Why You Should Never Let An Agency Run Your Ads Without Giving You Access

Would you hand someone your credit card, let them spend your money, and never check what they actually bought?

That’s effectively what’s happening when a business owner lets an agency or freelancer run their Google Ads or Meta Ads, without giving them any access to the account itself.

I see this more often than you’d expect, and it comes up regularly in the Google Ads and Meta Ads audits I do for new clients.

Here’s the typical setup. You hire an agency to manage your ads. You hand over your card details so they can run the campaigns directly under your name. They send you a report once a month, maybe a dashboard you can log into. But you don’t have actual access to the account itself, ideally admin access.

To me, that’s a massive red flag. I don’t think there’s ever an acceptable reason for it.

Why it matters

If you don’t have access to your own account, you have no way of independently verifying what’s actually happening. How do you know that agency is genuinely spending the budget you agreed to? I’ve seen this play out before, where an agency claims to be spending a certain amount on a client’s behalf, but is actually spending a fraction of that, with the rest going elsewhere.

That’s straight up fraudulent behaviour, and without account access, you’d have no way of catching it.

A slightly less risky model

There’s a different version of this that’s less concerning, although still not perfect. Sometimes an agency pays the ad platform directly themselves, rather than using your card, and then sends you a single bill that covers both management fees and ad spend.

This is a bit better from a fraud risk perspective, since they’re not handling your payment details directly. But it comes with its own issue. I’ve done audits where 70 or 80% of a client’s “ad spend” was actually going straight to a management fee, with only a small amount left over for actual advertising. Without a proper breakdown, you’d have no idea this was happening.

So even in this model, you should be asking for a clear split between management fees and genuine ad spend.

The one exception

There’s one scenario I’m comfortable with, where you wouldn’t necessarily need direct account access. That’s a performance based model, where you only pay an agency when you get a lead or a sale.

Say you run a locksmith business and partner with an agency that specialises in lead generation for trades. They run the ads, manage the landing pages, and you only pay per result. You’re effectively renting their infrastructure rather than handing them a budget to manage on your behalf. That’s a different arrangement entirely, and a fairer one.

What you should be asking for

Outside of that kind of performance arrangement, you should always have access to your own ad accounts. Ideally admin access if you’re using your own payment details. At the very least, standard or view level access if the agency is paying the platform directly.

There’s no real upside to a business owner being locked out of their own account. Only downside risk.

If you’re currently working with an agency or freelancer and you don’t have this access, it’s worth having that conversation. And if you’re shopping around for a new provider and this is what they’re proposing, take it as a sign to keep looking.

Got a question on this, or had an experience with an agency that didn’t give you access? Leave a comment below, or email me at info@samfrost.co.nz.