Each user in Google Ad Manager is assigned to a user role. Different roles have different permissions , which control what a user can do in your network.
For example, a user in the "Administrator" role has full access via multiple permissions. A user with the "Legal manager" role has fewer permissions, appropriate for signing and accepting contracts and so on. These two roles are both examples of "built-in roles."
Ad Manager has two categories of roles:
- Built-in roles: These roles are pre-configured in Ad Manager, allowing you to quickly assign a role and its built-in permissions to a user. The "Administrator" role is an example of a "built-in" role.
- Custom roles: These roles can be set up as you wish. For example, you can create a custom name for the role, and assign specific permissions to it.
This article explains how to view the built-in roles, and how to create and manage custom roles.
Jump to a section of the article:
About built-in roles
Built-in roles cover the most common permission configurations. These roles are not editable. They are sometimes updated as new products or features are released.
The following list includes all the built-in roles, along with a brief description of each.
To view all the permissions associated with a built-in role, jump to View the built-in roles and their permissions .
-
Ad Exchange manager:Ad Exchange managers have access to Ad Exchange functionality, but not Ad Manager. This role might not be available for your network.
-
Administrator:Administrators have full access to all functionality, except the "Manage legal" permission category.
- Administrator (Ad Manager only):Administrators for Ad Manager only have full access to all functionality in Ad Manager, but not Ad Exchange.
- Advertiser:Invited advertisers can check the progress of their orders.
- Executive:Executives can run reports and evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns through read-only access to all functionality.
- Legal manager:Legal managers can view and edit users, roles, and teams, as well as access and accept the Ad Manager payment contract when completing the self-serve billing setup. They can view and edit Advanced features, and view and accept contracts. They do not have access to any other Ad Manager functionality. The contract permissions tied to the Legal manager role can also be added to any custom role created by an Administrator. Ensure that only users authorized to sign for contracts are added to custom roles with this permission.
- Sales manager:Sales managers can create orders, approve orders, cancel orders, edit targeting criteria, and run reports on orders, sales, and inventory.
- Salesperson: Salespeople can create orders, manage orders, and run reports on orders they create.
- Trafficker: Traffickers can create orders, edit orders, edit line items, upload creatives, and run reports on orders and creatives.
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Access & authorization, and then Roles.
- Next to
, click Add new filter, and then:
- Click Built-in, and select Yes.
- Click Apply.
- Under "Name," review the list of built-in roles.
- (Optional) Review other details on the table:
- Status: Indicates whether the role is "Active" or "Inactive." Built-in roles have the status "Active."
- Built-in: Indicates whether the role is a "Built-in" or "Custom" role.
- Description: Offers a brief description of a role's access or permissions.
- To view all the permissions granted to a built-in role:
- Under "Name," click the name of a built-in role, such as Administrator.
- Review the list of permissions.
If a box next to a permission is checked, the role includes that permission. To learn more about each permission, visit User role permissions .
About custom roles
Administrators can set up custom roles with a set of permissions to fit user needs.
You can set the status of custom roles to "Active" or "Inactive." New users can't be added to "Inactive" roles, but users already in an "Inactive" role retain their permissions.
To create or edit a user role, your own user role must have the "Edit users and roles" permission. To access features and functionality specific to Ad Exchange, the "Access Ad Exchange interface" permission is required.
- When creating a custom role, you have the option to copy permissionsfrom an existing role as a starting point. After copying permissions, you can add or remove permissions as needed.
- Note that if any new permissionsare added to Ad Manager, you will need to add them manually to your custom roles. New permissions are not automatically added to your custom roles.
View, create, and manage custom roles
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Access & authorization, and then Roles.
- Next to
- Select the value No.
- Click Apply.
The filter shows "Built-in is No."
- Under "Name," review the list of your custom roles. Tip: On the table, custom roles have the value "No" under "Build-in."
Create a custom role
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Access & authorization, and then Roles.
- Click New role.
- Enter a name and a description for the role.
- (Optional) To use the permissions of an existing role as a starting point for your custom role, in the "Copy permissions from role," search box, select an existing role from the menu.
- Under each category, such as "Trafficking and delivery," check the box next to each permission
you want to include with the role. Tip: To check or uncheck all the boxes in a category, next to "Select," click Allor None.
- Click Save.
Edit a custom role
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Access & authorization, and then Roles.
- Click the name of the role you'd like to edit.
Note that you can only edit roles with the "Active" status. - Edit the name, description, and selected permissions.
Learn more about permissions . - Click Save.
Set a custom role to "Inactive"
If you don't plan to add new users to a custom role, you can set the role to the "Inactive" status. This setting doesn’t affect users already assigned to the role. Only custom user roles can be set to "Inactive." Inactive roles can't be edited.
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Access & authorization, and then Roles.
Under "Status," you can check the current status of a role. - (Optional) To filter for active roles, click Add new filter, then Status, then Active, and then Apply.
- Click the name of the role you'd like to deactivate.
- To deactivate the role, in the top-right corner, click Active
and select Inactive.
Changes are saved and applied immediately.
Set a custom role to "Active"
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Access & authorization, and then Roles.
Under "Status," you can check the current status of a role. - (Optional) To filter for inactive roles, click Add new filter, then Status, then Inactive, and then Apply.
- Click the name of the role you'd like to re-activate.
- To activate the user role, in the top-right corner, click Inactive
Changes are saved and applied immediately.
