Follow these steps inside your Avid account:
- Log in to Avid
Go to your Avid dashboard and click Settings in the left navigation. - Open Advertising Integrations
In your Avid AI Integration Checklist, select Advertising,
or
Click Add → System. - Find Google Ads Scroll through the available integrations until you see the Google Ads tile.
- Click Authenticate
Select Authenticate to begin the connection flow. - Sign in with Google
Use your Google login and password to authorize access. - Allow Avid Access
Follow the authentication prompts and click Continue to grant the necessary permissions.
If you don’t have the proper Google Ads permissions, you can invite a teammate into Avid so they can complete the authentication.
Once connected, Avid will be able to sync audience segments from your CRM, files, and email lists—if your account includes the Pathways feature. If you’d like to add Pathways, reach out to your Account Manager or submit a support ticket through the Help Center.
If you run into issues when connecting Google Ads, open the Support form in the Avid navigation and send us a message. We’re here to help.
How Avid Protects Your Data when syncing to Google Ads
Avid was designed so that organizations have full control over which data fields are shared and how that data is protected in transit. Below is a high-level look at how the Google Ads integration works from a security and engineering perspective.
Hashing: How Avid Protects Sensitive Identifiers
When syncing audiences to Google Ads, Avid uses hashing, a security technique that generates a one-way, irreversible “digital fingerprint” of sensitive values.
What is hashing?
Hashing is a type of one-way encryption method that converts sensitive information—like email addresses or phone numbers—into a fixed-length string of characters. It cannot be reversed to reveal the original value. Google uses these hashed “fingerprints” to match your supporters to Google accounts without ever seeing their actual personal information.
Avid hashes identifiers using SHA-256, the same hashing standard Google requires for Customer Match.
- Emails → normalized + hashed
- Phone numbers → normalized + hashed
- Names / address fields → hashed or left in cleartext only when explicitly required by Google’s matching rules
- All hashing happens inside Avid before anything is transmitted to Google
- All data is sent over TLS-encrypted connections
Hashing allows Avid to participate in Google’s matching ecosystem without exposing private information.
SOC 2, Trust Center & Compliance Standards
Avid’s entire data pipeline — including the Google Ads integration — is governed by our SOC 2 Type II controls for security, availability, and confidentiality.
You can view our live controls, security posture, and compliance documentation in the Avid Trust Center.
To learn more about how Avid protects your data—including our SOC 2 compliance, access controls, and encrypted storage—you can review our Security & Compliance FAQ.
This reassurance is especially important for organizations with strict privacy requirements: all technical handling of identifiers is validated through these SOC 2 safeguards.
What Does Avid Sync to Google Ads? (You Stay in Control)
Avid never decides what gets sent to Google — you do.
You control:
- Which audiences are included
- Which constituents match that audience
- Which fields are used for matching
- Whether identifiers are raw or pre-hashed
- Which data sets are connected (CRM, email, transactions)
Avid only uses the minimum required identifiers to allow Google to match your audience. Everything else stays inside Avid.
Data Avid may send (depending on your configuration):
- Email address (hashed using SHA-256)
- Phone number (hashed)
- Country (hashed or cleartext depending on Google requirements)
- Postal code (hashed or cleartext depending on Google requirements)
- First/last name (hashed if used)
Data Avid does NOT send:
- Giving history
- Campaign responses
- Transaction amounts
- Contact details beyond the specific fields required for matching
- Any fields you do not explicitly map
Your organization maintains full control and visibility into what leaves your environment.
Additional Data Avid Pulls Back From Google Ads
In addition to sending hashed identifiers for matching, Avid also retrieves:
- Campaign performance metrics
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Spend
- Conversions (if configured)
This data helps your team measure ROI and understand how audiences perform.
Future releases will also support:
- Managing campaign assets and creative
- Syncing reporting back into Avid in near-real time
All inbound metrics from Google contain no personal information, only aggregated performance figures.