As a customer-centric marketing agency, Ad Science Lab has had to rebuild clients’ accounts. This happens when the previous agency has refused to release a Google Ads account. Essentially, this means that most of the resources (e.g., time and money) spent on building account history, quality score, and insights are gone. And you have to start over.
Ensure That You Have Access To The Google Ad Account
If a marketing agency manages your account, it is critical that you ask them: Who Owns My Data? Sometimes marketing agencies. Any agency with basic ethical standards will agree that clients should own the data. The months or years of resources spent on advertising will provide key metrics about your marketing strategy that could literally make or break your business. These data provide crucial insights about targeted demographics, ad schedule (e.g., time of day when ads are shown), negative keywords, amongst other optimizations. These data are then processed into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR), conversion ratio, and others. Regardless of the management quality (e.g., poor or excellent), the data provided by the account will provide beneficial information. Even bad account management will give you insight into what works and what doesn’t. One way that may help your ownership (and recovery) is to make sure it’s your credit card paying for the ad spend.
Can The Data Be Proprietary?
If you’re paying for it, it never should. When you pay for advertising on Google Ads, you are essentially collecting custom data specific to your business. Every account will be slightly different (even if two accounts provide the same service). Imagine if you’re spending $50,000 per month on advertising. And through this process, your building a Negative Keyword List, which will save you thousands of dollars in irrelevant clicks per month. Wouldn’t you want to have access to that data if you were to switch marketing agencies?
Ad Science Lab ensures that all clients have access, indeed ownership, of all data. It’s part of our protocol.
How To Ensure That You Have Access To Your Data?
Ideally, you created and retain ownership from the start; then, it’s straightforward to switch ad agencies if you need to. The best way to do this is to make sure you are the account Admin, and then you give Standard access to the ad agency. If you are unsure about how to do this, then ask your marketing agency. They can easily walk you through how to do this. If your ad agency is resistant to giving you Admin access, walk away from them.
Accountability Through Transparency
To view all your data and ask questions, you need to have access to your account. Of course, you may not understand all the metrics and ad or marketing process (that’s normal), and that’s why you should go with a reputable and proficient marketing agency. However, your agency will not know your business the way you do. If they did, they would be your competitor. This is where transparency is so critical. Your marketing agency should be reporting KPIs to you regularly and asking questions. You will help your marketing agency with building Keyword lists, targeting demographics, and other goals. Transparency and two-way communication are critical to successful campaigns.
Trust Is The Only Way
Whether by Google Ads or any other method is based on a trusting relationship between the client and the agency. If you are unclear about something, ask your marketing agency if they are hesitant to answer a question, be suspicious. If they stone-wall you after a follow-up, you may want to consider switching to a different vendor.
If you need a second opinion or want to chat about marketing and advertising in general, please drop us a line or say hi on social media. Ad Science Lab always put our clients’ needs first.
