The advertising account handover should never depend on one person’s login
Your business should have a documented way to maintain access to its advertising accounts, measurement assets and approved creative when people or agencies change. Agree who administers each asset, which permissions are appropriate and how a handover will be verified. Access should be assigned through the platform rather than through shared personal passwords.
Put the advice into practice
Make your advertising work towards the right enquiry
Review the offer, destination, creative and measurement before deciding what to scale.
Discuss your campaign prioritiesThe risk often becomes visible at an inconvenient moment: a staff member leaves, an agency relationship changes or someone needs a report that only one person can open. A clear access record makes those transitions easier to manage without confusing day-to-day agency management with the business’s continuity needs.
Map the assets that make the campaign work
Start with more than the advertising login. The campaign may depend on a website, tag manager, analytics property, business page, product feed, lead destination, CRM connection and creative library. Record where each lives and who is responsible for it.
Separate account administration, billing responsibilities, operational management and asset rights. These questions are related, but they are not identical. A person may be allowed to manage a campaign without holding the rights to every photograph in the creative library. A business may receive reports without having an adequate continuity route if its administrator leaves.
Use appropriate roles and a visible access review
Google provides different Google Ads access levels and account security guidance that recommends minimum necessary access and removal of access that is no longer required. Review the current controls for the platform and account type involved.
Use named users and approved organisational processes. Do not solve an access problem by circulating a person’s password in an email or general document. Keep authentication and recovery arrangements with the people responsible for security, and ensure the business knows how to use the platform’s legitimate support and recovery routes.
Create a handover record before a transition
| Asset or responsibility | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Advertising account | The correct account, administrators and relevant manager relationships |
| Measurement | Where goals, tags and reporting connections are maintained |
| Lead delivery | The form, inbox or CRM destination and its owner |
| Billing | Who is responsible and which authorised process applies |
| Creative | Approved files, usage rights and editable source availability |
| Campaign knowledge | Current structure, important exclusions and reasons for material decisions |
| Review | Who verifies that the receiving team can perform the agreed tasks |
Keep sensitive access information out of a broadly shared checklist. The record should point to the authorised storage or responsible owner rather than contain credentials.
A hypothetical agency transition
Imagine a professional-services organisation moves from a project-based campaign to an ongoing programme with another delivery team. The previous agency has useful campaign context, the business holds approved creative and a staff member manages the website form destination.
A proper handover checks each dependency. The receiving team needs suitable access and an explanation of the campaign decisions. The business needs to confirm that forms and reporting still connect. The outgoing team’s unnecessary access should be reviewed through an authorised process after continuity is established.
This is an operational example, not an instruction to remove a particular person or change a live account. An actual transition should be coordinated by the authorised account owners.
Verify the tasks that matter
Do not treat an invitation email as the end of the handover. Confirm that the receiving person can access the correct asset at the agreed role and perform the necessary work. A read-only report check and a campaign-management role serve different purposes.
Record outstanding limitations clearly. If editable artwork is not included in the original agreement, resolve the rights and deliverables rather than assuming that platform access creates them. If a measurement connection depends on a departing person’s account, make a documented plan through the approved controls.
Review the record when responsibilities change, not only at the end of an agency relationship. Continuity is easier when the business understands its assets while the people who know them are still available.
When scoping ongoing advertising support, include the access, reporting and handover responsibilities in the engagement.
