Account Access and Baseline Audit (Onboarding)

Account Access and Baseline Audit (Onboarding)

1. 01

   Collect admin-level access to every ad account named in the client contract

   Request Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Meta Business Manager admin rights rather than read-only, since bid rules and budget pacing changes require write access. Confirm the client's finance team can see the same billing profile you will manage.

2. 02

   Pull a 90-day performance baseline before changing a single setting

   Export spend, conversions, CPA, and ROAS by campaign for the trailing quarter. This becomes the reference point for every renewal conversation and prevents the client from attributing pre-existing trends to your management.

3. 03

   Run a conversion tracking audit across every platform in scope

   Verify that primary conversion actions fire on the correct pages and that no duplicate counting inflates reported results. Broken or double-counted tracking is the most common reason a new retainer looks worse in month two than month one.

4. 04

   Inventory existing automation, scripts, and third-party rules already running

   Document every active bid strategy, automated rule, and connected tool so you do not create conflicting logic. Platforms such as Optmyzr or Adalysis may already hold rule sets the previous manager built and abandoned.

5. 05

   Map account structure against the client's actual revenue segments

   Compare campaign and ad group naming to how the client reports revenue internally. A mismatch here means every future report requires manual reconciliation, which erodes margin on fixed-fee retainers.

6. 06

   Flag compliance, brand, and landing page constraints in writing

   Record restricted terms, regulated claims, and approved landing page domains before any creative goes live. Getting this wrong triggers ad disapprovals that stall the first two weeks of delivery.

7. 07

   Set the reporting cadence and define which metrics the client will judge you on

   Agree on one primary metric and no more than three supporting metrics. Agencies that let clients pick new success metrics each month lose renewals to shifting goalposts rather than poor performance.