Check who owns each account first
Do this before you give notice. Access you can't see from your own login is access you don't have.
| Account | You need | How to get it back |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | Your business as registrant, and your own login at the registrar | Ask for a change of registrant, then move registrars with the transfer code (below) |
| Hosting | Your own hosting login, or a full copy of the site | Ask for the account to be moved to you, or a backup you can restore elsewhere |
| Google Business Profile | Primary owner | Request ownership (below) |
| Google Ads | Admin access | Ask for admin; Google requires the agency to give you your customer ID (Google Ads policy) |
| Meta ad account and Page | In your own business portfolio | Ad account: may have to start a new one. Page: the agency removes it so you can add it (below) |
| Google Analytics | Administrator, "Full control of Analytics" (Analytics Help) | Ask the agency to add you as Administrator |
| Search Console | Owner | Owners have "full control" and can add and remove users (Search Console Help) |
Who owns my website domain?
The registrant does: the person or company named on the domain's registration. If a designer registered it in their own name, on paper it's theirs, even if you paid for it. Log in at the registrar (ICANN Lookup shows which one, ICANN) and check the registrant name.
To move it to your own registrar account:
"Your registrar must provide you with the AuthInfo code within five (5) calendar days of your request." (ICANN)
Change the registrant to your business first. For .com and other ICANN-governed domains, plan for the lock that follows: "You cannot transfer a domain name to a different registrar within 60 days of making changes to the registrant name", though some registrars let you opt out (ICANN). ICANN's Board adopted a change on June 7, 2026 that removes this lock (recommendation 26.4), but no start date has been set, so as of November 2026 the lock still applies (ICANN Board resolution 2026.06.07.04).
Canada (.ca): the registrar must also give the code within five days, but only to a request sent from the administrative contact's email address on the domain's record. If it doesn't arrive in five days, CIRA can help (CIRA). So make sure that email is yours.
Getting your Google Business Profile back
If the agency is the owner, ask it to make you primary owner. If it won't, request ownership through Google: go to business.google.com/add, find your business and select Request Access (Business Profile Help).
"The current profile owner is then notified by email and has 3 days to respond." (Business Profile Help)
If there's no response, you may be able to claim and verify the profile yourself; Google says that option "isn't always available" (same page).
Once you're owner, wait before removing the agency. New owners "have to wait 7 days" before they can remove other owners or managers (Business Profile Help).
Getting your Google Ads account back
You need admin. Only admins can give access, change access levels and "unlink manager accounts" (Google Ads Help).
If the agency ran your ads inside its own account, that breaks Google's rule: "Google requires that you use a separate account for each end-advertiser that you manage." (Google Ads policy). You can report a third-party partner to Google from that page.
Getting your Meta ad account and Facebook Page back
Where the ad account was created decides who keeps it:
"If you create a new ad account in a business portfolio, it will permanently be a part of that portfolio. This means the ad account can't be deleted or transferred from the portfolio." (Meta Business Help Center)
If it was created in the agency's portfolio, open a new one in yours. Your Facebook Page is different: it can't be transferred directly, but "if you remove the Page from your business portfolio, another organization can add it to theirs" (Meta Business Help Center). Ask the agency to remove it, then add it to your portfolio.
The order to do it in
- List every account and its current owner (table above).
- Get owner or admin on each, while the agency still cooperates.
- Download what you need: a full website backup, ad reports, call recordings.
- Change the domain's registrant to your business; transfer registrars when the lock allows.
- Wait out Google's 7-day period, then remove the agency from your Business Profile.
- Remove the agency's access everywhere and change any password you shared.
- Give notice under your contract.
Example
A dental office whose web designer owns the domain
The registrar shows the designer's company as registrant. The office asks for a change of registrant and a transfer code. The designer replies in 4 days; the office changes the registrant, then waits out the lock before moving registrars. The site never goes down, because the hosting stays put until the end.
An HVAC company whose agency made the Meta ad account
The ad account sits in the agency's portfolio and can't move. The owner opens a new ad account in his own portfolio, asks the agency to remove his Facebook Page from theirs, and adds it to his. He loses the old ad account's history but keeps his Page.
Different for you?
- Signing with a new provider: Marketing agency contract terms
- Moving to a new website at the same time: New website, traffic dropped
- Choosing who takes over: SEO agency vs freelancer vs in-house vs AI
- Your Google listing got suspended in the switch: Google Business Profile suspended
- Budgeting a rebuild: How much a small business website costs
- Want a site you own outright from day one: Website