Nine things to settle before you sign, and one after
Most of what goes wrong in an agency relationship was decided in the contract, in clauses nobody read closely because everyone was still being friendly.
Settle ownership, access and exit before scope, because those three decide what you keep when the relationship ends. Scope can be renegotiated at any time; the other three usually cannot.
Before you sign
None of these are unusual asks. An agency that resists all nine is telling you something useful for free.
- The ad accounts are opened under your billing, not theirs
- You are the owner on every property, and they are an admin you can remove
- The analytics property, the tag container and the domain sit in your accounts
- Creative source files are delivered, not just exports
- Reporting is defined once, in writing, including which number is the one being judged
- The notice period is symmetrical
- Anything built for you is licensed to you, including code and templates
- There is a named person doing the work, not just a named account manager
- Handover is a deliverable with a date, not a goodwill gesture
The one to check after
Thirty days in, ask to be shown the account. Not a report about the account, the account. If that request is difficult, you have learned the most important thing in this list, and you have learned it while the notice period is still short.
What to take from this
- 01Ownership, access and exit outrank scope
- 02You should be able to remove your agency without asking them to leave
- 03A named practitioner beats a named account manager
- 04Ask to see the live account at thirty days, not a report about it
Ask the question directly
- Is it reasonable to ask for source files?
- Yes. You paid for the work and you will eventually need to edit it. Delivery of sources at the end of each month is a normal term and costs an organised agency nothing.
- What if the agency insists on owning the ad account?
- Then the account history, the audiences and the learning belong to them when you leave, and you restart from zero. That is a real cost and it should be priced into whatever discount is being offered for it.
Related answers
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Growth transformation
Organic accounts, reputation, lifecycle and conversion run as one programme, with fractional leadership above it for the companies that need the seniority before they can justify the salary.
SEO or Google Ads first?
Bring the decision you are stuck on
A call, forty five minutes, no deck. We will tell you if we are the wrong firm.