Changing your Google Ads agency: secure the account, access and measurement

What actually happens technically during an agency change?

A change is rarely an account migration. In most cases the client account stays in place with its structure, history and users, and only the link to the manager account changes. Google states this explicitly: when an existing account is linked, it remains unchanged and keeps its history, and the manager account does not receive administrative ownership by default.

One exception matters. If the agency originally created the account itself, its manager account automatically becomes the owner. Exactly one manager account directly owns the client account; manager accounts higher in the hierarchy inherit the ownership rights. The owner has full administrator and data access, but the client account remains the owner of its own data and can end that access by removing the link.

So check three points early: who owns the client account, which manager accounts are linked, and whether there is at least one sign-in that your company controls and that has administrator access.

When is a change justified?

A change is a business decision, not a reaction to a single weak week. Reliable signals are missing access of your own to the account, unclear responsibilities, fees that cannot be explained, contradictory conversion figures, or a repeated inability to explain what was checked in the account and why something was changed. These are exactly the points maitiq answers with its operating model: the entry point is a read-only audit, for which Read only access is sufficient, a named Client Success Manager leads the engagement, and every proposal carries the action, the rationale and the supporting data with the old and the new value where applicable to the proposed change. The offer or invoice you supply and the available work records are needed to assess the service and the fees; read-only account access alone does not prove them. The fee is not tied to the media budget – maitiq does not earn more when your advertising spend rises.

Before deciding, separate three levels:

• Business problem: goals, margins, lead quality or priorities are unclear.
• Measurement problem: conversion tracking, attribution or CRM feedback is unreliable.
• Service problem: the work, coverage, response time or decision process are inadequate.

Switching providers does not automatically solve the first two problems. They belong explicitly in the handover plan; otherwise they remain unresolved with the new provider.

Which access rights must the company hold?

Google Ads has five access levels: Email only, Billing, Read only, Standard and Admin. Only admins can grant access, change access levels, accept or decline link requests from manager accounts, and remove links again. Google also points out that with only one admin, access can be lost if that person is no longer available.

The rule for a change is therefore: sign-ins that your company controls hold the permanent administrator rights, while provider access is temporary working access at the lowest level that is sufficient. Test these sign-ins before you remove the previous link. Operational responsibility for the engagement is separate from the technical ownership of the manager account.

The matrix is a working template, not a general access approval. Admin is not needed for every task; Read only access is enough for analysis and reports. Conversely, critical company access must not be discovered only on the day you give notice.

A connected-account audit needs only Read only access to Google Ads. Alternatively, we can review Google Ads reports you provide without access to your Google account. We state which data the reports actually cover. The audit changes nothing in the account. Any later implementation follows the authorised, logged process.

What breaks when the old link is removed?

When the link is removed, the account keeps its own campaign history. But three dependencies may rely on the previous agency's manager account and deserve a check of their own: verify whether billing, shared lists and cross-account tracking are actually managed there.

Cross-account conversion actions are created and edited in the manager account; the client account sees them but cannot change them. An account uses either account-specific or cross-account conversions, not both. Prepare and test the replacement, including the selection of campaign goals: it can run through your own configuration or an agreed new manager setup, and defining a conversion action alone does not create a working replacement. For the move to cross-account tracking, Google documents that campaigns with a specific conversion action switch to the manager account's default conversion goals. Check the selected goals in either direction, so you know what your campaigns are actually optimising towards after the switch. How to define the conversion that counts and reconcile it against the business source is described in the conversion tracking audit.

Extend the inventory to cover connected systems outside Google Ads: feeds, scripts, API connections, offline conversion imports, call tracking, CRM feedback and reporting sources. Every line in the inventory needs six fields: system, business purpose, responsible role in the company, current provider access, last successful run, and tested access-transfer or revocation procedure.

What context does the new agency need?

An account contains not only campaigns but also decisions. The change history lists changes to the account, campaigns and ad groups over the last two years and shows, in a user or tool column, whether a person, a system or the Google Ads API acted. Google itself qualifies this: not all changes to account-level settings and not all changes made by Google staff during consultations appear there. Most changes from the last 30 days can be undone, but not all: not if a related object has since been deleted, or if someone else has already reversed the change.

The history is therefore a log, not a record of reasons. An entry shows that a budget was changed; it does not explain which business signal triggered the decision. The handover dossier therefore adds:

1. current business goals, margin logic and priorities;
2. agreed conversion definitions and valuation rules;
3. known measurement breaks and data gaps;
4. running tests with hypothesis, start date and evaluation date;
5. seasonality, promotions and budget limits;
6. search terms, markets or offers that were deliberately excluded;
7. open recommendations and measures already rejected;
8. reporting recipients and the decision schedule.

If information is missing, mark it as unknown. Reconstructed assumptions must not be treated as historical fact.

What does a controlled change window look like?

A change window is not a ban on work but a written agreement about which changes may only happen after escalation until sign-off. It prevents the old agency, the new agency and the internal team from rebuilding the same campaigns at the same time, with no one able to attribute the effect any more.

The window ends with an explicit sign-off by the named person responsible, not automatically. How to take changes all the way from evidence through decision to verification is described in the guide to governance and approvals.

How does the switchover day work?

No campaigns are rebuilt on the switchover day within this controlled handover procedure; that is a procedural rule, not a Google platform prohibition. A client account can be linked directly to several manager accounts; Google names five direct manager accounts per client account as the maximum on its linking-limits page and adds a same-hierarchy restriction. Whether a new link can exist alongside the old one depends on the hierarchy and the available link slots; check both during preparation. An overlapping link is not guaranteed. Where it is possible, the preferred sequence is: link the new manager first, then unlink the old one.

1. Check company admins: successful sign-in with campaigns and billing visible, access level and the number of admins.
2. Clarify billing if invoices have so far been issued through the agency's manager account: the replacement configuration must be established under a manager account the client account remains linked to.
3. Link the new manager account and accept the invitation in the client account – where the hierarchy and available link slots allow it.
4. Test visibility: campaigns, reports, conversion actions, audiences and billing.
5. Check conversion signals against the source systems and approve the current handover documentation.
6. Remove the old agency's link: in the client account, go to Admin → Access and security → Managers → Remove access. Google shows a preview of the effects before you confirm; read it instead of clicking it away.
7. Review remaining personal access, remove anything no longer needed and log everything.

Give a new agency only the rights that the agreed model needs. Administrative ownership is a deliberate, justified additional step, not a default. A free audit should remain read-only and should not require implementation rights.

What belongs in the first 30 days?

The first weeks are for validation, not for proving maximum activity.

Large budget, conversion or bidding changes should not be shipped as one package if their individual effect is to remain assessable later. No schedule can guarantee that a learning phase or a performance shift will not occur.

How maitiq takes over an existing agency engagement

maitiq starts with a read-only assessment: the account is connected with Google authorisation or, alternatively, reviewed on the basis of reports from Google Ads whose actual coverage is disclosed; neither path changes anything during the audit. maitiq then takes over the ongoing work for Google Ads within the agreed scope of services: workflows analyse daily, every proposal carries the action, the rationale and the supporting data, a Client Success Manager supports the handover and the reviews, and the client team retains control of strategy and the agreed decision rules. Implementation is authorised and logged.

Frequently asked questions about an agency change

Sources and how to read them

All nine sources in this guide are Google documents: they explain features and limits of the platform. Information about how maitiq works is available at maitiq.com.

To compare fees and services, we also include your existing offer or invoice; this information is not held in the Google Ads account.

Have maitiq review your specific case.