adwords api to manage other accounts

Question

We are trying to integrate Google adwords connectivity into our Marketing Analytics Web application, meaning we are creating an app that would allow small businesses to login to their AdWords accounts and manage them based on findings of our app.

The problem is that upon signing up for API Access AdWords is asking us to link 'our' adwords account to the app account as well. This does not make too much sense to us, why do we need to show our adwords account when we ourselves will not be the main users of the app. It almost seems that AdWords assumes only a couple of users will be using the API.

Is my thinking flawed here? Can anyone clarify?

Answer 1

Google does seem to assume that their AdWords API is used primarily for in-house reporting and account management (as well by advertising agencies managing accounts on behalf of their clients).

Even if you are building an app for general, public use, the app's Client ID, Client Secret, and Developer Token are still connected to your company's MCC account.

However, this does not cause a problem. Any AdWords account owner can authorize your app to access their data, without having to be your client.