Resources · Google Ads

Who owns your Google Ads account? What to check before you hire anyone to run it

By Francis Valente, Navaro Systems · Updated 17 October 2026

Short answer: Your Google Ads account should be in your business's name, paid with your payment method, with your own login holding admin access. An agency or freelancer can then manage it through their manager account, and if you part ways you remove their access and keep everything: the campaigns, the keyword data and the conversion history. If the agency created and owns the account, that history can leave with them and you start again from zero.

Key points

  • The account, the billing and admin access should all be yours. Whoever manages it gets access, not ownership.
  • Account history is worth money: conversion data, which keywords work and what has already been tried. Losing it means paying to learn it again.
  • You can check where you stand in five minutes under Admin, then Access and security.
  • Ask the same questions about Google Analytics, Tag Manager, your Google Business Profile and your domain.

Why ownership matters

A Google Ads account is more than a place to run ads. It holds every search term you've paid for, which ads worked, the conversion history Google's automated bidding learns from, and any audiences you've built. That history is part of what your ad spend bought.

When an agency builds your campaigns inside an account it owns, ending the relationship can mean losing all of it. Some agencies hand the account over without fuss, some won't, and some say the campaigns are their intellectual property. The way to avoid the argument is to own the account from day one.

How it should be set up

  • The account is created for your business, with your business name on it and your own Google login as an admin.
  • Billing uses your payment method in your business's name. Google charges you for ad spend directly, separately from any management fee.
  • Whoever manages it links their manager account to yours or is invited as a user. Either way, you can remove them at any time.
  • Conversion tracking, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are also in your name, with your manager added as a user.

How to check yours in five minutes

  1. Sign in at ads.google.com with your own Google account. If you can't get in, that's your first answer.
  2. Open Admin, then Access and security. Check your access level is Admin, and look at which users and manager accounts are listed.
  3. Open Billing and check whose name and payment method are on the payments profile.
  4. In Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, check you're listed as an administrator too.
  5. Check your domain is registered to your business, with a login you control.

If an agency owns your account

Ask in writing for admin access for your own login, or for the account to be handed over. Whoever holds admin access can add you as an admin in a few minutes. Keep a record of the request.

If they won't, at least ask for an export of the campaigns, keywords and search terms, so your next account doesn't start blind. Google Ads Editor, Google's free desktop tool, can export a whole account, and the Search terms report downloads to a spreadsheet.

Questions to ask before you hire anyone

  • Whose name will the account be in, and who will hold admin access?
  • Is the fee flat, or a percentage of what I spend on ads?
  • Is there a contract or minimum term, and what happens to the account if I leave?
  • Will I see the search terms and conversion data, or only a summary?
  • Who actually works on my account, and can I ring them?

Navaro's own terms, for comparison: the account stays in your name, the fee is $1,000 a month flat for accounts spending up to $5,000 a month on ads ($800 if Navaro built your website), no GST added, no contract, and a report every Monday.

Questions people ask

Can an agency keep my Google Ads account if I leave?

If the agency owns the account, it controls it. That's why the account should be created in your business's name with your own login as an admin from the start. If you're already in that position, ask in writing for admin access or a handover, and keep a record of the request.

What's a manager account (MCC)?

A Google Ads account used to manage other accounts. MCC is the old name. Agencies use one to run many clients' accounts from a single login. Linking yours to theirs gives them access without giving them ownership, and you can unlink it at any time.

Does it matter who pays Google?

Yes. If ad spend runs through the agency's billing, you can't see exactly what Google charged, and ending the arrangement can switch your ads off. Paying Google directly keeps the spend visible and the account yours.

Free 60-second website read at navaro.com.au, no sign-up. Or ring Francis Valente on 0426 951 399.