Agency Handover Data Checklist: What to Demand Before They Leave

Why Handover Data Matters

Years of optimisation live in your Google Ads account - negative keywords refined over hundreds of search term reviews, audience exclusions built from hard-won experience, bid adjustments calibrated through seasonal cycles. If this institutional knowledge walks out the door with your agency, you're starting from scratch.

This is the primary cause of the 90-day performance dip that agencies warn you about. It's not inevitable. It's a data continuity failure.

Critical Data to Demand

• • Search term reports (12-24 months): Google's interface only shows recent data. Export the full history before access is revoked.
• • Negative keyword lists: Account-level, campaign-level, and ad group-level. These represent years of wasted spend prevention.
• • Audience lists: Customer match lists, remarketing audiences, similar audiences, and all exclusion lists.
• • Change history: Export the complete change log - it shows what was tested, what worked, and what failed.
• • Performance benchmarks: Monthly KPIs for at least 12 months, including seasonal baselines.
• • Testing documentation: What was tested, results, and conclusions - prevent your new agency from repeating failed experiments.
• • Scripts and automations: All custom scripts running in the account, with documentation of what they do.
• • Conversion tracking setup: Documentation of all conversion actions, enhanced conversions, and any offline import configurations.

Account Ownership

Before anything else: confirm you own the Google Ads account. It should be under your company's MCC (Manager Account) or directly owned by your Google account. If the agency created the account under their MCC without transferring ownership, rectify this immediately.

• • Your company should be the account owner - not the agency
• • Your Merchant Center should be owned by you, with the agency having delegated access
• • Google Tag Manager containers should be under your Google account
• • Any Google Analytics properties should be in your ownership

An agency that owns your accounts is an agency with leverage over you. It's one of the contract clauses that prove distrust.

Tracking Continuity

Conversion tracking is the most fragile part of any transition. A single break in tracking creates a data gap that Smart Bidding can't recover from for weeks. Ensure:

• • No conversion actions are modified during transition
• • Enhanced conversions setup is documented and preserved
• • Any server-side tracking continues uninterrupted
• • Offline conversion imports are scheduled to continue without gaps

Feed Management Access

If your agency manages your product feed through a third-party tool (DataFeedWatch, Feedonomics, Channable), ensure you own the account and your new agency has access before the old one is removed. Feed disruptions directly impact Shopping and PMax campaigns.

• • Export all feed rules, transformations, and custom labels
• • Document supplemental feed configurations
• • Ensure Merchant Center access is transferred, not terminated

Handover Timeline

• • 4 weeks before: Request all data exports. Confirm account ownership. Add new agency as viewer.
• • 2 weeks before: New agency completes account audit using viewer access. Identifies critical preservation items.
• • Transition day: Old agency access downgraded to read-only. New agency promoted to admin. No campaign changes for 48 hours.
• • 1 week after: Old agency access fully revoked. All data exports confirmed complete.

Next Steps