Handing your marketing to someone else should give you hours back, not take control away. Most bad agency stories in the trades come down to the same few failures: the agency owned the accounts, nobody knew what happened each week, and reports measured things that did not pay bills. This guide shows how to avoid all three, with whoever you hire.
The short answer: own it, define it, measure it
Keep every account in your own name. Write down exactly what will be done each week. Agree that the monthly report will be built around enquiries and cost per enquiry. And settle, before you start, what happens to everything if you leave. Do those four things and the risk of a handoff drops sharply.
Step 1: The ownership checklist
Before you sign anything, list every marketing asset you have or will need, and confirm who owns it. Use this table with any provider:
| Asset | Who should own it | What the provider gets |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | You, at a registrar under your login | Nothing, or DNS access if needed |
| Website and hosting | You, or hosting in your name | Admin or editor access |
| Google Business Profile | You, as primary owner | Manager access |
| Google Ads account | You, billed to your card | Admin or standard access |
| Analytics | You | Editor access |
| Call-tracking numbers | You, or transferable to you | User access |
| Photos and written content | You, as the business paying for it | Licence to use while working with you |
If a provider insists on owning any of these, ask why in writing. Sometimes there is a practical reason, such as a shared hosting platform, but there should always be a written path to hand it back.
A word on Google Business Profile ownership
The profile is the asset owners lose most often, because someone set it up for them years ago under a personal account. Check today: sign in and see whether you are listed as the primary owner. If you are not, fix that before you hand anything over. Make sure the business name follows Google's guidance that it should match your real-world name, without added keywords.
Step 2: Granting access safely
Give each provider the lowest level of access that lets them do the job, and use individual logins rather than shared passwords.
- Invite by email to each platform as a user or manager, instead of sending your password.
- Keep two-step verification on for your own login.
- Write down who has access to what in a single note you control.
- Review access every six months, and remove anyone who no longer works on your account.
This also protects you from former staff or contractors who still have a login years later.
Step 3: Agree a weekly task list
"Ongoing optimisation" is not a task list. Before you start, ask for a written list of what will actually happen each week and month. A useful done-for-you list looks something like this:
Every week
- Post an update and photos to the Google profile.
- Send review requests to customers you marked as finished.
- Reply to new reviews.
- Review the ads' search-terms report and add negative keywords.
- Adjust ad spend for your schedule.
Every month
- Add or improve website pages, based on the jobs and questions that came in.
- Check hours, phone and service area everywhere.
- Check site speed and fix problems.
- Send the monthly report and hold a short review.
You do not need to check every item every week. Spot-check two or three each month. If posts, pages and ad changes are appearing, the work is happening.
Step 4: Insist on a useful report
A good monthly report fits on one page and answers one question: did marketing produce more enquiries at a sensible cost? Ask for:
- Enquiries by source: calls, texts and emails from the website, profile and ads.
- Ad spend and cost per enquiry.
- Profile activity: calls, website clicks, direction requests, new reviews.
- What changed this month, in plain sentences.
- What will change next month, and why.
Be cautious if the report is mostly impressions, rankings for phrases nobody searches, or charts without explanations. Those are not useless, but they are not the point.
To close the loop, tell your provider which enquiries became paid jobs. Even a rough monthly note ("eight of the twenty calls booked work") lets them move money and effort toward what earns.
Step 5: Plan the exit before you start
Agree how the relationship ends before it begins, while everyone is still friendly. Ask these questions and get answers in writing:
- Notice period. How much notice do you need to give? Our own plans, for example, run month to month with 30 days' notice; details are on the pricing page.
- Handback. Which logins, files and accounts will be handed back, and how quickly?
- Website. If hosting is on the provider's platform, how will the site be moved, and what will that cost?
- Tracking numbers. Can call-tracking numbers be ported to you, or will they stop working?
- Content. Do you keep the right to use the pages, photos and ads produced while working together?
If an answer is vague, push for clarity. A provider confident in their work will not mind.
Red flags to watch for
- They will not tell you who owns your accounts.
- Reports arrive late, or never mention enquiries.
- You cannot reach a senior person when something goes wrong.
- They promise rankings or a fixed number of leads. Nobody controls Google's results.
- They discourage you from looking at your own ad account.
Questions to ask in the first conversation
Take this list into any first call, including one with us:
- Who will actually work on my account, and who reviews their work?
- What exactly happens in the first month?
- What does a typical monthly report look like?
- How do you decide what to spend on ads?
- What happens to my accounts if I leave?
- Which of your results come from businesses like mine, and which do not?
That last question matters. Our own published case studies, for example, are results from our HVAC work, and we say so plainly rather than presenting them as results from other trades.
When a handoff makes sense
A handoff pays when the hours you get back are worth more than the fee, and when the work is done better than you had time to do it. The owner-hours guide helps you test the first part. The checklist in this guide protects the second.
If you decide to hand your marketing to us, the services overview explains what we take on, and you can call, text or email us to start. If you would prefer an independent second opinion first, without anyone doing the work, Coquitlam.Business offers hourly consulting. Either way, keep this checklist; it works with any provider.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most important rule?
Own your accounts. Domain, website, Google Business Profile, Google Ads and analytics should all be registered to you, with the provider added as a user or manager.
What if my old agency owns my Google Ads account?
Ask them to transfer it or add you as an administrator. If they refuse, you may need to start a new account in your name, which loses history, so raise it early and in writing.
How often should I hear from my provider?
A monthly report and review call is a sensible minimum, with quick messages whenever they need something from you or spot a problem.
How do I know they are actually doing the work?
Ask for the weekly task list in writing and check a few items yourself: new profile posts, new website pages, the search-terms changes in your ad account.