What to Secure Before You Tell Your Marketing Company You're Leaving

In the calls I've had with owners switching marketing companies, the notice goes out first. The login requests come after.

Anything you haven't secured before that call, you're asking for as a favor once you're already gone. An agency has no reason to move fast on a favor for someone who just gave them notice.

Here is the full list, with the why behind each item and the exact permission level to ask for. Work through it before you pick up the phone.

Ten things to secure first

Ask for these by name. A vague request like "give me access" gets a vague answer, and vague answers are how items on this list get skipped.

Google Ads

Get an Admin login under your own company email, not just a Standard or Read-only login. Only an Admin can add or remove users on the account. Only an Admin can accept, reject, or unlink a manager account link. About access levels in your Google Ads account

If your agency's manager account stays linked to yours after you leave, they can still manage your campaigns. Getting Admin access under your own email is what lets you disconnect them yourself instead of asking them to do it.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Get Administrator access on the property, not Editor. Editor can change most settings, but only an Administrator can add or remove users. Access and data-restriction management

If the agency holds Administrator and you hold Editor, you cannot remove their access on your own once the relationship ends. You would have to ask them to do it for you.

Google Search Console

Become a verified owner on your own domain, not a delegated owner. A delegated owner receives access from an existing owner without proving ownership directly. That access depends on someone else staying in place. If every verified owner on a property is removed, everyone else, including delegated owners, loses access after a grace period. Managing owners, users, and permissions

Verify ownership under your own email while the relationship is still active. The easiest verification methods use a DNS record or a file on your site. Do it while you still hold the registrar and hosting logins.

Google Tag Manager

Get Administrator on the account and Publish access on every container your site uses. Google recommends keeping at least two active administrators on an account, specifically because losing the sole administrator can lock everyone else out. Managing users and permissions

If your agency's team member is the only administrator, your tracking setup can get stuck the moment that person leaves or the relationship ends. No one else can publish changes.

Key Takeaway: Admin and Administrator access are not the same as Editor or Standard access. Only the top level lets you manage users or disconnect an agency on your own.

Your domain

Know the registrar login, who controls DNS, and the renewal date. A change to the registrant name, organization, or email starts a 60-day lock on transferring the domain to a new registrar. Moving it out also requires an authorization code from the current registrar. Transfer your domain to Cloudflare

If the registrar account is in the agency's name, a change during the transition can trigger that lock. You'd be waiting 60 days to move the domain. Get the authorization code lined up ahead of the call, not after.

Your website and hosting

Find out who holds back-end admin on the site, who pays the hosting bill, and when it renews. This is a simple checklist item. It's also the one most owners forget, until a renewal notice goes to an inbox they no longer have access to.

Google Business Profile

Be the primary owner, not a manager. A profile can have several owners, but only one primary owner at a time. A manager cannot add or remove users, or remove the profile itself. Manage your Business Profile owners & managers

A new owner also waits seven days before some features unlock, including transferring primary ownership themselves. This is not something to fix the same day you give notice. And if the Google account that owns a profile is removed, every location owned by that account is removed with it. Fix suspended or disabled profiles

Meta

Keep your page, ad account, and pixel inside your own Business Manager, not the agency's. If these live in an agency-owned Business Manager, you're dependent on them to release it.

Call tracking and CRM connections

Sign these in under your own email, not the agency's. A connection built under someone else's login can break the moment that login is removed, whether or not that was the intent.

Exports

Pull your negative keyword list, your conversion settings, and your lead and ad reports before the account changes hands. If you run Local Services Ads, screenshot your performance reports before any migration. Lead history, including contact details and message history, moves automatically. Past performance reports do not. Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals

Key Takeaway: A profile, account, or domain your agency controls can be locked, restricted, or handed back late. You paid for everything inside it either way.

What usually happens when you skip this

Here's what I see when an owner gives notice first and asks for access second.

The money is walking out the door. A lot of agencies decide nothing else is walking out with it. So the access requests sit. Sometimes they get answered weeks later, after settings have changed and history has been moved around.

Part of this is how agencies think about their own work. Many treat their strategy and their setup as their own property. The thinking goes something like this: you got results because of our system. If you leave, you don't take the system with you.

I own a marketing agency myself, so I understand where that comes from. I just don't think that's how people should be treated.

If you care about your customers, you want them to win, whether they keep working with you or not. If the only way to keep a client is to hurt their results on the way out, that isn't a good agency. Neither is holding access hostage because you're upset they're leaving. You paid for that data. You spent the time and effort to build it. It should live with you, and it should follow you through every year you're in business.

Key Takeaway: An agency that treats its systems as its own property, not yours, is the one most likely to slow-walk your access.

One case

One case shows what happens when this gets skipped.

The call-tracking connection to Google Ads ran through the outgoing agency's own login. When that login was removed, the connection broke.

The departing agency had also pulled the client's negative keyword list and put its own in place before handing the account back.

The contact form's tracking had stopped back in April.

Two old manager accounts were still sitting on the Google Ads account. Manager access alone couldn't remove the admins to clean it up, since removing users is an Admin-only function. About access levels in your Google Ads account

Key Takeaway: Losing a call-tracking connection, a negative keyword list, or months of form data costs real money. Securing access first costs an afternoon.

Read the contract

Before you make the call, read the contract. Look for who owns what, and what has to be handed back when the relationship ends. That language is usually written down somewhere, even if no one has looked at the page in a year.

If you're comparing agencies at the same time you're leaving one, the same ownership questions belong in that conversation too. I laid out what to ask a new agency in how to choose the right SEO agency for your business. It covers who owns the domain, the site, and the ad accounts from day one.

Key Takeaway: The contract, not the conversation with your outgoing agency, is what determines what you get back.

Work through the list above before your next call. That's the only ask.