Account Audits
Part of Search campaign account audits
Checking account access and ownership at handover
Verify business administrators, linked managers, ownership and billing or measurement dependencies before changing Google Ads account access.
At a paid search handover, identify the Google Ads client account the business will keep, who can administer it and which manager accounts can reach it. Verify access and shared dependencies before removing an outgoing agency. Campaign-editing access alone is not enough to manage users or manager links.
Confirm the account and its administrators
Record the client account's customer ID and have a business representative sign in directly. In Admin → Access and security, review users, access levels, pending invitations and linked managers. Confirm that a current business representative has administrator access. Another suitable administrator can reduce the risk of losing access if the first becomes unavailable.
Google Ads distinguishes email-only, billing, read-only, standard and administrator access. Standard users can edit campaigns; administrators can manage user access and manager links. Billing access has a different purpose. Give each person the access needed for their role.
Handover item / Confirmation to obtain
- Client account
- Customer ID and direct business sign-in
- Users
- Current administrators, other roles and pending invitations
- Managers
- Linked accounts and the manager owner, if any
- Billing
- Who controls the current payment arrangement
- Measurement
- Owners of tags, analytics, imported outcomes and shared lists
- Records
- Current settings, conversion definitions and recent change context
Google Ads access does not establish control over every connected website, analytics property, payment-profile user or CRM. Check those systems with their own owners.
Check manager ownership
A manager can be linked to a client account without owning it. Manager ownership gives its administrators additional powers over client-account users, managers and security settings. A client account has one manager owner at a time.
A manager that creates a client account becomes its owner; one that links an existing account does not receive ownership automatically. Check the actual Managers view before planning a transfer.
Google describes manager ownership as an access relationship: the client account retains its data and can remove the relationship by unlinking. It does not settle contractual ownership of other assets.
Check what unlinking would affect
Unlinking ends the outgoing manager's access through that relationship and does not erase the client account's campaign history. It can, however, interrupt operations. If the account relies on the manager's shared remarketing lists or tag, affected audiences and campaigns may stop working.
If it uses cross-account conversion tracking, the manager's tag stops recording conversions from clicks after unlinking. If the outgoing manager pays through monthly invoicing, ads can stop serving until a new billing setup is in place.
Document which of these dependencies apply and resolve them before unlinking. Check the on-screen impact preview in the actual account; do not infer that a new manager link has replaced every shared asset or billing arrangement.
Sequence the handover
- Confirm direct business sign-in and sufficient administrator access.
- Record linked managers, ownership and dependencies in billing, measurement and shared audiences.
- Arrange the incoming team's required access and verify that it can reach the intended account and assets.
- Preserve settings, conversion definitions and recent change context.
- Resolve any dependency that would interrupt serving or measurement, then have an authorised administrator review the unlinking preview and remove obsolete access.
Keep a handover record with the account ID, business administrators, linked managers, manager owner, billing contact, measurement owners and outstanding access changes. Mark each verified, pending or requires an authorised change. The account is ready to hand over when the incoming team can operate and measure it through an access route the business controls.
