Signed on Friday, still waiting on Thursday
The new client signed. The kick-off call was upbeat. The account manager sends an email asking for access to "your ads accounts, analytics and social pages". The client's marketing manager forwards it to their web developer for GA4, to the MD who owns the Meta Business Manager, and to someone in IT for Search Console. Nobody is sure which email address to add.
A week later the agency has access to Google Ads but at read-only level, a personal Facebook profile invite instead of a partner request, and no reply on GA4. The paid social specialist cannot build the campaign. The client asks when the ads will go live.
Why access is always the slow part
- Each platform grants agency access differently: manager account links, partner requests, user invites and property-level permissions.
- The person who owns each account at the client is different, and often not the person the agency talks to.
- Clients do not know their own setup. Some have accounts created by a previous agency or a former employee.
- Requests go out as one long email, so partial replies look like progress and the gaps are missed.
- Nobody on the agency side owns the list, so each specialist chases their own platform.
The underlying issue is that access is treated as a favour to ask rather than a checklist to complete, with a clear owner and status for each line.
The cost of a slow start
The retainer is billing from day one, but work cannot start. The first month's deliverables slip, and the client's first impression of the agency is a string of chasing emails. Specialists spend time explaining the same instructions again. Some agencies start work under a shared login to save time, which creates a security problem that lasts long after onboarding.
The access checklist we build
- For each service you sell, we define the access it needs: which platform, what level, and whether it should be granted through your manager account or business account rather than a personal login.
- When a client is signed in your CRM, a checklist is created from the services on their contract.
- The client receives a short page per platform with the exact steps, the agency ID or email to add, and the permission level, written for the person at the client who owns that account.
- Each line has a status: requested, granted, wrong level, blocked. Where a platform API allows it, the status is checked automatically, for example by seeing the linked account appear under your manager account.
- Reminders go to the right client contact for each outstanding line, not one generic chase to the marketing manager.
- The account manager sees one view of every new client and every missing access, so blockers are raised on the kick-off follow-up call rather than discovered by a specialist.
| Platform | Usual way to grant access | Common problem |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Link to the agency manager account | Read-only access given by mistake |
| GA4 | User added at property or account level | Owned by a former developer |
| Meta | Partner access through Business Manager | Personal profile invite instead |
| Search Console | User added to the property | Property not verified |
| Website CMS | Named user with the right role | Shared admin password sent by email |
What access you should hold, and what agreements cover it, is for your own policies and contracts. The checklist makes sure whatever you decide is actually done.
Onboarding with a checklist
The contract is signed and the client gets a tidy onboarding page listing what the agency needs and from whom. By the kick-off call most lines are already green, and the account manager asks directly about the two that are blocked. Specialists start work on the platforms that are ready rather than waiting on all of them.
The checklist is also kept. When the client leaves, the same list becomes the record of what to hand back and what to remove.
Recognise this onboarding?
- New clients take a long time to grant access to ad and analytics accounts.
- Access requests go out as one long email that gets partial replies.
- Specialists chase their own platforms separately.
- Access is sometimes granted at the wrong level or to a personal account.
- Shared logins are used to get started and never replaced.