Last year, we signed a new client who wanted us to take over their pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. We agreed and started an audit, but pretty soon after we hit a roadblock.
Not only did the new client not have an admin login for their Google Ads, but they didn’t even own their account! Their former agency owned the account and refused to hand it over to our client.
So, we ended up rebuilding the entire account from scratch. Their account took about twice as long to build as it takes us to run, and they lost all of their valuable historical data.
The situation has since been remedied, and our client is seeing better results than ever before, but they went through a giant, expensive headache.
Own what belongs to you
Law firms, if you want to own your data, you must own your Google Ads account. Not owning your account puts you in a powerless position and makes it easy for agencies to hold your account hostage.
They might even use your account as leverage and force you to continue working with them.
Don’t fall for those tricks, and take control of what belongs to you. Keep reading to learn how you can prevent your Google Ads account from being held prisoner.
3 ways to protect your Google Ads account
1. Make sure the contract addresses account ownership.
You wouldn’t believe how many people think it’s normal to not have admin access for their own account.
Our PPC Account Executives speak with at least five businesses a month who have never had full, unadulterated access to their accounts. Some aren’t even aware that that’s an option.
Before signing with the agency, go through the contract with a fine-toothed comb. Confirm that you’ll own your Ads account as well as any other marketing materials created for your business. That includes legal marketing content like blogs and FAQs.
If you’re paying someone to create something for your business, it needs to belong to you, no strings attached.
If account ownership isn’t mentioned in the contract, ask for it to be included. Review and revise until you’re confident that your information will remain yours.
Transparency is the standard at EverSpark. Not only do we want clients to own their accounts, but we encourage them to access (and understand) the data within. We’re happy to explain the major metrics and data sets so you feel empowered to own your data, not just whatever we feel like showing you in a monthly report.
2. Set up your own accounts.
We get it – setting up the account for you is one of the main reasons why people hire a Google Ads agency in the first place.
You may not have digital prowess, but try your best to set up your Google Ads account yourself.
If you absolutely must have a webmaster set up your account, make sure you receive the username and password immediately. You should also ask that they make you an administrator as soon as possible.
Lastly, make sure that you’re listed as the person to contact if someone gets logged out or needs to reset the password for security reasons.
3. Be upfront with your current agency before canceling.
Some marketing agencies are petulant like children who don’t get their way. If you up and cancel without sufficient warning, your agency could refuse to grant you access to your account out of spite.
Our advice? Be upfront with your current agency about your plans to leave. Give them at least two weeks’ notice, and request that they give you access to your Google Ads account before your contract officially ends.
We’ve seen certain agencies ignore calls and ghost clients so they don’t have to grant them access to the account. Trust us, you don’t want that to happen.
EverSpark will manage your ads, not hold them hostage
Do you own your data?
If so, you’re probably already working with us. If not, you need to remedy that situation immediately. Cut ties (politely) with your current agency, then come see us. EverSpark is leading a new generation of law firm PPC marketing – one where honesty and transparency come before anything else.
When you’re ready to adopt a PPC plan that works for you, give us a call. We look forward to hearing from you.