In brief: The questions that matter most before signing with an agency are about ownership and exit. Your business should own every account, with the agency added as a user. On Google Business Profile, only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership, and a new owner waits 7 days for full control. Agree in writing who owns designs, reels and copy.
A lot of trouble with a marketing agency starts on the day you try to leave. That is when you find out who really owns your Google profile, your ad account and your reel files. The questions to ask an agency before you sign are about ownership, access and exit. They take ten minutes, and they can save you weeks later.
This guide covers the contract side of hiring an agency. It goes through each account and file you should keep. It shows what Google’s own rules say about handing them over, and what a clean exit looks like. Our guide on choosing a digital marketing agency in Ahmedabad covers the first-meeting questions about results and team.
Key Takeaways
- Every account should be owned by your business, with the agency added as a user.
- On Google Business Profile, only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership.
- A new profile owner waits 7 days before they can manage every feature.
- Keep Admin on Google Ads and Analytics, with a second Admin as backup.
- Agree in writing who owns the designs, reels and copy once they are paid for.
Which Questions Should You Ask an Agency Before Signing?
Eight questions cover most of what can go wrong later. Each one is about something you will want back if you stop working together. That could be an account, a login, a file or your money. Ask them before you sign, while both sides are keen to agree, and get every answer in writing.
The rest of this guide takes those questions in turn.
Who Will Own Your Google Business Profile?
You should, as primary owner, with the agency added as a manager. Get this one right first, because Google’s rules make it hard to fix later. The profile holds your reviews, your photos and your place on the map. A shop in Vastrapur can take years to build those up.
Google’s help page on profile roles says a manager “can’t add or remove users or remove the profile”. That is exactly the level an agency needs. Google says managers “can edit info, respond to reviews, and manage posts”, while control of who gets in stays with you.
The risk runs the other way when the agency is primary owner. Google’s page on transferring ownership states that “only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership.” Say the agency set up your profile under its own login and later stops replying. Google does let you request ownership, and the owner then has 3 days to respond. If they don’t, you may be able to claim the profile, but Google says that option “isn’t always available”.
Google’s roles page also notes what happens when you remove a user. Their “replies to reviews, posts, comments, and other actions stay on the Business Profile.” So the work they did stays with you, which is what you want. Setting up and managing Business Profiles is part of our local SEO work in Ahmedabad. Our guide to Google Business Profile optimization covers what a complete profile should hold.
Who Holds Admin on Google Ads and Analytics?
Your business should, on both, under a company email address. The agency can do its work with a lower level of access. Admin decides who else can get in. It is also the only level that can remove an agency cleanly if things end badly.
On Google Ads, Google lists five access levels, from Email-only up to Admin. Only an Admin can give access, change access levels and unlink a manager account. Agencies often use a manager account to connect to yours. Google also warns that “if your account has only one administrator, you may lose access to your tags if that user becomes unavailable.” Tags are the small pieces of tracking code that record your leads.
Google Analytics works the same way. Google’s page on Analytics roles describes an Administrator as having “full control of Analytics”. An Editor has full control of settings but “can’t manage users”. Google adds that “you must be an Administrator at the account level to assign roles”. So the agency can be an Editor, and the Administrator should be you.
What About Your Website, Domain and Social Pages?
Each one should be in your business’s name, and the agency should get access to do its work. Of these, the domain matters most. It is your address on the web, and every visiting card, brochure and Google listing points to it. Losing it means rebuilding far more than a website.
For the domain, ask two things. Whose name is the domain in, and who holds the login at the company you bought it from? Both answers should be your business. If the agency buys the domain for you, ask it to use your company’s name. Ask for the login from day one too.
The website itself raises the same question. Ask where it is hosted and whose account pays for the hosting. Then ask whether you will get the admin login for WordPress, or whatever system it runs on. Our guide on WordPress and custom websites explains what you will need to look after the site yourself.
Your Facebook Page and Instagram account need the same care, since they often hold years of followers and posts. Ask that they sit in a business account your company controls, with the agency added as a partner or user.
Who Owns the Designs, Reels and Copy?
Agree it in writing before the first post goes out. Many contracts are silent on this, and silence causes trouble later. Once you have paid for a logo, a reel or a set of product photos, you will want to use them again. You may also want to edit them, or hand them to another team.
Ask for three things in the contract. First, a line saying the work belongs to your business once it is paid for. Second, access to the source files as well as the final export. That means the open design file or the raw footage. Third, a list of anything the agency cannot hand over. Licensed music and stock images bought on its own account are common examples.
That last point is easy to miss, so here is an example. A reel for a travel agency in Navrangpura might use a licensed track that belongs to the agency’s music account. Depending on the licence, you may keep posting the finished reel. You may not be able to use the track in a new edit. Our guide to reel production costs in Ahmedabad covers what goes into a shoot.
Payment Questions to Ask an Agency Up Front
Clear payment terms head off a lot of arguments before they start. Settle four points before signing, so that neither side is left guessing when the first invoice arrives. None of them is awkward to raise at the start, and all of them are hard to raise later on.
- What the fee covers. A written list of monthly work, as our guide to agency pricing models explains.
- What costs extra. Ad spend, stock images, shoots and printing may be billed on top, so ask.
- When invoices fall due. Write down the number of days, so nobody has to argue about it later.
- What happens in the notice period. Whether work continues at full pace, and how the last month is billed.
What Happens When You Decide to Leave?
A clean exit follows a simple order. You give notice, and the agency hands over every login and file. It moves anything it owns into your name, and only then is its access removed. Agree that order in the contract, with a notice period long enough to finish it calmly.
Step four is the one people do not expect. Google says the new owner of a Business Profile “must wait 7 days before they can manage all the features.” Say the agency’s access ends on the same day as the transfer. You may then spend that week unable to manage every feature, with nobody left to help. Build that week into the notice period.
Whatever the account, the safe order is the same. Check that each login works before the agency is removed. It is a quick job on a Monday morning, and it avoids a much slower one later.
Where to Start This Week
Ask who owns each account before you sign, and get the answers in writing. That one habit prevents much of the trouble that starts when a business changes agency. It costs nothing, and a good agency will be glad you asked.
If you already work with an agency, check it this week. Open your Google Business Profile and see who is listed as primary owner. Then check who holds Admin on Google Ads and Analytics. If it is not your business, ask for it politely now, while things are going well.
If you would like help checking your accounts, our team in Ahmedabad is glad to take a look.
When the offer is small and the buyer is on a phone. A webinar seat, a price list, a site visit, a callback. These are things somebody accepts in two taps while half-reading the feed on the way to Bodakdev.
They also win when you want volume to learn from. A form campaign fills a spreadsheet fast. You get to see which job titles actually respond, which is worth knowing before you spend on anything heavier.
One more option is worth knowing about. LinkedIn lets you “allow members to book an appointment directly with your team using Calendly or Chili Piper” from the confirmation screen (form specifications). For a service business that is the shortest path there is from an ad to a diary.
A quality lever is built in. Choose the work email field and you can block “the most commonly used free email domains” such as Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail. LinkedIn is careful about the trade: this “might improve the quality of leads”, while “the submission rates of your form might decrease”.
We turn that on for anything a sales team will phone. A smaller list of work addresses beats a bigger list the team gives up on by Thursday.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should my agency be the owner of my Google Business Profile?
No. Your business should be the primary owner, with the agency added as a manager. Google’s rules say only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership. So an agency in that role can leave you waiting on a request that is not guaranteed to succeed.
What access should an agency have on Google Analytics?
Editor access is enough for most of the work an agency does. Google describes an Editor as having full control of settings, but unable to manage users. Keep the Administrator role with your business. Only an Administrator can give roles to other people.
How long does it take to take back a Google Business Profile?
Once the primary owner transfers it, Google says the new owner must wait 7 days before managing every feature. Plan for at least that week, and keep the agency’s access in place until your own control is complete.
Who owns the reels and designs an agency makes for me?
It depends on your contract, which is why you should settle it before you sign. Ask for a line saying the work belongs to your business once paid for, plus access to the source files. Also ask which parts, such as licensed music, cannot be handed over.
