What Mission Control does
I'm Zach Evans, an independent performance-media consultant. I manage Google Ads accounts for a small number of clients. Mission Control is the tool I built to do that work, replacing the spreadsheets and browser tabs I used before. It runs on my own computer. There is no public version, no sign-up, no accounts for anyone else, and it is not sold or distributed.
Reporting and budget pacing
Mission Control reads campaign, budget, keyword and search-term reports from the advertising accounts I manage, and works out how each client's spend is tracking: how much has been spent so far, what the period is projected to finish at, and the daily rate needed to land on the agreed budget. It also produces search query reports, which is how I find spend going to searches a client shouldn't be paying for.
Campaign management
From the same screen I can change a campaign's daily budget, or pause and resume a campaign, without switching over to the Google Ads interface. Every change is one I make by hand. Before anything is applied, the tool shows me the exact current amount and the exact new amount and makes me type the new value to confirm it. Each change is written to a log that cannot be edited afterwards, and the tool then re-reads the account to confirm what actually took effect. Nothing is automated, scheduled, or rule-driven, and there are no bidding scripts.
What Google account access it requests, and why
Mission Control signs in with Google using OAuth. It requests one permission:
Manage your Google Ads accounts (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords)
Why it is needed for reading: the pacing and reporting described above are computed from campaign, budget, keyword and search-term data. Without this permission Mission Control cannot retrieve any of it, and has nothing to report on.
Why it is needed for writing: the same permission is what allows the two changes the tool makes — setting a campaign's daily budget amount, and setting a campaign's status to paused or enabled. Google Ads does not offer a narrower permission that covers only those two operations.
Mission Control makes no other changes to an advertising account. It does not create or close accounts, does not create or delete campaigns, and does not modify ads, keywords, audiences, bidding strategies, conversion tracking, or billing.
Access is only ever to accounts that have deliberately granted my Google Ads manager account permission, and a client can withdraw that permission at any time from their own account settings.
How the data is handled
Data Mission Control retrieves is stored on my own computer and is visible only to me. It is never sold, rented, published, or transferred to anyone else. One client's data is never combined with another's or used to inform another advertiser's account. It is not used for advertising, for building audiences, or to train machine-learning models. When an engagement ends, my access is removed and the stored copy is deleted.
Mission Control's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. The full detail is in the privacy policy.
Contact
Mission Control is built and operated by Zach Evans, zachevan.com. Questions about the application or how it handles data:
hello@zachevan.com