Who owns your Google Ads account? Check this today.
If someone else controls your account, you could lose years of data the day you leave. Five minutes to check.
Here's a question worth answering before you need to: if you stopped working with your agency or freelancer tomorrow, would you still have your Google Ads account?
A lot of business owners assume yes. Some find out the hard way that it's no.
Why it matters
Your Google Ads account isn't just some campaigns. It's the history. Every search term, every conversion, every test, every pound you've spent learning what works. Lose the account and you start from scratch.
And it happens. Some agencies set accounts up under their own control, and when the client leaves, the account stays behind. Sometimes it's deliberate. Sometimes it's just how they've always done it. Either way, it's your money that built that history.
How to check in five minutes
- Log in to Google Ads with your own Google account, not a shared login the agency gave you.
- Go to Admin, then Access and security.
- Look at the list of users. Is your email address there, with Admin access?
- Check billing. Is the payments profile in your business's name, paid with your card?
If your email has admin access and you pay Google directly, you're in good shape.
If you can't log in yourself, or you only have read-only access, or you pay the agency and they pay Google, it's time for a polite conversation.
What to ask for
Ask your agency to add your email address as an Admin user. That doesn't stop them doing their job. Agencies normally work through their own manager account linked to yours, and that's fine. It just means that if you ever part ways, you keep the account.
A good agency will do it straight away. If they won't, that tells you something.
How I do it
With me, you own the account. Always. You pay Google directly. I get access to do the work, and if we ever stop working together, the campaigns, the history and the data all stay with you.
It should be that way with anyone you work with.