Here’s something every dealership should understand before hiring a digital advertising agency.

Who actually owns the Google Ads account?

Who controls the Meta Business Manager, conversion tracking, audiences, historical campaign data, and reporting access?

Some dealerships discover the answers only when they decide to change providers.

Suddenly, transferring accounts, preserving campaign history, or obtaining administrative access becomes much more complicated than expected.

A dealership can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building advertising history and conversion data over several years.

Shouldn’t the dealer have visibility into those assets?

There may be legitimate reasons agencies use different account structures, but those arrangements should be explained clearly before a contract is signed.

Should dealer ownership and administrative access to advertising accounts be a nonnegotiable requirement when hiring a digital agency?

And has anyone experienced problems recovering advertising accounts or historical data after changing providers?