Sherlok in Claude: connect Meta Ads via MCP in 1 minute

Until recently, asking Claude why your Meta Ads CPA went up always ended the same way: you exported a spreadsheet from Ads Manager, pasted it into the chat and hoped the AI would understand the columns. It worked once. The next week, all over again. The answer came, but the account was never connected.

That changed with the MCP protocol, which lets Claude read data from other tools directly, with your authorization. This guide is the step by step promised in the post: how to connect Claude to your Meta Ads account through the Sherlok connector in 1 minute, the 6 questions that make the connection worth it and what the connector deliberately does not do.

Direct answer: open Claude, go to Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector, paste the URL https://mcp.sherlok.ai/mcp, sign in with your Sherlok login and authorize 1 workspace. From then on Claude reads the Meta Ads, Google Ads, GA4 and Search Console sources connected to the workspace, answers diagnostic questions and shows what the agents found. It works on the Free plan, no card required.

1. Paste 1 URL into Claude

What to do: register the MCP connector in Claude. It takes 1 minute and only needs to be done once per account.

Prerequisite: an account on the platform with at least 1 source connected. On the Free plan you can connect 2 sources; start with Meta Ads and GA4.

Step by step:

1. Create the free account with Google or email and connect the Meta Ads account on the Sources screen.
2. In Claude, open Settings and click Connectors.
3. Click Add custom connector.
4. In the server URL field, paste https://mcp.sherlok.ai/mcp and confirm.
5. On the authorization screen, sign in with the same login from step 1 and choose 1 workspace.
6. Go back to the chat and check that the connector shows as active. Done.

How an agent uses this: from the moment it is connected, Claude sees the same sources as the workspace agents, so every question starts from data that is already synced, not from a pasted spreadsheet.

2. "What did my agents bring in today?"

What to expect: the workspace's daily summary: pending decisions, alerts and what changed since yesterday. This reading does not use a message from your plan.

Practical threshold: if the summary shows more than 5 decisions pending for more than 3 days, the queue is stalled and the problem is routine, not data.

How to ask:

1. Open a new chat in Claude with the connector active.
2. Type: "What did my agents bring in today for workspace X?"
3. Then ask: "Rank them by impact and tell me which decision I should approve first."

How an agent does it: the Ads, Site and Conversion, SEO and Report agents run on the connected sources and leave their suggestions in the decisions queue; Claude only reads that queue and organizes it for you.

3. "Why did my CPA go up this week?"

What to expect: an investigation that crosses ad sets, creatives and audiences over the last 7 days against the previous 7, and closes on a cause with a number. Each investigation uses 1 message from your plan.

Practical threshold: only worth investigating when CPA rose more than 20% with at least 10 conversions in the week. Below that, the variation is volume noise.

How to ask:

1. Type: "Why did my Meta Ads CPA go up this week compared with last week?"
2. Ask for detail: "Which ad set explains most of the increase?"
3. Close with a decision: "What do you suggest doing first and what is the expected impact?"

How an agent does it: the investigation agent queries the workspace sources, compares the two periods and returns the number and the decision. To know which metrics to look at before asking, read how to analyze Meta Ads campaigns: the right metrics.

4. "Compare Meta and Google over 30 days"

What to expect: spend, conversions and cost per conversion of both platforms side by side, without exporting 2 spreadsheets or lining up columns.

Practical threshold: a cost per conversion gap above 30% between platforms, with similar volume, is a signal to move budget. Below that, hold and watch for 2 more weeks.

How to ask:

1. Connect Google Ads as a second source in the workspace, if you have not yet.
2. Type: "Compare spend and cost per conversion for Meta Ads and Google Ads over the last 30 days."
3. Ask: "If I move 20% of the budget from the worst to the best, what is the estimated gain in conversions?"

How an agent does it: the comparison happens inside the workspace, with both sources synced over the same period, so the numbers match what each Ads Manager shows.

5. "Which page loses the conversion?"

What to expect: the GA4 reading crossed with paid clicks, pointing to the page where ad traffic lands and does not move down the funnel. It is the leak Ads Manager cannot see, because the problem sits after the click.

Practical threshold: a landing page with a conversion rate 50% below the site average, with more than 500 paid sessions in the month.

How to ask:

1. Confirm GA4 is connected as a source in the workspace.
2. Type: "Which page on the site loses the most paid-traffic conversions over the last 30 days?"
3. Ask: "What does the Site and Conversion agent suggest for that page?"

How an agent does it: the Site and Conversion agent reads GA4 and the registered products and issues page and funnel tasks; Claude brings the task already prioritized.

6. "Build the monthly summary for the client"

What to expect: a ready text with what the agents found in 30 days, per channel, with the main numbers and the decisions applied. It works for the closing meeting with a client or partner.

Practical threshold: if the summary runs past 1 page, cut it. A business owner reads 5 numbers and 3 decisions; the rest is an appendix.

How to ask:

1. Type: "Build a summary for the client with what the agents found this month, in up to 200 words."
2. Ask: "Include the 5 most important numbers and the 3 decisions we made."
3. Paste the result into the email or the presentation.

How an agent does it: the Report agent produces the digest and the audit per period with a grade and priorities; Claude uses that material as the base of the text instead of making up numbers.

7. Nothing changes in your account

What to check: the connector is read-only. No campaign is created, paused or changed by Claude or by the agents. Every decision stays in the queue for you to approve and apply in Ads Manager.

Why that is good: you gain daily diagnosis without giving up control. In the current phase, the agent suggests and the owner executes; execution upon approval is the next step on the roadmap.

How to verify:

1. In Ads Manager, open the account's Change history and confirm there are no changes made by an application.
2. In Claude, under Settings and Connectors, you can disconnect whenever you want.
3. On the platform, the connection can also be revoked from the integrations screen.

How an agent does it: it records each suggestion with the source and the number that justified it, which leaves a clear trail of why each decision was made.

What it costs and what uses a message

The connector works on every plan, including Free, which does not ask for a card. Viewing the daily summary, listing agents and reading results does not use a message. Each investigation question uses 1 message: 30 per month on Free, 200 on Growth, 500 on Pro and unlimited on Infinity. In practice, a business owner who runs 1 investigation per business day fits in Free for the first month and decides later whether upgrading is worth it.

If you are still deciding between building an agent from scratch or using a ready one, the comparison is in how to create an AI agent: the guide for people who do not code.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work with ChatGPT too?

The MCP connector was built for Claude. There is a separate integration for ChatGPT, with the same principle of reading the workspace sources; the connection path is different and is on the platform's integrations page.

Do I have to give Claude my Meta Ads password?

No. Claude never sees the Meta password or token. Authorization happens between you and the platform, which already has the source connected read-only. In Claude you only sign in with the platform login.

Can I connect more than one workspace?

Authorization is done per workspace. To work with several clients, authorize each client's workspace and say in the chat which one should be used for each question.

Connecting takes 1 minute. What changes is the rest of the month: instead of exporting a spreadsheet to ask, you ask and the account answers. The owner decides; the AI just makes sure the question never goes without a number.