Google Ads stopped letting you remove your old ad guy

Open your Google Ads account and count the admins. If the answer is one, you have a problem that did not exist three weeks ago.

On July 14, 2026, Google changed how you remove someone's access. You now type a written justification, and the request routes to a second admin for approval. It sits there for 20 days. If nobody approves it, the request expires and nothing happens.

Read that again with a one-admin account in mind. You are the only admin. You request the removal. The request goes to a second admin for approval. There is no second admin. Twenty days later the request dies and that person still has your account.

Google framed this as security, and the reasoning holds up in one direction: it stops a hijacked account from locking out the real owner. The reasoning collapses in the other direction. Google shipped no fallback for single-admin accounts, no appeals path, and no documentation. The feature turned up in accounts and advertisers found it on their own.

What does this actually cost you?

Say you part ways with a marketing contractor in September. Ordinary stuff. Their rate went up, your leads went flat, you found someone who charges less.

Under the old system you removed their access that afternoon. Two clicks, done.

Now, if you are the only admin, you cannot. They keep whatever access level they had on the day you stopped paying them. At the Admin level that means changing budgets, pulling conversion data, exporting your customer match lists, and adding their own users to your account.

A roofing company in Brownsburg running $4,000 a month through Google Ads is leaving a former vendor inside a live account for 20 days minimum. Twenty days at that spend is roughly $2,600 of budget somebody else can still touch.

A person you stopped paying should not still be able to spend your money. Since July 14, that is Google's call, not yours.

How do I add a second admin to Google Ads?

Do it today, while nothing is wrong. It takes about four minutes.

1. Open your Google Ads account.
2. Click Admin in the left menu, then Access and security.
3. Click the plus button.
4. Enter the email address of the person you are adding.
5. Set the access level to Admin.
6. Click Send invitation.

They get an email invitation. Once they accept, your account has two admins and the approval loop has somewhere to land.

While you are on that screen, read the full list of people who already have access. Most shops I audit have at least one name nobody recognizes. A web developer from 2021. An agency that stopped returning calls. Somebody's old work address at a company that no longer exists. Clear those out now, because clearing them out gets harder every month you wait.

Which access level should each person have?

Admin is the top level, and most people on your account do not need it.

Access level	What they can do
Admin	Everything, including adding and removing other users.
Standard	Run and edit campaigns, but not manage users.
Read only	Look at the account and reports. No changes.
Email only	Receive notification emails. No account access.
Billing	Manage payment and invoicing details only.

Your agency almost always belongs at Standard. They can build campaigns, adjust bids, and do the work you hired them for without holding the keys to the account itself. Give Admin to two people: you, and one other person who will still be on your side if a vendor relationship goes bad.

That second admin should not be the agency running your campaigns. If the person you might need to remove is also the person who has to approve the removal, you have built the same trap with extra steps. A business partner or your accountant will do. So will a second email address you control yourself.

What Google has not answered

Nobody outside Google knows what happens after the 20-day window closes on an unapproved request. There is no published path for a single-admin account to escalate to support, and no confirmation that support can override the flow at all. Google has not documented the feature.

Until that changes, the only real protection is having two admins before you need one.

Four minutes. Do it before your next campaign review.

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Sources

#	Source	What it backed up
1	Google Ads forces second admin approval, leaving solo admins stuck	The July 14, 2026 change, the written justification requirement, the 20-day expiration, and the absence of a fallback for single-admin accounts.
2	Google Ads Asks For Justification When Removing User Account	Independent confirmation that the justification prompt appeared in live accounts in July 2026.
3	Manage access to your Google Ads account	The Admin then Access and security menu path used to invite a new user.
4	About access levels in your Google Ads account	The Admin, Standard, Read only, Email only, and Billing access levels and their permissions.
5	Manager accounts: user access levels	Confirmation that only Admin level users can add and remove other users.