Whether you’re an adwords agency account that has acquired new clientele and is taking over an existing google adwords account, or if you’re ceasing management of your client’s account, this guide is for you. It’s designed to walk you through the process of transferring your Google Ads and the associated Payment Profile, thus giving you comprehensive control over the account, including the responsibility for handling charges.

You may ask, why should I bother with transferring when I can easily start afresh?

Transferring a google adwords account is of significant value for a couple of reasons. First, it ensures seamless continuity of the client’s advertising campaigns, preventing any interruption in critical ad spend opportunities. Second, it complies with Google’s stringent transfer regulations designed to circumvent any quality score issues or historical data value concerns that may arise if you were to create a google ads account from the ground up.

There’s yet another reason why transferring a google adwords account is a prudent move. It enables the google adwords manager to preserve all the existing data and configurations of the google account adwords. This encompasses keywords, ad copy, and targeting settings – all elements that could prove arduous and time-consuming to recreate if you decided to start from scratch. By facilitating a transfer, you as the google ad manager can augment the existing foundation and institute modifications as necessary, instead of having to initiate a new google ad manager account.

The option to manage multiple google ads accounts under manager accounts is yet another benefit of choosing to transfer instead of starting from scratch. This feature is particularly handy when managing a diverse portfolio of clients, which is often the case for an ad manager. Simply put, transferring a google ads account is a much more efficient option.

To transfer a Google Ads account, you’ll need to add the account to your Google Ads Manager Account, also known as a My Client Center (MCC) account. This will allow you to manage multiple accounts from one centralized location and keep track of their performance in one place. To add an account to your MCC, you’ll need to sign in to your Google Ads account and then go to the accounts tab to add a new account. You’ll also need to add yourself as a user to the Google Ads account so that you have the necessary permissions to manage it.

Once the account has been added to your MCC, you’ll be able to access all of the campaigns, settings, and data associated with the account. This will allow you to make changes as needed and monitor performance to ensure that the campaigns are running smoothly and delivering the desired results.

By transferring your Google Ads account, you can take full control of the account and be responsible for paying for the charges associated with it. This will ensure that the client’s advertising campaigns continue without interruption and that you have access to all of the critical data and settings needed to manage their campaigns effectively. So, if you are inheriting a new account or no longer managing a client’s account, be sure to transfer it to your MCC to take advantage of all of the benefits it has to offer.

Transfer Google Ads Account Guide

Step 1 – Getting Account Access to the Google Ads Account

You will need access to the new Google ads account.

1. Log into your Google Ads MCC Account
2. Click on the blue ‘+’ icon near the top left of the screen (just above all of your ad accounts)
   
3. Select ‘+’ Link existing account
4. You show know see a text box where you can enter the Google Ads Customer ID (one per line)
5. Click Send Request

The current admin(s) of the account will receive an email that your MCC is requesting access to the Google Ads account.

They will need to log into their account and do the following in order to grant you access:

1. Log into their Google Ads MCC account
2. Click on “Tools and Settings” at the top right side of the screen (wrench icon)
3. In the Setup section, click on “Access and Security” 

   

4. Click on the “Managers” tab
5. Click on approve next to your MCC name

Once they grant you access, you will receive an email that you now have access to the Google Ads Account

Step 2 – Transfer the Payments Profile

Once you have access to the Google Ads account, you want to make sure that the billing is also transferred to you. I found out the easiest way is to contact Google Ads Support and let them help facilitate the payments profile to you.

Here’s how to contact Google Support:

1. Log into you Google Ads Manager Account
2. Click on the “Help” Icon at the top of the screen 

   

3. Fill out the necessary fields like Google Ads Customer ID number
4. In the Tell us what we can help with field, you can type in “Transfer Payment Profile”
5. Click Next
6. Google Will instruct you to “Choose the best description of this issue:” Make sure you select “Other
7. Click Next Step
8. Choose Chat (if enabled). If not, I would stop here and try again during normal business hours and this button should be clickable
9. Once you are chatting with Google Ads Customer support, just let them know that you want to transfer the payment profile from the old agency to you.
10. You will need to verify your current payment profile email and also the old agency’s payment profile
11. Once the Google Ads Support rep has verified both email addresses, they will send you an email with more questions that you will need to fill out.
12. From our experience, it’s best that someone from your agency fills out the required info, and do a reply all (make sure you include the sender’s original email address AND the email address of the current primary billing contact of the previous agency). The email should include a note to the primary contact to confirm the changes by saying something like “I approve these changes” and replying back to Google. Important – The approval email must come from the primary billing contact in order for Google to make those changes. 

    ___________________________________________

    Here is the sample email 

    Thank you for contacting Google Ads regarding the billing transfer request for account ID: XXX-XXX-XXXX

    Google Ads account ID:

    Destination Manager Account: This is the MCC which the current account will be housed under in the future. If the account is moving companies, please provide the MCC ID of the new company that might be taking ownership)

    Name and registered corporate address of the Payment Profile currently linked to the Ads account

    Name and 12 digit payments profile ID of the new Payment profile that will be taking ownership of the Ads account

    Name and email address of a contact person from the Payment profile currently linked to the Ads account (the email provided must already be listed as a Billing Contact or have an identical email domain)

    Name and email address of a contact person from the new Payment profile that will be taking ownership of the Ads account (the email provided must already be listed as a Billing Contact or have an identical email domain)

    The new Payment Profile will need to confirm:

    Budget order start date: (will be ASAP unless mentioned otherwise)

    Budget order end date: (will be “no end date” unless mentioned otherwise)

    Budget order amount (can be unlimited): (will be “unlimited” unless mentioned otherwise)

    Billing contact name:

    Budget Order acceptance email address (must match the company domain of the payment profile):

    Type of invoice

    Individual or Consolidated Bill:
    Existing Invoice or New Invoice**:
    Desired account transfer date:

    **If this is an individual account invoice (Account Level Order), confirm the name for the Monthly Invoice* (default format: Google Ads “XXX-XXX-XXXX”):

    **If you’re adding this account to a Consolidated Bill:

    Name of current invoice (or new invoice) it should be billed to:
    Payment account ID for the invoice it should be billed to “XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX”:
    
    As soon as I receive this information from you, I can process the requested changes. Within a few hours, the respective contacts you specified will be sent agreements that need to be accepted for this switch from Payment Profile A to Payment Profile B to occur. Once the agreements are accepted, the switch is automatic and requires no additional manual intervention. You can check if the transition is complete by going into the billing settings section of the child account and verifying the payment profile details.

    ___________________________________________

     

13. Once the other party sends the approval email to Google, it usually takes 48-72 hours for them to update the account. You can contact Google Support again to find out the status of the changes.
14. That’s it, now you should see the updated email address as the primary billing contact. 

Step 3 – Remove Administrative Access to all Users That Should Not Have Access

1. Now that everything is in your name, you will need to go back to the “Manage Access and Security” section and revoke everyone that shouldn’t have access to your account. 

In conclusion, transferring the ownership of a Google Ads account can be a long process, but by following these simple steps, you should be able to have everything transferred over smoothly.