook_id}. See App subscription for the subscription fields and Verifying deliveries for checking the secret.