Answers

Who should own your Google Ads and Facebook ad accounts?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

The business should own its Google Ads and Facebook ad accounts: set up under a login the owner controls, billed to the business, with at least two administrators from the business at all times. An agency can work in the account at a lower access level, such as Standard in Google Ads or Advertiser at Meta, instead of sharing a password, and the owner can end that access when the work ends.

Why the account belongs to the business

An ad account holds the campaign settings, reports and billing history, and these usually stay with the account. If an agency runs your ads in its own account, or in one created on a staff member's personal login, the business may leave with little more than memory. The related answers on your domain name and your business phone number say the same of those.

Meta's page on best practices for ad account permissions says an ad account that is not in a business portfolio is owned by an individual, and that a person who wants to be removed from an account they created needs a business portfolio first, so that someone with full control of it can remove them.

Access levels instead of shared logins

Google lets you choose which features each user can affect by assigning an access level. Meta says giving someone a role does not give them permission to "log in as you".

Which level an agency needs, and who pays

As general advice, not either company's: the business keeps Admin, and the agency gets only the level it needs to do the work. Meta describes Advertiser as a role for people who build and manage campaigns but should not control billing or membership, for example "an agency managing your campaigns". Keep at least two administrators from the business: Google notes that with only one, you may lose access to your tags if that user becomes unavailable.

Whoever can change the payment method usually decides which card or bank account pays for the ads. As general advice, put the business's own payment method on the account, and ask any agency that wants to run ads from its own account what you would receive if you left.

What to collect when an agency leaves

The related answer on switching marketing agencies has the full handover checklist, from confirming your own Admin login to removing access at the end. For ad accounts, also:

• Export the reports and campaign list, and keep your own lead records, so the history does not stay with the agency.
• In Google Ads, look for a linked manager account. Google says that if it has ownership, its administrators can edit user access, managers and product links in your account; only an Admin can unlink it.
• At Meta, check who holds Admin. Meta says that once an account is in a business portfolio, permissions can be changed only from the portfolio.
• In Google Ads, check who is the primary contact on the payments profile. Google says people cannot be added or removed there directly; that contact, or someone in the same company domain, must ask Google Ads support.

Sources

1. Google Ads Help, "About access levels in your Google Ads account" (read 2026-10-22)
2. Meta Business Help Center, "What are the ad account permission roles in Meta Ads Manager?" (read 2026-10-22)
3. Meta Business Help Center, "Best Practices for Ad Account Permissions" (read 2026-10-22)

Related answers

• How do you switch marketing agencies without losing your website or leads?
• Who should own your business's domain name?
• Who should own your business phone number?