Switch marketing agencies by securing your business's access, identifying the systems that keep campaigns running and testing the new team's ability to operate them before removing the outgoing agency. Preserve existing accounts where appropriate, record the starting configuration and agree who controls live changes throughout the handover.
A change of supplier does not automatically require a new website, ad account or analytics property. Equally, not every asset can simply be transferred. Check actual ownership, platform restrictions, billing and contractual rights early. The aim is a controlled transition with demonstrated continuity, not a promise that every historical asset or result can be preserved in every situation.
1. Agree the transition before changing live access
Read the existing agreement for notice, final fees, outstanding work, asset delivery and handover assistance. Confirm the last service date and the work the outgoing agency will continue to manage until then.
Name one transition lead inside your business. Give both agencies a written schedule identifying who can edit campaigns, publish content, release website changes and approve spending at each stage. A temporary overlap can help, but two teams should not independently change the same live campaign.
Agree a short change freeze during the sensitive part of the handover: postpone unnecessary account restructures, major tag changes and website releases. Necessary changes can still proceed through the named owner. Keep a shared change log with what changed, when, who approved it and any effect on billing or measurement.
Keep urgent security incidents separate from an ordinary supplier transition. If access is compromised, the business may need to restrict it immediately and recover systems through their official processes. For a routine change, avoid cutting off the people needed to complete an agreed handover before continuity is established.
2. Make an inventory your business can actually use
Record the system name, account or asset ID, owning entity where shown, current administrators, billing contact and handover action. Test access from an authorised business user's login; an invitation sitting in an inbox is not completed access.
| Area | What to record | Evidence before the old agency leaves |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising and commerce | Ad account IDs, manager links, billing, campaigns; Merchant Center/catalogues and product feeds where used | Access and billing work; ads and product-feed connections remain operational |
| Website and domain | Registrar, DNS, hosting/platform, CMS, code and backups where applicable | Business can administer the required services and a recovery route is documented |
| Social and email | Pages/profiles, publishing tools, email platform, lists and scheduled sends | Authorised access works; planned publishing and permitted list use can continue |
| Measurement | Analytics properties, tag containers, events, reporting connections | Existing IDs are identified and key events are tested |
| Search and local profiles | Search Console and each relevant Business Profile | Business ownership/access checked, including branch-specific profiles |
| Creative and content | Approved assets, agreed editable files, source materials and licences | Files open, usage rights are clear and future use is permitted |
| Lead operations | Forms, call tracking/routing, WhatsApp and CRM | Test enquiries reach the correct staff and relevant records are retained |
| Integrations and automation | Connected apps, webhooks/API dependencies and the accounts authorising them | Connections work under continuing authorisation, with secrets handled securely outside the inventory |
For a multi-location Dubai business, check each branch's contact destination. A campaign can remain active while enquiries quietly go to an old number or an unattended mailbox.
Transfer credentials through an appropriate secure method where they are genuinely required. Prefer individual access and partner permissions to sharing a personal login. Keep recovery details and multifactor authentication under authorised business control.
3. Preserve existing accounts and resolve platform dependencies
Google Ads
Google states that unlinking an individual Ads account from a manager does not remove that account's campaign history. However, shared audiences, cross-account conversion tracking and manager-based monthly invoicing can be affected. If the outgoing manager is the paying manager for monthly invoicing, billing needs to be changed before unlinking to keep ads serving. Google's unlinking guidance.
Have the incoming team identify those dependencies before the link is removed. A familiar campaign name does not prove that conversion measurement or billing will keep working.
Meta and other advertising platforms
Inspect the relationship between the business, its portfolio or manager, and each advertising asset. Check the Facebook Page, Instagram account, advertising account and relevant data sources separately. Do not treat a visible asset or an access invitation as proof of ownership.
Ask the incoming team to confirm the platform-supported route for your actual setup before promising a transfer. If a new account is necessary, document what will remain in the old account, what can be exported and what must be rebuilt. Do not assume a download can restore every audience, learning signal or reporting relationship elsewhere.
Google Analytics and Tag Manager
Keep the existing analytics property when it remains suitable. If a property needs to move between Analytics accounts, Google's documented move can preserve reporting data and the tracking ID, but it has permission requirements and restrictions; earlier change history stays with the source account. Google Analytics property moves.
For Google Tag Manager, retain access and an export of the relevant container configuration. Google supports JSON container exports. That is a configuration backup, not a copy of the analytics reporting database. Google Tag Manager export guidance.
4. Capture the working state and the reasons behind it
Keep a dated transition baseline covering the systems actually in use:
- Campaigns: active campaigns, budgets, important audiences, live creative and experiments.
- Destinations and measurement: live landing pages, conversion definitions, tracking connections and recent reporting exports.
- Operations: current integrations, scheduled work, unresolved issues and the person responsible for each.
Distinguish live assets from approved but unpublished work, and from material that was rejected or replaced.
Ask the outgoing agency for a concise explanation of what was working, what was inconclusive and what should be checked next. Include known technical problems and dependencies on agency-owned tools. An exported chart does not explain why a campaign was paused or which lead definition changed.
For the website, identify who controls the domain, email-related DNS, hosting, deployment and required subscriptions. Avoid moving all of these simply to change the marketing team. If a move is necessary, assign testing, a usable backup and a rollback decision before making it.
Customer records need an agreed transfer and retention process. Give the incoming team only the data and access required for the commissioned work. Resolve return, deletion and any required retention with the outgoing provider; do not leave duplicate customer exports in uncontrolled folders.
5. Test the customer journey before accepting the handover
Use authorised test enquiries on your own business systems. Test the important purchased journeys on representative devices, including any language versions in use.
For a Dubai business taking bookings and WhatsApp enquiries, a practical acceptance test checks that the destination is correct, a form reaches the assigned recipient, confirmation works and the agreed event appears in the intended measurement system. A booking or payment journey needs its own test when it is part of the site.
Have the teams check that events are not counted twice through overlapping tags or integrations. Record the time of any tracking change so reporting differences can be investigated later.
Mark test records clearly and exclude or reconcile them in business reporting. Use test modes where available for transactions. Do not conclude that tracking is correct merely because a dashboard has a green indicator.
6. Remove old access only after the replacement works
Confirm the business and incoming team can perform the required tasks without the outgoing agency's login. Then remove the permissions that are no longer required, review connected applications and rotate shared credentials or integration secrets where appropriate. Update dependent systems when credentials change and verify them again.
Search Console requires particular care. Removing a user from the interface may not be enough if their verification tokens remain. Google's guidance explains token removal and warns that a token can also support other services. Have the responsible technical person check dependencies before deleting verification records. Search Console permissions guidance.
For Google Business Profiles, confirm that an authorised representative of your business holds primary ownership. Giving the new agency a manager role does not resolve missing business control. Newly added owners or managers face restrictions during their first seven days, so allow for this when planning the change. Google Business Profile ownership guidance.
After removing old access, repeat the critical enquiry, tracking, publishing and billing checks. A successful earlier test cannot prove that nothing depended on the outgoing agency’s authorisation or integration.
Keep an approved list of any access that must remain temporarily, with a purpose and removal date. “Handover complete” should mean the business has accepted the required capabilities, not merely received a folder of files.
7. Watch the first complete operating cycle
During the agreed monitoring period, review spend and billing, enquiries received, tracking volumes, website availability, scheduled publications and important renewals. Compare against the saved baseline while allowing for genuine business changes and reporting delays.
Choose monitoring frequency based on the activity and risk. A live promotion with meaningful daily spend needs a different level of attention from a paused campaign waiting for new creative. Record exceptions, who will act and when the change will be checked again.
If an asset cannot be recovered, document the gap and a realistic replacement plan. Do not delete the remaining evidence or recreate accounts merely to make the handover list look complete. For disputed access, preserve records and use the relevant platform support or contractual route.
Moving connected marketing work to Lunasol
Lunasol's full-service marketing connects content/video production, social, paid advertising and SEO/local search through one coordinating team. For a transition spanning those services, that provides a relevant starting point for agreeing the incoming responsibilities.
Before a move, share the account inventory, current results and unresolved dependencies. Agree which transition tasks are included, who will test them and what evidence will confirm the handover is complete. Keep any major rebuild or additional integration visible as its own piece of work.