Before you leave a marketing agency, make sure you are the primary owner of your Google Business Profile, an admin on your Google Ads and Local Services Ads accounts, the registrant of your domain, and the holder of your website files and tracking phone numbers. Get each one in writing before you give notice. Then cancel.
I'm Daniel Gonzalez, founder of DG Agency. One of the most common complaints in contractor forums is an old agency holding a Google profile, an ads account or the phone numbers hostage. Most of it is fixable. It's faster to fix while you're still a paying client. The platform rules below are quoted from Google and ICANN pages, with links.
Last updated October 21, 2026.
The checklist
| What | Who should own it | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | You, as primary owner | Business Profile settings, People and access |
| Google Local Services Ads | You, with your own admin login | Local Services Ads settings, account access |
| Google Ads account | You, with admin access, and your card on billing | Google Ads, Admin, Access and security |
| Domain name | You, as the registrant | Your registrar account, or a WHOIS lookup |
| Website and hosting | You, or a copy of the files you can move | Ask who holds the hosting login |
| Call tracking numbers | An account in your name, or a written promise to port them to you | Ask whose account the numbers live in |
| Yelp, Facebook, Google Analytics, Search Console | You, as owner or admin | Each platform's user settings |
If any row says "the agency" today, fix that row first.
Who owns my Google Business Profile?
Whoever Google lists as the primary owner. Google's help page says "A Business Profile can have multiple owners but only one primary owner." Managers can do almost everything, with one exception that matters here: "they can't add or remove users or remove the profile."
So if your agency is the primary owner and you're a manager, they control who stays and who goes. Ask them to make you primary owner before you give notice. Two Google rules to know:
- "A profile must have at least one other owner or manager to transfer primary owner access to." You need to be on the profile first.
- "If an existing owner tries to make someone else the primary owner in their first 7 days, they'll get an error." Get added a week ahead.
If an old agency won't respond, Google has a request ownership process. "The current profile owner is then notified by email and has 3 days to respond." If they don't, Google says "you may have the option to claim the profile." It isn't guaranteed, so start early.
Who owns my Google Ads and Local Services Ads accounts?
The person with admin access controls the account. In Google Ads, only the Admin level "Can give account access, change access levels, and cancel invitations from other users" and "Can unlink manager accounts."
Agencies usually run your account from their own manager account. That's normal. What you want is your own admin login on the account itself, and your card on the billing. Then when you leave, you unlink their manager account, and your campaigns, history and conversion data stay with you.
Local Services Ads works the same way. Google says "You can share your Local Services Ads account with other people in your business", and that for manager accounts "you must edit your manager accounts within Google Ads." Your reviews and the verification behind your ad should sit on your account, not an agency's.
Who owns my domain and website?
The registrant owns the domain. ICANN, which oversees domain names, says in its registrant FAQ: "Yes, it is your right to transfer your domain name registrations between registrars." To move it you need an auth code, and "Your registrar must provide you with the AuthInfo code within five (5) calendar days of your request."
Check who is listed as registrant. If it's the agency, ask them to transfer it to an account in your name before you leave.
The website is a separate question from the domain. Ask who holds the hosting login and whether you can get a full copy of the site. If your email runs on the same domain, don't let anyone change the nameservers during a move without checking the email records first. That's how a contractor's email goes dark on a Monday morning.
Do I keep my tracking phone numbers?
Only if you can move them. Call tracking numbers live in someone's call tracking account. If that account is the agency's, the numbers may not leave with you unless they're ported to your own provider. Porting is usually started by the new phone provider and needs the current account holder to cooperate, so ask the agency in writing to release the numbers before you give notice.
This matters more than it sounds. If a tracking number sits on your Google Business Profile, your Yelp page or your truck wraps, losing it means missed calls. Keep your main business number on your Google profile and use tracking numbers where they can be swapped without breaking anything.
The order I'd do it in
- Make a list of every account: Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, Google Ads, Meta, Yelp, domain, hosting, call tracking, Google Analytics and Search Console.
- Log into each one yourself and check your access level.
- Ask the agency, in writing, to make you primary owner or admin on anything you aren't.
- Ask for the domain transfer, a copy of the website and the port of any tracking numbers.
- Download reports you'll want later: lead history, call logs, ad performance.
- Give notice only after steps 2 to 5 are done.
- Once you've left, remove their access and change shared passwords.
What to ask a new agency
Before you sign with anyone, us included, ask whose name each of these accounts will be in and get the answer in writing. We list the other questions worth asking in our contractor marketing agency cost guide and our guide to choosing a marketing agency.
Where DG fits
Our policy is plain. You own every account and asset in your own name: your Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, Google Ads, Meta, Yelp, domain, website and call tracking numbers. DG Agency works with manager access. If you leave, you remove our access and keep everything. Ask us to put that in writing for every account we'd touch.
DG Agency runs Google Local Services Ads, Google Business Profile, Yelp and reviews for home service contractors doing $1M or more, month to month, starting at $5,000 a month. See pricing, or compare us with Hook Agency and Blue Corona, now RYNO.
