Had a business call me up out of the blue the other day, wanting me to review their Google Ads account and try to identify why performance had been decreasing over time despite pouring ever more money into ad spend and management fees over time.
Here's where it got interesting.
We agreed the terms - very much a one off review at this stage and unlikely to become ongoing management - and then the client reached out to the current agency that runs the account and said 'hey keep an eye out for an access request'.
Now I'm the first to admit that nobody likes it when they are running an ads account for a client and then you see the dreaded email notification that a new user has been added to the account/requested access.
But clients changing service vendors - not just for Google Ads but for anything - happens for many different reasons and is part and parcel of business life (as an aside, if you are the advertiser/client I think at the very least it's good manners to give your existing provider a clear heads up, rather than them finding out only from getting the system notification that new user has been added)
Within 5 minutes of agreeing the project terms and my new client sending an email to their existing agency, I had a panicked phone call from the client.
"We've been locked out of the account. All access has been removed and the agency now says the account is their property and all work belongs to them"
The client now found themselves in a position where well into 5-figures of Google Ads ad spend per month was their responsibility (as it was their card on the account) but with absolutely no independent oversight/visibility of what was going on in terms of activity as they couldn't get into the account.
The agency was unrelenting as well - "it's our account, we built it and ran it for you for several years, nobody else can have access or else our IP risks being stolen and therefore we won't be re-adding you. You'll get a report each month and that's it".
If I had a dollar for every time I've seen an agency/freelancer throw such a wobbly so aggressively when the mere threat of losing work comes their way I'd be able to afford something off the value menu at McDonalds, as this behaviour isn't all that common. At least not when the advertiser/client pays the ad spend directly and originally set up the account.
I explained that the client could have their access forcibly re-added by Google because they are the ultimate bill payer, that I would assist them in doing so, and that in my professional opinion such behaviour should mean the end of that working relationship ASAP.
So, what has the outcome been? Unfortunately, the client was so "frightened" by the behaviour (and worried the account might be sabotaged resulting in detrimental performance) they've decided to stick with agency for the foreseeable future.
There's a moral in this story, but for the life of me I can't find it.