Short answer: Your business should be the owner, with its own login, of the domain registrar account, the website hosting, the Google Business Profile, Google Ads, GA4 and the Meta Business Portfolio. Agencies and freelancers should be added as users with the access they need, never set up as the only owner. You can check each one yourself, and the time to do it is while the relationship is friendly, not when you are trying to leave.
The short answer: your business should own every account, and partners should be users
Marketing accounts get created in a hurry. A web designer registers the domain on their own account because it is faster. An ad freelancer opens Google Ads under their agency login. A former employee claims the Google Business Profile with a personal Gmail address and then leaves. Everything works fine, until someone wants to change providers or the person who set it up stops answering.
The fix is a simple rule. The business is the owner of record, logged in with an email address the business controls (ideally a shared address such as marketing@ or admin@ on your own domain, not one person's inbox). Agencies, freelancers and staff get added as users with the level of access their job requires. When a relationship ends, you remove a user. You do not negotiate to get your own accounts back.
Below is how to check each account, what the access levels mean and what to ask whoever manages your marketing today.
Your domain registrar account matters more than your website
Your domain name (yourbusiness.com) is registered through a registrar, a company that sells and renews domains. Whoever controls that registrar account controls your website address and, usually, your business email, because the DNS settings that point mail and web traffic live there too. Losing it is the most painful version of this problem.
To check, look up where the domain is registered (a WHOIS lookup will name the registrar) and then confirm you can log in to that registrar yourself. Inside, check that the registrant contact is your business, that auto-renew is on with a current card, and that two-step verification is turned on.
- If a designer registered it on their account, ask them to transfer it to an account in your name. Registrars have a standard process for moving a domain between accounts.
- Hosting is a separate account. Ask where the site is hosted, who pays for it and how you would get a full copy of the site and its content if you needed one.
- If your site was built on a platform like Wix or Squarespace, the site lives in that platform account, so the account should be yours too.
Google Business Profile: owners and managers are not the same
Google Business Profile has two main roles. Owners have full control: they can add and remove other users, transfer ownership and remove the profile. Managers can edit the profile, reply to reviews and post updates, but cannot manage users or remove the profile. One owner is the primary owner.
Open the profile while signed in, go to the profile's settings and find the people and access section. You should see your business email listed as primary owner. If you only see yourself as a manager, or you cannot get in at all, someone else holds the keys. Your marketing partner should normally be a manager. If an existing owner will not respond, Google has a request-access process, but it is slow and it is much easier to fix while everyone is cooperating.
Getting this right also protects your rankings. A profile that gets suspended or edited by the wrong person can drop out of the map pack, and our Google Business Profile checklist shows what else to review while you are in there.
Google Ads, GA4 and Search Console: check admin access and billing
These accounts hold your history: what you spent, what it produced and which searches found you. Each one has its own access levels, so check them one at a time.
Google Ads
In Google Ads, open Admin, then Access and security. Your business email should have Admin access. Agencies usually connect through their own manager account, which is fine as long as your business also has admin access directly. Then check billing: the payments profile should be in your business name with your card, so the history and spend belong to you. An ad account full of years of conversion data is valuable. Starting over from a blank account costs you that learning.
Google Analytics 4
In GA4, open Admin and look at account access management. Roles run from Administrator down through Editor, Marketer, Analyst and Viewer. Your business should hold Administrator at the account level, so you control the property and every user on it. An agency typically needs Editor or Administrator to set up tracking. Our guide to tracking calls and form fills in GA4 covers what should be set up inside it.
Search Console and Tag Manager
Google Search Console has verified owners and users. Make sure a business email is a verified owner. Google Tag Manager, if you use it, should list your business as an account administrator, because every tracking tag on your site runs through it.
Meta Business Portfolio: your page, ad account and pixel
Facebook and Instagram assets now sit in a Meta Business Portfolio (formerly called Business Manager). The portfolio should belong to your business, and it should own your Facebook Page, Instagram account, ad account and pixel or dataset.
Open Business Settings and check two things. Under people, make sure at least two trusted people from your business have full control, so you are never locked out if one person loses access. Under each asset, check which portfolio owns it. Agencies should be added through the partner feature, which gives them access to specific assets without making them the owner. If your ad account or page is owned by an agency's portfolio, ask them to move ownership to yours.
A simple ownership audit you can run yourself
Work through this list with a spreadsheet open. Record the account, the login email, your role and who else has access.
- Find your domain registrar, log in, and confirm you are the account holder, auto-renew is on and two-step verification is on.
- Confirm where the website is hosted and that the hosting or platform account is in your name.
- Check your Google Business Profile for a business email as primary owner.
- Check Google Ads for business admin access and a payments profile in your name.
- Check GA4, Search Console and Tag Manager for business-level administrator or owner access.
- Check your Meta Business Portfolio owns your page, Instagram, ad account and pixel, with two people on full control.
- List any other tools that hold leads or numbers: call tracking, email marketing, booking software, your CRM.
- Remove former employees and past vendors who no longer need access.
Store the logins in a password manager the business controls, not in a sticky note or one person's head.
What to ask your agency, and what a good answer sounds like
Ask these questions in writing. A trustworthy partner will answer quickly and plainly, and will not treat them as an accusation.
- Who is listed as owner of our domain, website, Google Business Profile, Google Ads, GA4 and Meta assets?
- If we stopped working together, what would we keep, and how would you hand it over?
- Do we own the website code, design files, photos and written content you produced for us?
- Whose account holds our call tracking numbers, and can they be ported?
At ROEM this is a written policy, not a favor: clients own their domain, website, ad accounts and analytics, and we work inside them as users. It is one of the questions we suggest in our guide to choosing a digital marketing agency, and you are welcome to ask us for a free audit that includes an ownership check.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an owner and a manager on Google Business Profile?
Owners have full control, including adding or removing users, transferring ownership and removing the profile. Managers can edit the profile, reply to reviews and post updates, but cannot manage users or remove the profile. Your business should be the primary owner and your agency a manager.
How do I find out who owns my domain name?
Run a WHOIS lookup on your domain to see the registrar, then confirm you can log in to that registrar account yourself. If a designer or former agency holds the account, ask them to move the domain to an account in your business name.
Should my agency own my Google Ads account?
No. Your business should have admin access and a payments profile in its own name. The agency can manage it through their manager account, but the account and its history should stay with you if the relationship ends.
What is a Meta Business Portfolio?
It is Meta's current name for what used to be Business Manager. It holds your Facebook Page, Instagram account, ad accounts and pixel, and controls who can access them. Your business should own the portfolio and add agencies as partners.