Is Google Ads Editor free on Mac?

Yes. Google's download page calls it a free Google Ads campaign management application, and its About page calls it a free, downloadable application. There is no paid tier and no license key, and the same app works for accounts of any size.

Can Google Ads Editor be installed on macOS 12 Monterey?

No. The system requirements page states 64-bit Windows 10 or later and macOS 13 or later. The requirement depends on the macOS version, so an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 12 does not qualify, while an Intel Mac on macOS 13 does.

Why are the numbers in Ads Editor different from the website?

The app is offline except when downloading account data, posting edits, or checking for updates. The statistics shown are from the last download. Download the account again before comparing figures or making large edits.

Can shared budgets be edited in Ads Editor?

No. Google's feature table lists shared budgets as read only in Ads Editor. Shared creatives are not supported at all. Both have to be managed on ads.google.com, as does creating Ad gallery ads and app promotion ads.

Where does Ads Editor store data on a Mac?

According to Google's uninstall page, in the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Google-Google Ads-Editor and the file ~/.config/Google/Google-Google Ads-Editor.ini. Delete both after moving the app to the Trash to remove all locally stored account data.

Google Ads Editor download for Mac: what it does not cover

Google Ads Editor for Mac is a free download from Google, and it runs on macOS 13 or later. The file is a single disk image, google_ads_editor.dmg, served from dl.google.com. On October 18, 2026 that file was 334,180,816 bytes, about 334 MB, and its server date was October 13, 2026. The same file installs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Installing it is quick. Deciding what it replaces takes longer, because a fixed list of Google Ads features still needs the website. This guide covers the download, the requirement that decides whether it installs at all, the features that stay online, and a way to set up the browser side so it stops getting in the way. Every Google page cited was opened and checked on October 18, 2026.

Download and install in five steps

Google's help page Download and install Google Ads Editor describes it as "a free Google Ads campaign management application that takes just seconds to install." The steps on a Mac:

Open the download link from the Google Ads Editor help center. The Mac link delivers google_ads_editor.dmg.
Double click the disk image once it finishes downloading.
Drag the Google Ads Editor icon onto the Applications folder.
Open Google Ads Editor from Applications and sign in with the Google account that has access to the Ads account.
Download one or more accounts. Nothing can be edited until an account has been downloaded.

There is no separate Apple silicon and Intel build to choose between. The interface language is not fixed at download either. The Interface languages page lists 38 entries, from Arabic to Vietnamese, including Japanese, Korean, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. It says the language can be changed any time after installation.

The current major release is version 2.13. Google's release notes for version 2.13 call it "the 2026 release". It adds things like Customer retention goal support for Performance Max and a Maps channel for Demand Gen ad groups. An older copy downloaded months ago may be missing these, and an outdated build often looks like an unsupported feature.

The one line that decides whether it installs

The System requirements page is a single sentence:

Google Ads Editor is available for 64-bit Windows 10 or later and MacOS 13 or later. Source: support.google.com

The requirement is about the macOS version, not the processor. An Intel Mac running macOS 13 Ventura or later qualifies. An Apple silicon Mac still on macOS 12 Monterey does not. To check, open the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, and read the version number under the macOS name.

A Mac kept on an older release, for an audio driver or an internal tool, is stuck with the browser. That is less limiting than it sounds. Ads Editor was always an add on to the web interface, never a replacement for it.

There is also no Mac version of the Google Ads mobile app. The Google Ads listing on the App Store on October 18, 2026 named only iPhone, requiring iOS 16.0 or later, and iPad, requiring iPadOS 16.0 or later, under Compatibility. So on a desktop, the choice is between Ads Editor and ads.google.com.

What the installed app does well

Google's About Google Ads Editor page sums up the workflow in one line: download one or more accounts, make changes offline, then upload the changes to Google Ads. It also lists what the app is for:

Bulk editing tools for many changes at once
Export and import of files to share proposals or apply changes
Statistics for all campaigns or a chosen subset
Several accounts open and editable at the same time
Search and replace across ad groups or campaigns
Copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns
Undo and redo across many changes
Drafts that are reviewed before upload
Working without a connection

The same page notes that the app works for accounts of any size, but it pays off most for accounts with many campaigns and long keyword or ad lists. A single campaign with twenty keywords gains little. An agency rewriting final URLs across forty campaigns gains a great deal.

The app is also offline most of the time. The account security page states that the app is offline except when downloading account data, posting edits, or checking for updates. Update checks happen at startup and every 25 hours of continuous use. That explains a common surprise: the statistics beside a campaign are from the last download, not from right now. Download the account again before comparing numbers with the website, and before any large edit, so changes made by others online are not overwritten.

The features that stay on ads.google.com

Google keeps a feature by feature table on Google Ads features in Google Ads Editor. Most rows say Yes. The rows that do not are the ones that send people back to the browser every week:

Google Ads feature	Support in Ads Editor	What the table says
Shared creatives	No	Sign in to Google Ads online to view and manage them
Shared budgets	No	Read only in the app
Ad gallery ads	Limited	Download and copy only; creating one needs Google Ads online
App promotion ads	Limited	Download and copy only; not supported for TrueView video campaigns in the app
Campaign experiments	Limited	Download existing experiments and update their status
Display Ad Builder ads	Limited	Partial support
Campaign types	Limited	Types of changes vary by campaign type

The About page itself points back to the website: after starting to use Ads Editor, changes can still be made at ads.google.com. Downloading recent changes keeps the local copy current.

In practice, the website stays open every day. Ads Editor handles bulk changes. Editing a shared budget, managing shared creatives, and creating Ad gallery or app promotion ads all happen in a browser tab.

Where the time actually goes: the browser half

Most of the time lost in a normal week happens in the browser. A typical setup looks like this: one Chrome window with Google Ads, Google Analytics, Search Console, and Tag Manager in tabs, a manager account with several client accounts under it, and a personal Google account signed in to the same browser.

Three problems come from that setup.

Wrong account. Google lets several accounts sign in to one browser at once. The account that a link or bookmark opens in is not always the one intended, and nothing is visible until the page loads. Pulling a report for the wrong client, or editing a budget in the wrong account, is easy to do and only obvious afterwards.

Lost tabs. The Ads tab sits next to everything else. Cmd+Tab only switches to the browser, so finding the Ads tab means scanning a row of identical favicons.

Shared notifications. Alerts from the Ads site, from mail, and from everything else arrive as notifications from one browser. A Focus mode cannot let the Ads alerts through and silence the rest.

Browser profiles fix the first problem but not the second or third. A second Chrome profile still opens as another Chrome window, and the profiles share one icon in the Dock.

Giving ads.google.com a window of its own

Two free routes come with a Mac.

Safari's File, then Add to Dock, needs macOS Sonoma 14 or later. Apple's article Use Safari web apps on Mac states that a web app shares no browsing history, cookies, website data, or settings with Safari. So a Google Ads web app can stay signed in to the agency account while Safari stays signed in to a personal one. The limit is extensions: only Safari extensions can be enabled for the web app, so Chrome Web Store extensions for ads work do not come along.

Chrome's More, then Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app opens Google Ads in a window without tabs. Google's help page Use web apps gives the path. The installed app uses the sign in from the Chrome profile it was installed from, so a separate account needs a separate profile.

A tool that turns a website into a standalone Mac app combines both. The site to app tool built by the publisher of this site documents three settings on its Guide page that suit ads work, as written on October 18, 2026:

Profile isolation. Each app is assigned its own browser profile automatically, so a Google Ads app for one client and another for a second client keep their sign ins apart.
URL Rules. A whitelist limits an app to the listed domains. An ads app restricted to ads.google.com and accounts.google.com stays on those sites and does not turn into another general browser.
Notifications. Off by default. When turned on, the app appears by its own name in System Settings, Notifications, so Focus modes can treat it separately.

Google Ads itself is entered with the Custom option and its URL. Google Analytics, Search Console, and Tag Manager are built in presets on the Supported services page. Chrome extensions can be enabled per app for apps that use Google Chrome as the engine. The free plan allows 3 apps with all features, and Pro is a one time $24.99 for unlimited apps.

These apps are still the Google Ads website. They do not add bulk editing or offline work, and they do not replace Ads Editor. What they change is where the website opens and which account it uses.

Uninstalling cleanly, or moving to another Mac

Deleting the app icon is not a complete removal. Google's Uninstall Google Ads Editor page gives the Mac steps: open the Finder, open Applications, find the Google Ads Editor icon, and move it to the Trash. For a complete uninstall it lists one folder and one file that hold all locally stored data:

~/Library/Application Support/Google/Google-Google Ads-Editor
~/.config/Google/Google-Google Ads-Editor.ini

If the Library folder is hidden, press Command+Shift+G in the Finder, type ~/Library, and click Go. Removing both resets the app on the next install.

That folder is worth deleting on a Mac that is being sold, returned, or handed to a new team member. The downloaded account structure, including campaigns, keywords, and ads for every account opened, stays there until it is removed. The same applies before installing on a new Mac. Nothing needs copying over, because the next account download rebuilds the local copy from Google's servers.

What to do first

Check the macOS version first. If it is 13 or later, download the disk image, install it, and use it for bulk changes and drafts. Then set up the browser side: one window per Ads account, built with Safari's Add to Dock or with Kagemusha when Chrome extensions and URL Rules are needed.