The 15-Minute Marketing Agency Onboarding Checklist

The first two weeks with a new agency are usually wasted.

Not on strategy — on logistics. An email asking for Google Ads access. Three days pass. Then a request for the pixel. Then “can you also add us to Search Console?“ Then a week trying to find out who has the WordPress login. Meanwhile you're paying for a month in which nothing has launched.

It doesn't have to go that way. Everything a competent agency needs from you fits into one fifteen-minute sitting, if you know the full list up front.

Here it is, in the order that makes the fewest things block each other.

Before you start: two minutes of prep

1. Ask your agency for two numbers. You cannot grant proper access without them:

• Their Google Ads manager account ID (format `123-456-7890`)
• Their Meta Business Manager ID

2. Ask which email addresses to grant. Ideally one shared team email plus named individuals. Never a personal Gmail belonging to one contractor.

3. Get a password manager if you don't have one. Not for sharing passwords with your agency — you won't be doing that — but because this process will surface half a dozen logins you'd forgotten, and it's a good moment to stop keeping them in a notes app.

Part 1: Advertising access (5 minutes)

Google Ads

Send your 10-digit Customer ID, then approve their manager account link at Admin → Access and security → Managers. You stay the owner; you can remove the link yourself any time.

Meta

In Business Settings → Partners, add their Business Manager ID and share three assets: your Page, your ad account, and your pixel. Sharing the page alone is the most common onboarding failure — it lets them post, not advertise. Missing the pixel means the algorithm optimizes blind.

Confirm ownership while you're there. Under Accounts, your page and ad account should say Owned, not Partner. If they don't, flag it now rather than in a year.

Part 2: Measurement (3 minutes)

Skipping this section is why month-one reports have holes in them.

• Google Analytics 4 — grant Editor to their email (Admin → Property Access Management). Editor, not Viewer: they need it to configure conversion events.
• Google Search Console — grant Full access. Keep Owner yourself.
• Google Tag Manager — if you have a container, grant Publish rights. If you don't, they'll create one; make sure it's created under your account.
• Call tracking — if you use CallRail or similar, add a user.

Part 3: Your local presence (2 minutes)

Google Business Profile — add them as a Manager. Not an Owner, and definitely not Primary Owner. Manager lets them edit hours, photos, services, posts, and respond to reviews. It does not let them remove you.

Other directories — Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp. Lower priority, but they'll ask eventually, so batching them now saves a round trip.

Part 4: Website (3 minutes)

• CMS — create a named user: WordPress Administrator (they'll need it for plugins and schema), Shopify staff account, or the equivalent
• Hosting — usually not needed, but if there's caching or CDN work coming, a user account beats sharing your main login
• Domain / DNS — this one stays with you. Almost everything they need is a single record they'll send you to paste in. Your registrar login is the most powerful credential you have; there's no reason to hand it over.

Part 5: What isn't access (5 minutes, and the highest-value part)

Access lets an agency start. This is what lets them be good:

Your actual numbers

• Average job value or customer lifetime value
• Rough close rate on leads
• Which services are most and least profitable

Without these, an agency optimizes for cheap leads instead of profitable ones. A $40 lead for a service you make $200 on is worse than a $150 lead for a service you make $4,000 on — and only you know which is which.

Your capacity

What you actually want more of, and what you don't. Plenty of businesses get flooded with the low-margin work they were already too busy for. Say so up front.

Your service area, honestly

Not the aspirational one. The one where you'll genuinely drive.

Existing assets

Logo files, brand colours, photos of real jobs and real crews, and any past ad creative that worked. Real photography consistently outperforms stock, and you already own it.

Who answers the phone

Genuinely one of the most important facts about your marketing. Hours, who picks up, and what happens after 5pm. The best campaign in the world dies at an unanswered phone.

The full checklist

Print it, tick it, done:

Advertising

• Google Ads: manager account link approved
• Meta: partner access granted — Page ✓ Ad account ✓ Pixel ✓
• Confirmed Meta assets are Owned by your Business Manager

Measurement

• GA4: Editor access
• Search Console: Full access
• Tag Manager: Publish access (if applicable)
• Call tracking: user added (if applicable)

Local

• Google Business Profile: added as Manager
• Other directories as needed

Website

• CMS: named admin/editor user created
• DNS: you keep the registrar, they send you records

Context

• Average job value / LTV shared
• Close rate shared
• Most and least profitable services identified
• Service area confirmed
• Brand assets and real job photos sent
• Phone coverage and after-hours process explained

Ownership sanity check

• You are Owner or Admin on every platform
• You can remove your agency without asking them
• No password was shared anywhere

That last block is the important one. If all three are true, you've given an agency everything they need to do great work and kept every bit of your leverage.

Do it with screenshots instead

Reading a checklist is one thing; finding Meta's Partners screen is another. Every item above has a screenshot-by-screenshot walkthrough in our Client Access Center — 17 platforms, no passwords, nothing to install. Most clients get through the whole list in a single sitting.

And if you'd rather someone just tell you what's currently missing or mis-owned in your setup, book a call. We'll go through it with you.