Before you tell your current agency you are leaving, confirm you hold an administrator login, under your own email, on eleven things: Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Search Console, your Google Business Profile, your Meta business assets, the domain registrar, hosting and the website itself, call tracking numbers, past reports, and the creative files you paid for. Ownership of those accounts, not the contract, decides what survives the switch.
Why account ownership decides what survives a switch
One year of tracked calls and form fills in a Google Ads account tells the bidding what actually produced inquiries in your market, and the next manager inherits that record. If the agency created the account under its own billing and never gave you a login, and it will not add you on the way out, the replacement account opens with no conversion history and the bidding learns again on your money.
Even analytics can leave with the agency. A Google Analytics 4 property where the agency holds the only administrator role takes your historical traffic and lead data with it when access is removed. A Google business listing with the agency as primary owner can carry years of reviews you cannot manage. A domain registered in the agency's name lets it decide when your website moves.
Nobody has to act in bad faith for this to go wrong. Most losses happen because nobody checked who was listed as owner until the day access was removed.
What to request from your old agency
Ask for each item while the relationship is still working. A request made before notice is a routine admin task; the same request made after notice can sit unanswered until the contract term runs out.
| Asset | What to ask for | What you lose without it |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Admin access for your own email, and billing in your business name | Conversion history the bidding learns from, and the account's change history |
| Google Analytics 4 | Administrator role on the account, not only the property | Historical traffic, lead events and audiences |
| Google Tag Manager | Administrator on the container, with publish rights | The record of what every tag and conversion fires on |
| Google Search Console | Owner on the domain property | Sixteen months of search query and ranking data |
| Google Business Profile | Primary owner on your own Google account | Control of the listing, its posts and your replies to reviews |
| Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | The ad account, pixel and Page assigned to your own Business portfolio | Pixel event history and every custom audience built on it |
| Domain registrar and DNS | The registrar account in your name, with the login | The ability to point your domain at a new host or set up email |
| Hosting and the website | Hosting login, website administrator login and a current full backup | The website itself if the agency hosts it under its own plan |
| Call tracking | A list of every tracking number and where it appears, plus a port or forwarding plan | Calls from numbers already printed on vehicles, signs and directory listings |
| Reports and settings | The last twelve months of reports and a list of each conversion action and what it counts | The baseline the new agency is measured against |
| Creative and copy | Source files for ads, images and video you paid for | The work you funded, which you would otherwise pay to recreate |
The order to do it in
- Inventory first. List every account above and who is shown as owner or administrator today.
- Add your own logins. Have the agency add your email as administrator, then sign in and confirm you can see each account.
- Read the notice clause. Check the contract for the notice period, any minimum term, and who owns the website files.
- Give notice. Do it in writing, with the date the agency's access ends.
- Overlap the handover. Give your incoming agency access through your own accounts, and remove the old agency only after the new one confirms tracking records conversions.
- Compare the week after. Check calls, form fills and conversions for the week after the switch against the week before. A sudden drop usually means a tag, number or form that was not carried over.
The first months after the switch should follow a visible plan. The first 90 days with a marketing agency sets out what each channel can honestly deliver by day 90, and How to Choose a Marketing Agency in Edmonton covers what the new proposal should include before you sign.
How we handle it at Choice OMG
Clients own every account, pixel and audience we build, ad spend is paid directly to Google, Meta or Microsoft from the client's own account, and engagements run month to month after the first three. The checklist above therefore works in both directions: it is how a business moves to us, and it is how a business would leave. Our fees are flat and never a percentage of ad spend, which is explained here, and every price is on the pricing page.