What to Do When Your Google Ads Account Is Hacked: Use Case and Actionable Prevention Tips

Google Ads account breaches can escalate quickly and have profound business impacts, especially at scale. Fortunately, the right tools can help you prevent hacks and recover quickly if they do occur. A recent use case of a bad actor infiltrating a Google Ads account for a high-growth agency illustrates how. Here’s how it unfolded, what we did to help contain it, and most importantly, the steps other advertisers can take to protect themselves.

The incident: an overnight Google Ads account breach at a digital marketing agency

A performance advertising agency with $50 million in annual spend discovered an overnight spike in error reports. These reports showed that campaigns were being created with budgets far exceeding expected thresholds, driving up $180,000 in overspend. A deeper review also revealed an unusual jump in spend and performance metrics.

Several accounts were identified as the source of the hack. Luckily, the agency’s overspend protection tools locked the accounts down temporarily, but it soon became clear that automated Google Ads scripts—compromised by the hacker—were the culprit.

The solution: partnership-driven crisis management and automated safeguards 

Working in partnership with Fluency, the agency quickly took steps to resolve the issue:

1. Within minutes, the agency implemented a fix that used Fluency’s built-in overspend protection capabilities that identified which accounts had been hacked. This automatically paused the affected accounts and campaigns, containing the breach.
2. The agency partnered with Fluency’s team to create new custom scripts that prevented the hackers from reactivating the malicious campaigns.

All of this took place in a matter of minutes. 

“Without Fluency, it would have taken hours or days to resolve this problem during a time when every moment counted,” said one of the agency’s C-Suite executives. “Instead, we could quickly contain the issue and implement new safeguards to prevent future risk.”

The agency also believes that a manual account review would have “cost us hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in ad spend.”

Key takeaways for advertisers: how to secure your Google Ads accounts

This hack—and its quick resolution—underscores the importance for advertisers to have both technical safeguards and proactive account management processes in your advertising operations. Here are several key actions any advertiser should take:

1. Strengthen account access controls
   
   • Change passwords and require resets every 90 days. Use complex passwords with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
   • Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for all users whenever possible.
   • Use approved domains to restrict account access to known entities.
2. Lock down new and existing accounts
   
   • Ensure your domain is listed in every new account.
   • Review permissions regularly to confirm no outside access has been added without your awareness.
3. Watch for phishing and spoofing
   
   • Don’t click links or download attachments from suspicious emails.
   • Verify email headers and return-paths to ensure they match the sender.
   • Navigate to URLs manually rather than via email links.
4. Secure the devices you use
   
   • Run regular antivirus and anti-malware scans.
   • Keep all software and browser security patches up to date.
   • Avoid installing unknown plug-ins or software.
5. Monitor scripts and automations
   
   • Periodically audit your Google Ads scripts and rules for unexpected changes. 
   • Use logging and alerting to monitor automated changes.
6. Utilize automation tools for budget management and other workflows 
   
   • Fluency’s budget management tools were instrumental in helping this agency flag the hack as well as resolve it. By working closely with Fluency’s support team, the agency pinpointed the hacked accounts and mitigated what could have been a significant business and client situation.

More Google Ads account best practices can be found in the Google Ads support center. 

Hack prevention starts with process

The best way to deal with a hacked Google Ads account is to prevent it from happening in the first place. But if you are hacked, then speed, visibility, and automation can be the difference between a blip in operations or a major event.

At Fluency, we design systems that give agencies and enterprises the tools to securely manage large-scale paid media operations without losing speed or control.

If you're not sure how secure your Google Ads setup is or if you're managing more accounts than your team can realistically monitor manually, now is the time to reevaluate your processes.

Want help building a safer, smarter ad operation? Let’s talk.

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