What your practice should own: ad accounts, Google Business Profile, domain and tracking
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Who owns the Google Ads account when an agency runs it? It should be the practice. The same goes for everything else a dental practice should own: the Google Business Profile, the domain name, hosting, analytics, the tag manager container, Meta business assets and call-tracking numbers. The agency should be given access to your accounts, not the other way round.
A practice can go years without knowing who really owns its marketing, and find out on the day it tries to leave. The asset table below gives the exact check for each one, and the difference between being an admin and being an owner, so you can find out this week instead.
Why ownership matters
Marketing accounts build up value over time. A Google Ads account holds years of conversion history, which is the record of which clicks became results. A Google Business Profile holds your reviews. A domain carries the links and rankings your site has earned. An analytics property holds the history you compare against.
If a vendor owns any of these, you're renting your own marketing. When the relationship ends, you can lose the history, the reviews or the address your patients know. Some practices end up paying a vendor they want to leave, simply because leaving would cost more.
Ownership also keeps everyone honest. When the practice owns the ad account, it can see exactly what was spent and changed. That visibility is worth having even with a vendor you trust.
The asset table
| Asset | Should be owned by | Vendor should have | Risk if the vendor owns it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads account | The practice, with a practice login holding admin access | Admin or standard access, or a manager-account link | Losing conversion history and campaign data on exit |
| Google Business Profile | The practice as primary owner | Manager access | Losing control of reviews, posts and profile details |
| Domain name | The practice as registrant | Access to DNS settings if needed | Losing your web address and email |
| Website hosting | The practice's account with the host | A user or developer login | Site held hostage or taken down on exit |
| Website admin (CMS) | Practice admin login | Their own named login | Locked out of your own site |
| Google Analytics (GA4) property | An Analytics account the practice controls | Editor or Marketer role | Losing reporting history |
| Google Tag Manager container | A Tag Manager account the practice controls | Publish or Edit permission on the container | Tracking changes you cannot see or undo |
| Meta business assets (Page, ad account, dataset) | The practice's own business portfolio | Partner access | Losing ad history and audiences |
| Call-tracking numbers | Numbers in the practice's name, where the provider allows it | Access to the dashboard | Losing the numbers printed on your site and listings |
| Email marketing lists | The practice's account | User access | Losing your patient communication history |
A registrant is the person or organisation a domain name is registered to. A business portfolio is Meta's name for the business account that owns Pages, ad accounts and other assets.3
How to check each one
| Asset | Where to look | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Admin, then Access and security, while signed in with a practice Google account | A practice email is listed with Admin access4 |
| Google Business Profile | More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access | A practice email is listed as Primary owner2 |
| Domain | Sign in to your registrar; for .uk names, the registrar shown in a Nominet lookup; for .com, lookup.icann.org | The practice is the registrant and you hold the registrar login |
| Hosting | Your host's control panel | The account is in the practice's name and paid by the practice |
| GA4 | Admin, then Account access management and Property access management | A practice email holds Administrator at account level5 |
| Tag Manager | Admin, then User management for the account and the container | A practice email is account Administrator with Publish on the container6 |
| Meta | Business settings in your own business portfolio | Your ad account and Page are listed as owned, not shared by a partner. A Page you only have access to shows the other business as its owner7 |
| Call tracking | The provider's dashboard and contract | The numbers and account are in the practice's name |
If you can't sign in at all, that is your answer: someone else controls it.
Two notes on the domain check. Public domain lookups show the registrar but often hide the registrant's details, so the registrar account is the reliable place to check. And .uk transfers are changing: from 9 February 2027, moving a .uk domain between registrars switches from the current tag system to a transfer authorisation code, the same kind of code used for .com names.8
Admin versus owner access
The words differ by platform, and the difference matters.
| Platform | Top level | What it can do that others cannot |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Admin (there is no separate owner role) | Give and remove access, change access levels, manage links to other accounts1 |
| Google Ads, manager link | A manager account with "ownership" of the client account | Full admin rights through the link, but the client account keeps its data and can always unlink the manager9 |
| Google Business Profile | Primary owner (one per profile) | Transfer primary ownership; owners can add or remove users and remove the profile, managers cannot2 |
| GA4 | Administrator | Manage users and assign any role; Editors control settings but cannot manage users5 |
| Tag Manager | Account Administrator, and Publish on the container | Administrators manage users and create containers; only Publish permission can put changes live6 |
| Meta | Full control in the owning business portfolio | Full control covers settings, people, tools and assets, including claiming or removing assets; partial access is limited to the tasks assigned3 |
Three practical points follow from this.
Google Ads. Make sure at least one practice-controlled login has Admin access, and ideally two. Google itself recommends more than one administrator so access isn't lost if one person becomes unavailable.1 If your account sits under an agency's manager account, that is normal and fine, as long as the practice also has its own admin login. A client account can always unlink a manager account.9
Google Business Profile. The practice should be primary owner. The agency should be a manager. Managers can do almost all the day-to-day work but can't add or remove users or delete the profile.2 Primary ownership can only be transferred to someone already on the profile, and Google applies a seven-day waiting period to transfers involving newly added owners, so add the practice's email early.2
Analytics and Tag Manager. These live inside accounts, and the account owner decides who can see what. If your GA4 property sits in the agency's Analytics account, it can be moved to one you control. Moving a property needs Administrator and Editor roles on both the source and the destination account, so the agency has to take part.10
Fixing it without a fight
Most ownership problems are not malicious. An agency set up an account quickly under its own login years ago, and nobody revisited it. Start with a polite written request.
A request that usually works:
- List each asset and the access you need, for example "Primary owner on the practice's Google Business Profile for [email protected]".
- Explain it as good governance, not a sign you're leaving. A good vendor won't mind being asked.
- Set a reasonable date, and ask for confirmation once it's done.
- Check each change yourself inside the platform.
If a vendor won't cooperate, some platforms have routes that don't depend on them. For a Google Business Profile, you can request access through Google; the current owner has three days to respond, and if they don't, you may be able to claim the profile, though Google notes that option isn't always available.11 A profile that has already been suspended needs a different route, covered in recovering a suspended practice profile.
If the problem only surfaces when you're already planning to leave, the order you do things in matters. That process, with a printable checklist, is on leaving a marketing agency cleanly. The wider buying decisions are on how to buy dental marketing.
If you want to know who owns what, email me about your practice at [email protected]. That first look is free: I check what is visible from the outside, on your site, ads and local listing, and write back with what I find.
Sources
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Google Ads Help, "About access levels in your Google Ads account", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9978556, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Google Business Profile Help, "Manage owners and managers of your Business Profile", https://support.google.com/business/answer/3403100, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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Meta Business Help Centre, "About business portfolio and business asset permissions in Meta Business Suite", https://www.facebook.com/business/help/442345745885606, checked at source and accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Google Ads Help, "Manage access to your Google Ads account", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372672, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩
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Analytics Help, "[GA4] Access and data-restriction management", https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9305587, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Tag Manager Help, "User permissions", https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6107011, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Meta Business Help Centre, "Request access to a Page in Meta Business Suite", https://www.facebook.com/business/help/183277585892925, checked at source and accessed 1 October 2026. ↩
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Nominet Registrar Resources, ".UK is changing: you need to get ready", https://registrars.nominet.uk/registry/dot-uk/preparing-for-standardisation/, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩
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Google Ads Help, "Manager Accounts (MCC): About ownership of client accounts", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7456532, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Analytics Help, "[GA4] Move a property", https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9305872, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩
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Google Business Profile Help, "Request ownership of a Business Profile", https://support.google.com/business/answer/4566671, accessed 1 October 2026. ↩