What “Linking Google My Business to Google Ads” Really Means Today
“Google My Business” is the old name. What you’re linking to Google Ads now is your Business Profile, and the feature you’re enabling inside Google Ads is called location assets (previously “location extensions”). Once linked, Google Ads can pull approved location details (like address, hours, phone number, and certain media) from your Business Profile and attach them to eligible ads.
Why this matters for local performance
When location assets are working properly, your ads become more locally relevant. Depending on the ad format and campaign type, people may see your address, distance, a map pin, and quick actions like calling or getting directions. In real accounts, that typically improves click quality because you’re pre-qualifying visitors with “where you are” before they click.
It also unlocks cleaner local measurement in many setups, because your ads are now tied to real-world locations rather than just a website URL.
Before you start: the 4 prerequisites that prevent 90% of setup problems
First, you need access to the Business Profile Manager account that contains the locations you want to advertise. If you’re an agency or a separate marketing partner, you can still link—but you’ll often need to request access and have the business approve it.
Second, your locations must be eligible and in good standing. If a location is marked as temporarily or permanently closed, it typically won’t serve as a location asset with your ads.
Third, decide whether you’re linking locations you own (“Our locations”) or locations you don’t own (affiliate/chain scenarios). Selecting the wrong location type can lead to disapprovals or assets not serving.
Fourth, understand a key constraint: an individual Google Ads account generally uses one primary location data source type for location assets (for example, Business Profile vs. chain locations vs. manually selected Google Maps locations). So it’s worth choosing the cleanest long-term source before you build campaigns around it.
How to Link Your Business Profile to Google Ads (Step-by-Step)
In the current Google Ads experience, you’ll usually do this from Assets (or from Location manager in the shared library/tools area, depending on your UI and permissions). Below are the two most common linking paths.
Option A: You already manage the Business Profile (fastest setup)
- Open your Google Ads account.
- Go to Assets (within the Campaigns section menu in the left navigation).
- Click the plus button and choose Location.
- Choose Our locations as the location type, then continue.
- Select Business Profile as the source.
- Choose the correct Business Profile Manager account from the dropdown.
- If prompted, apply business name and/or label filters so you only sync the locations you truly want in this Google Ads account.
- Save.
At this point, your locations are connected at the account level, meaning they’re eligible to show with campaigns in that Google Ads account (assuming everything passes the platform’s automated checks and your campaign types support them).
Option B: The Business Profile is managed by someone else (request access)
This is the agency scenario, the franchise scenario, or the “my colleague owns the profile” scenario. Instead of logging into the profile, you send an access request from Google Ads.
- In Google Ads, go to Location manager (in the Tools/shared library area, depending on your navigation).
- Click the plus button and choose Our locations, then continue.
- Select Business Profile as the location source.
- Choose the option to request access and enter the email address that manages the Business Profile.
- Send the request and wait for approval.
What the business owner/manager must do to approve: they’ll open Business Profile Manager and review the linking request. Once approved, your Google Ads account can use those locations as location assets. Importantly, linking allows advertising use of the location data, but it doesn’t give you the ability to edit the Business Profile’s business information.
After You Link: Control Which Locations Show (and Fix What Usually Breaks)
Choose the right locations per campaign (instead of “everything everywhere”)
A common mistake is syncing every location and letting them run across every campaign. A better approach is to keep the account-level link clean, then control usage at campaign or ad group level. This is especially important if you have multiple storefronts, different service areas, or different budgets by region.
Once your account-level location assets exist, you can associate them more selectively by using:
- All synced locations when every location is relevant to that campaign.
- Location groups when you want structured subsets (for example, “Northeast stores,” “High-margin locations,” or “Locations with showroom”).
- No location asset for campaigns where locations would confuse users (for example, eCommerce-only remarketing where you don’t want store signals).
If you rely on Business Profile labels, you can also filter which locations sync into the Ads account in the first place—this keeps your account tidy and prevents accidental spend pointing to the wrong storefront.
Troubleshooting checklist (the fastest path to “why aren’t my locations showing?”)
- Pending approval: if you requested access by email, the business still needs to approve the link request inside Business Profile Manager.
- Wrong source type selected: “Our locations” is for locations you own/manage. Affiliate/chain setups require the correct location type. A mismatch can cause disapprovals or non-serving assets.
- Location marked closed: closed locations (temporary or permanent) generally won’t serve as location assets.
- Too many locations synced (messy accounts): apply Business Profile labels and filters so only the intended locations appear in Google Ads.
- Campaign association not set: linking at the account level makes locations eligible, but you may still be restricting them at the campaign/ad group level (or accidentally set “No location asset”).
- Disapproved state: check the asset’s policy/status details in the Assets or Location manager views. This is where you’ll see whether the platform has flagged eligibility or integrity verification issues.
- Expectations mismatch on where they appear: some inventories and formats show locations only under certain campaign types or goals (for example, some Display use cases depend on specific local-oriented campaign setups).
Governance tips (especially for agencies and multi-location brands)
If you manage ads for a client, treat the Business Profile link like access to a critical asset. Keep the Business Profile ownership with the business, and use linking requests so the client can approve, audit, and revoke access if needed. If the relationship changes, unlinking the advertising account from Business Profile Manager cleanly removes the connection without changing Business Profile ownership.
Also be aware that linking can expose location data to connected advertising workflows inside the same Google Ads ecosystem. Operationally, that’s useful—but it’s another reason to keep account access and linking approvals intentional, documented, and limited to the right parties.
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
Linking “Google My Business” (now Google Business Profile) to Google Ads essentially means connecting your Business Profile so Google Ads can use it as a location asset, pulling verified details like your address, hours, phone number, and map pin directly into your ads. Before you start, it helps to confirm you have the right Business Profile Manager access, that your locations are eligible (not marked closed or duplicated), and that you’re using a consistent location data source; then you can either link a profile you already manage from Google Ads’ Assets area or request access if someone else owns the profile, and finally control where locations appear by filtering and using location groups per campaign. If your location assets don’t show, the issue is usually approval status, the wrong source/type, closed locations, missing campaign association, or policy/eligibility flags. If you want a simpler way to keep local-focused campaigns clean and continuously optimized after the link is in place, Blobr connects to your Google Ads account and uses specialized AI agents to monitor performance and turn best practices into clear, prioritized actions—so your location-enabled campaigns stay aligned without adding more manual work.
What “Linking Google My Business to Google Ads” Really Means Today
“Google My Business” is the old name. What you’re linking to Google Ads now is your Business Profile, and the feature you’re enabling inside Google Ads is called location assets (previously “location extensions”). Once linked, Google Ads can pull approved location details (like address, hours, phone number, and certain media) from your Business Profile and attach them to eligible ads.
Why this matters for local performance
When location assets are working properly, your ads become more locally relevant. Depending on the ad format and campaign type, people may see your address, distance, a map pin, and quick actions like calling or getting directions. In real accounts, that typically improves click quality because you’re pre-qualifying visitors with “where you are” before they click.
It also unlocks cleaner local measurement in many setups, because your ads are now tied to real-world locations rather than just a website URL.
Before you start: the 4 prerequisites that prevent 90% of setup problems
First, you need access to the Business Profile Manager account that contains the locations you want to advertise. If you’re an agency or a separate marketing partner, you can still link—but you’ll often need to request access and have the business approve it.
Second, your locations must be eligible and in good standing. If a location is marked as temporarily or permanently closed, it typically won’t serve as a location asset with your ads.
Third, decide whether you’re linking locations you own (“Our locations”) or locations you don’t own (affiliate/chain scenarios). Selecting the wrong location type can lead to disapprovals or assets not serving.
Fourth, understand a key constraint: an individual Google Ads account generally uses one primary location data source type for location assets (for example, Business Profile vs. chain locations vs. manually selected Google Maps locations). So it’s worth choosing the cleanest long-term source before you build campaigns around it.
How to Link Your Business Profile to Google Ads (Step-by-Step)
In the current Google Ads experience, you’ll usually do this from Assets (or from Location manager in the shared library/tools area, depending on your UI and permissions). Below are the two most common linking paths.
Option A: You already manage the Business Profile (fastest setup)
- Open your Google Ads account.
- Go to Assets (within the Campaigns section menu in the left navigation).
- Click the plus button and choose Location.
- Choose Our locations as the location type, then continue.
- Select Business Profile as the source.
- Choose the correct Business Profile Manager account from the dropdown.
- If prompted, apply business name and/or label filters so you only sync the locations you truly want in this Google Ads account.
- Save.
At this point, your locations are connected at the account level, meaning they’re eligible to show with campaigns in that Google Ads account (assuming everything passes the platform’s automated checks and your campaign types support them).
Option B: The Business Profile is managed by someone else (request access)
This is the agency scenario, the franchise scenario, or the “my colleague owns the profile” scenario. Instead of logging into the profile, you send an access request from Google Ads.
- In Google Ads, go to Location manager (in the Tools/shared library area, depending on your navigation).
- Click the plus button and choose Our locations, then continue.
- Select Business Profile as the location source.
- Choose the option to request access and enter the email address that manages the Business Profile.
- Send the request and wait for approval.
What the business owner/manager must do to approve: they’ll open Business Profile Manager and review the linking request. Once approved, your Google Ads account can use those locations as location assets. Importantly, linking allows advertising use of the location data, but it doesn’t give you the ability to edit the Business Profile’s business information.
After You Link: Control Which Locations Show (and Fix What Usually Breaks)
Choose the right locations per campaign (instead of “everything everywhere”)
A common mistake is syncing every location and letting them run across every campaign. A better approach is to keep the account-level link clean, then control usage at campaign or ad group level. This is especially important if you have multiple storefronts, different service areas, or different budgets by region.
Once your account-level location assets exist, you can associate them more selectively by using:
- All synced locations when every location is relevant to that campaign.
- Location groups when you want structured subsets (for example, “Northeast stores,” “High-margin locations,” or “Locations with showroom”).
- No location asset for campaigns where locations would confuse users (for example, eCommerce-only remarketing where you don’t want store signals).
If you rely on Business Profile labels, you can also filter which locations sync into the Ads account in the first place—this keeps your account tidy and prevents accidental spend pointing to the wrong storefront.
Troubleshooting checklist (the fastest path to “why aren’t my locations showing?”)
- Pending approval: if you requested access by email, the business still needs to approve the link request inside Business Profile Manager.
- Wrong source type selected: “Our locations” is for locations you own/manage. Affiliate/chain setups require the correct location type. A mismatch can cause disapprovals or non-serving assets.
- Location marked closed: closed locations (temporary or permanent) generally won’t serve as location assets.
- Too many locations synced (messy accounts): apply Business Profile labels and filters so only the intended locations appear in Google Ads.
- Campaign association not set: linking at the account level makes locations eligible, but you may still be restricting them at the campaign/ad group level (or accidentally set “No location asset”).
- Disapproved state: check the asset’s policy/status details in the Assets or Location manager views. This is where you’ll see whether the platform has flagged eligibility or integrity verification issues.
- Expectations mismatch on where they appear: some inventories and formats show locations only under certain campaign types or goals (for example, some Display use cases depend on specific local-oriented campaign setups).
Governance tips (especially for agencies and multi-location brands)
If you manage ads for a client, treat the Business Profile link like access to a critical asset. Keep the Business Profile ownership with the business, and use linking requests so the client can approve, audit, and revoke access if needed. If the relationship changes, unlinking the advertising account from Business Profile Manager cleanly removes the connection without changing Business Profile ownership.
Also be aware that linking can expose location data to connected advertising workflows inside the same Google Ads ecosystem. Operationally, that’s useful—but it’s another reason to keep account access and linking approvals intentional, documented, and limited to the right parties.
