Who owns your Google Ads account?
Platapode
Picture a business that’s had the same agency for four years. The ads run, the reports arrive every month, and nobody thinks much about the account itself. Then they decide to try someone new, ask for the login, and find out the account was set up under the agency’s name, along with four years of history.
Most businesses own their Google Ads account, and that’s how it should be. A situation like that one is the exception. It’s still worth checking once, especially if someone else set the account up or has been running it for a while. Google Ads account ownership comes down to a few simple questions, and answering them takes about five minutes.
Why it matters
An account isn’t just a place to run ads. Over time it builds up a record of everything that’s been tried: the searches that brought in enquiries, the ones that cost money and brought nothing back, which ads worked, and the conversion history the bidding relies on.
If the account is yours, all of that stays with you, whoever manages it. If it isn’t, that history may not go with you. Starting again in a new account means starting without that history.
Managed isn’t the same as owned
If someone manages your ads, their name or their company’s name will often show up in your account. That doesn’t mean they own it.
Most people who manage accounts link to them through what Google calls a manager account, which lets them work across several clients’ accounts from one login. The link can be removed, and the account stays where it was: with the business it belongs to.
So seeing an agency’s name in your account is normal. What matters is whether you have your own access and whether the billing is in your name.
How to check
Three questions cover it:
- Can you log in with your own Google login? Not a shared one, and not one the agency set up for you.
- Do you have admin access? The account’s access settings list every user and their access level.
- Is the billing in your business’s name? Ad spend should be charged to your payment details, or invoiced to you by Google.
If the answer to all three is yes, the account is yours, whoever looks after it day to day.
Signs worth a second look
- You don’t have a login, or you haven’t used it.
- You only see the account through reports.
- Ad spend is billed to you by your agency rather than charged by Google.
- Nobody in your business has admin access.
None of these automatically means there’s a problem. Some agencies handle billing as a convenience, for example. They’re just worth asking about.
If someone else owns it
It can usually be sorted out. To transfer ownership back to your business, ask for:
- Admin access for a login in your business’s name.
- Billing moved into your business’s name.
- Confirmation that the account, with its history, stays with you if you change who manages it.
Admin access is usually quick. Billing can take a little longer, especially if it was set up under someone else’s payment details, because it may mean setting up new billing in your business’s name. Most people managing an account will help with the transfer without any fuss.
Before you hire anyone
Agree up front that the account is in your name, that you have admin access from day one, and that it stays with you if you leave. If a new account is being set up, it should be created for your business, not under someone else’s.
At Platapode, the account stays in your name and you keep full access (more on how it works). If you’d like the account looked over as it stands, ownership included, you can request a review, or read what a Google Ads account review looks for.
