The right answer to "what happens to our accounts when we leave?" is that nothing happens, because the accounts were yours all along.
The agency loses its access. You keep every campaign, every month of analytics and the domain your email runs on. If that is not the answer your current agency gives, fix it before you give notice, not after. Most of it is decided by the marketing agency contract you signed.
This is the checklist we would want a client to run against us. For each asset: how to check who holds it today, what to ask for in writing, and when in a 30-day exit it needs to happen. Checking all this before you commit is part of choosing a digital marketing agency in the UK.
Why a login is not the same as ownership
Having a login is not the same as owning the account, and the difference only shows up on the day you try to leave. An agency can give you "standard" access to a Google Ads account that sits inside its own manager account. You will see your spend every day without noticing that you cannot add a user, change billing or unlink the agency.
Google's page on ownership of client accounts says that when a manager account creates a new account, "the manager will automatically become the owner of that account". Many agencies set accounts up this way for speed. Few explain what it means on exit. The same pattern repeats across Meta, GA4, Google Business Profile and your domain registrar.
Google Ads: manager links versus account ownership
Check first whether your Google Ads account has a company admin, or whether it lives inside the agency's manager account (still called an MCC by most people). Sign in at ads.google.com with a company Google login, not one the agency created. Go to Admin, then Access and security.
Google's access management guide says the Users tab lists each user's access level, with a "Show users in full hierarchy" toggle so you can see who comes in through which manager account.
Then open the Managers tab. The Owner column shows which manager account, if any, holds administrative ownership. Google's manager account page states that "linking a manager account doesn't automatically grant administrative ownership", so the agency being linked is fine. The agency being the owner is what you need to change.
Admin access is the level that matters. Google's access levels page says only an admin can "give account access, change access levels and cancel invitations from other users", unlink manager accounts and manage payment methods. If nobody at your company has admin, you cannot remove the agency on your own.
Ask for this in writing:
- Admin access for two named company email addresses, confirmed with a screenshot of the Users tab.
- Administrative ownership transferred away from the agency manager account, or removed. Google's ownership page lists "Transfer ownership to another manager account" and "Remove owner" as actions the owning manager takes from its Sub-account settings.
- Confirmation that the payments profile is in the company's name and the card on file is yours.
- A Google Ads Editor export and the last 12 months of change history, in case anything is disputed later.
If the agency says the account was built inside its MCC and cannot be handed over, it is choosing not to.
On a UK Business Forums thread, an in-house marketer taking over PPC described an agency that refused access and offered only a campaign export, while the company's own credit card was paying Google. The agency's stated reason was that it might reuse the account for another client in the same niche.
"A client account can only have one owner." Google Ads Help, About ownership of client accounts
Starting a fresh account is possible, and sometimes it is the pragmatic choice. But you lose search term history, negative keyword lists and the conversion data that smart bidding has been learning from. Stephanie White at PPC Hero described a new client account where the team found $1,004 of wasted spend after five days and $13,390 of spend. That is what you rebuild from zero.
Google Analytics 4: who is an administrator at account level
Open GA4, click Admin, and look at Account access management in the Account column, then Property access management in the Property column. Google's access management page says an Administrator has "full control of Analytics" and "can manage users (add/delete users, assign any role or data restriction)". An Editor can change settings but cannot manage users. If your company email is only an Editor, Analyst or Viewer, the agency controls who stays.
Also check which Google account the GA4 account itself sits under. If it is called "Agency Name Clients" and your property lives inside it, you are a guest in their house. The fix is a company email as Administrator at account level, or the property moved into an account you own.
A Local Search Forum thread from 2019 asked whether agencies are allowed to hold Google Analytics data hostage, after a previous agency would not release a client's account. The replies pointed to Google's account recovery process, which asks you to prove ownership of the website. One poster said Google granted him access after the old agency ignored Google's contact for two days.
"As long as you can prove ownership of the website, you're good." Tony Wang, Local Search Forum
Recovery is a fallback, not a plan. One Firefly described a business whose Analytics and Ads accounts were registered under the agency's names. When the client declined a contract extension, the agency cancelled the accounts and they were deleted within weeks.
Ask for: Administrator at account level for two company emails, a company admin on the Google Tag Manager container, and confirmation of which account owns the Search Console property.
Google Business Profile: the primary owner and the seven-day wait
Google Business Profile has three roles, and only owners can remove the agency. Google's roles page says managers "can't add or remove users or remove the profile", and a profile has "only one primary owner".
Check at business.google.com: More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access. If the agency's email is the primary owner, ask for a transfer. Google's transfer page says the recipient must already be an owner or manager, and a new owner has to wait seven days before they can remove other users or transfer ownership again.
That seven-day rule is why Business Profile goes first in the timeline below. Ask on the last day of notice and you will be unable to remove the agency for a week after they have gone. Keeping that profile in your own hands matters because local SEO is a monthly Google Business Profile job, and for clinics and dental practices the profile is often the single biggest source of new bookings.
Meta: partner access or ownership of the ad account
Meta ad accounts are the one place where "we'll transfer it to you" is usually impossible, so the question is which business portfolio created or claimed the account. Leadsie's guide to adding an ad account to a business portfolio sets out the three routes.
If a portfolio creates a new ad account or claims an existing one, "the ad account can't be removed or transferred to another business portfolio". With the third route, requesting access, "the ad account will remain owned by the original business, and access can be removed at any time".
So check in Business Settings which portfolio owns the ad account, the Facebook Page, the Instagram account and the pixel. If the owner is the agency's portfolio, the ad account cannot be moved to yours. You will be starting a new ad account, and the pixel history stays with the old one.
The correct arrangement is the reverse: your company's portfolio owns everything, and the agency has partner access you can switch off. Ask for a screenshot of Business Settings showing your portfolio as owner of each asset, with the agency listed under Partners.
Domain, hosting and the website itself
Your domain should be registered to your company, at a registrar you can log in to, with renewal paid from your card. Run a WHOIS lookup (for .uk domains, Nominet's own lookup tool) and read the registrant. If it is the agency, or an individual at the agency, you do not own your domain.
A Nominet Dispute Resolution Service case reported by Fieldings Porter involved an architectural practice whose web developer held the .uk domain matching the firm's trading name and then stopped responding.
The firm lost control of its website and email until an independent Nominet expert ordered the domain transferred back. That route works, but it takes months and a fee, and your email is down in the meantime.
For hosting, the test is simpler: do you have the hosting login, or does the agency? For a WordPress site you want an Administrator user on a company email, a full backup you have downloaded, and the control panel login. For a custom build, ask who owns the code repository and whether the contract assigns copyright to you on payment.
Email sending deserves its own line. If newsletters go out through the agency's Mailchimp or HubSpot account, export the contact list now. The DNS records that authenticate your sending (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) were probably set up by them too, so get those handed over before they lose access to your domain.
The asset-by-asset check
| Asset | Where to check | What "yours" looks like | What to ask for in writing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Admin, Access and security | Company email is Admin; no agency manager in the Owner column | Admin for two company emails, ownership removed, Editor export |
| GA4 | Admin, Account access management | Company email is Administrator at account level | Administrator role, GTM admin, Search Console owner |
| Google Business Profile | Business Profile settings, People and access | Company email is Primary owner | Primary ownership transfer, started in week one |
| Meta | Business Settings, Ad accounts and Pages | Your portfolio owns the assets, agency is a Partner | Screenshot of ownership, partner access removed |
| Domain | WHOIS or Nominet lookup | Company is the registrant, you hold the registrar login | Registrar login, or transfer to your registrar |
| Hosting and site | Hosting control panel, CMS users | Company holds the hosting login and an Administrator user | Backup, control panel login, repo access, copyright clause |
| Email tools | The sending platform's account settings | Company owns the account, agency is a user | List export, DNS records for authentication |
The 30-day exit timeline
A 30-day notice period is enough if you start on the first day. Whether that notice sits inside a punishing minimum term depends on the pricing model you agreed.
- Days 1 to 3: run every check in the table and record what you find, with screenshots. Request the Business Profile primary ownership transfer immediately, because of the seven-day wait.
- Days 4 to 7: send one written request covering every asset where you are not the owner. Ask for screenshots in reply, not assurances. Export the Google Ads account from Editor and download GA4 reports for the full history now, in case the relationship sours.
- Days 8 to 14: confirm Google Ads admin access and ownership transfer. Confirm the GA4 Administrator role. Collect registrar and hosting logins and test them from a company device.
- Days 15 to 21: give the new agency or in-house team viewer access alongside the old agency. Check Google Ads change history daily. Pauses, removed negatives and bid changes during notice are the things to watch for.
- Days 22 to 28: receive the historical reports pack, brand files, unfinished work and ad creative. Confirm the email list export and the DNS records.
- Days 29 to 30: remove the agency's users from every platform yourself, from a company login. Rotate shared passwords. Switch off partner access in Meta. Unlink the agency manager account in Google Ads.
That last step is the test of the whole process. If on day 30 you can remove the agency without asking them to do it for you, the accounts are yours.
What a good agency does without being asked
A good agency sets accounts up in your name on day one and treats the exit as a routine handover. When we take on paid media for a client, the Google Ads and Meta accounts are created in the client's name, or linked to our manager account without ownership, and the client holds admin.
When we build a site through our website design service, the domain stays registered to the client and the hosting login is theirs. An agency that needs to hold your accounts to keep you is telling you something about its results.
The decision rule is short. Before you sign with any agency, ask them to fill in this article's table for your business, in writing. It belongs with the other questions to ask a marketing agency. If they cannot, or will not, you have learnt what you needed to know for far less than a year of fees.
If you are leaving an agency and are not sure what you own, we will run the checks with you before you give notice. Talk to us about paid media or your website.