When an agency creates and controls your advertising accounts on platforms like Google Ads, Meta Business Manager, TikTok Ads and Microsoft Advertising, you are handing over the keys to your marketing data.
Data ownership in advertising should be non-negotiable for your business. If your agency won’t give ad account access, you should be asking why not and see that as a red flag. First party data benefits in the age of AI are critical and take time to replace, costing you time and performance.
Those ad accounts and pixels store your campaign history, audiences and conversion tracking. If you decide to change partners, you could lose access to years of data and must rebuild your campaigns from scratch. With privacy laws tightening and AI‑driven bidding relying on high‑quality signals, owning your ad accounts and your first‑party data is more important than ever. This article explains what ownership means, why it is essential right now and how you can take control.
What Is Ad Account Ownership?
Ad account ownership means your business holds the highest level of access to your advertising accounts. You set up each account under your own email, keep billing and administrative rights, and invite agencies or contractors to manage campaigns through user permissions. When you own the account, you can add or remove partners, change budgets and review data without asking a third party. This structure protects your investment and ensures that your campaigns continue to run smoothly even if you change agencies.
Why It Matters Today
Privacy laws like the GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act, along with browser restrictions on third‑party cookies, have pushed marketers to rely on their own data. A recent study found that 86% of Americans worry more about privacy and data security than the state of the economy. Two‑thirds of people do not even understand how their data is used!
Collecting first‑party data through your website, app and customer interactions gives you accurate insights and keeps you compliant. Brands that invest in first‑party data see a 2.9x increase in revenue and a 1.5x reduction in marketing costs compared to those relying on third‑party data.
When an agency owns your accounts, you could lose visibility into spending and performance.
Some agencies keep data under their own accounts and refuse to share access, claiming that their systems are proprietary. In many cases, agencies hold clients’ data hostage, saying, “It’s all under our account and can’t be transferred”. Agencies often run multiple clients under master accounts, making it difficult to separate your data from others. You can avoid these problems by insisting that your business own the ad accounts and then granting partners the access they need.
How It Works / Core Components
1. Set Up and Own Each Account
Create your Google Ads, Meta Business Manager, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager and Microsoft Advertising accounts using your company’s email. Keep administrator and billing rights. Invite your agency as a user or partner so they can manage campaigns without taking ownership. Agencies worth their salt WILL help you with this process.
2. Preserve Your Historical Data and Audiences
Historical performance data and audience lists help AI bidding models learn and improve. By owning your accounts, you retain years of conversion history and can transfer them to new partners without disruption. If you let an agency create the accounts, you risk losing these valuable signals.
3. Control Your Tracking Infrastructure
Make sure your analytics, pixels and tags are only tied to accounts that you own. Regularly audit user permissions in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager and pixels on each platform. Keeping control of these tools ensures you can update them and prevents lockouts. Use two-factor authentication (2FA) to keep these safe.
4. Collect and Use First‑Party Data
Encourage visitors to share their information through sign‑up forms, newsletter subscriptions, surveys and customer support interactions. Sync this data to your CRM and ad platforms so you can build audience lists and personalize campaigns. First‑party data provides accurate signals and helps your bidding strategies perform better (part of your first party data strategy).
5. Assign Permissions Wisely
Grant partners only the access they need. Use roles like “Advertiser” or “Analyst” for agencies. Keep full admin rights for your internal team and trusted agencies (if you want to be less involved). Remove external access as soon as a contract ends.
Best Practices and Strategies
- Create Accounts Before Hiring a Partner. Set up your ad accounts under your own email and grant agencies partner access. This keeps ads account ownership in your hands.
- Link Analytics and CRM Data. Connect GA4, your CRM and offline conversions to improve attribution and data accuracy. To learn how this works in practice, explore our digital marketing services page.
- Build Your Own Audiences. Use customer lists and website actions to create first‑party audiences. Tools like Google Customer Match audiences and Meta Custom Audiences let you target people who are already interested in your brand.
- Use Server‑Side Tagging. Move tracking from the browser to your server to improve data quality and comply with privacy rules.
- Audit Permissions Regularly. Review user roles across all platforms to ensure you remain the primary admin. Agencies should not be able to remove your access.
- Require Transparent Reporting. Insist on clear breakdowns of media spend and transparent performance.
- Plan for Transitions. Keep backups of your audience lists and creative assets. Make sure your contracts require agencies to hand over all data when the agreement ends.
Tools & Resources
- Google Ads Manager Account (MCC): Manages multiple accounts while keeping each client account access separate.
- Meta Business Manager: Centralizes Facebook and Instagram assets and lets you manage users, keeping Facebook Ads account ownership in your control.
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager: Provides account‑level controls for B2B campaigns.
- TikTok Ads Manager: Allows you to create and control your ads using your business email.
- Microsoft Advertising: Offers a business manager for managing user access and billing.
- Google Analytics 4 with Server‑Side Tagging: Processes events in your environment, improving data quality and compliance. Server-side tagging does cost extra but can be worthwhile for future-proofing website data collection.
- CRM Platforms (HubSpot, Salesforce): Centralize customer data control and feed conversion events back into ad platforms. These also should only be setup with your internal emails.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Letting Agencies Create and Own Your Accounts: This limits your control and may cause you to lose data when changing partners. While it’s not uncommon for projects, long-term relationships should not rely on third-party created accounts.
- Sharing Login Credentials: Always use proper user roles instead of shared logins to maintain security.
- Relying Only on Third‑Party Cookies: Many marketers still depend on cookies, but privacy changes make them less reliable. Focus on building first‑party data instead and server-side tracking when available (i.e. Meta Conversion API).
- Neglecting Consent: Collect data transparently and provide clear opt‑in choices to maintain compliance and trust.
- Resetting Accounts During Transitions: Transfer access to new partners rather than rebuilding accounts from scratch.
Case Study / Real‑World Example
A retailer set up its Google Ads and Meta accounts under its own business email before hiring an agency. After eighteen months, the retailer decided to move to a new partner. Because it owned the accounts, the switch took only a few days. The new agency kept all the historical data, audience lists and conversion tracking. Within one month, the retailer’s cost per acquisition fell by 18% and return on ad spend rose by 22%. If the previous agency had owned the accounts, the retailer would have lost those signals and needed to restart its campaigns from zero.
Conclusion & Key Takeaways
Owning your ad accounts and your first-party data is not an optional task; it is your right and a core part of your marketing strategy. When you own your accounts, you retain control over your data, protect years of optimization signals, and stay compliant with privacy laws. When you own your accounts, you retain control over your data, protect years of optimization signals and stay compliant with privacy laws.
First-party data is becoming increasingly valuable as consumers demand transparency and platforms limit third-party cookies. Make sure your business sets up and controls every account, builds audiences from your own data and grants agencies only the access they need. For more practical examples of how we help clients succeed, take a look at our case studies and learn about AI in digital marketing.
If you can’t see campaign performance with your current agency, it may be time to switch. Transferring ad accounts should be easy. Your agency partner should always help you with this to support your company’s growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who should own my advertising accounts?
Your business should always own the accounts. Grant agencies partner access instead of allowing them to set up accounts for you. This keeps your data safe and allows you to switch partners without losing history.
2. What happens if my agency owns the accounts?
If your agency owns your ad accounts, they control your historical data, audience lists and tracking. They might refuse to transfer the accounts, claiming proprietary code. You could lose years of insights and have to restart your campaigns, increasing the relearning time.
3. How does first‑party data help my marketing?
First‑party data is collected directly from your customers and visitors. It is accurate, privacy‑compliant and valuable for personalization. Businesses that invest in first‑party data almost always see higher revenue and lower costs.
4. Can I switch agencies without losing progress?
Yes. When you own your accounts, you can remove one agency’s access and add another without losing any data. Always make sure you are the primary admin and keep backups of tags, audiences and creative assets. Need help doing this? Just ask us.
5. Are there any legitimate reasons agencies won’t transfer accounts?
Some agencies run campaigns under master accounts to make their process easier. This setup can block transfers and selfishly hurt the client’s long term growth. Avoid this by setting up accounts in your own name from the start and ensuring contracts state that you own all data.
6. Why do some agencies keep control of ad accounts?
Some agencies keep control of ad accounts because it reduces the chances of a client leaving. When the agency owns the account, the client cannot see all performance data, move to another partner easily, or take their historical results with them. This creates “lock-in,” which benefits the agency but puts the business at risk. In many cases, agencies say it’s easier for them to manage everything under their own setup, but doing so limits your data access, slows future optimization, and makes account transfers harder than they need to be.