LinkedInSwitching agencies does not have to reset performance. You switch Google Ads agencies without losing performance by keeping the same account, history, and conversion tracking, then handing over with a clean baseline and a short overlap.
Most dips do not come from the new agency. They come from a new account with no history, broken tracking, changed budgets mid-learning, or a week with no one making changes. Search reprices every auction, so money leaks out in between check-ins.
Follow these steps in order.
1. Keep ownership of your Google Ads account
Do not let the old agency close the account and do not let the new agency start fresh “for a clean slate.” Keep the same Google Ads account ID you have been running.
Action: Confirm you have admin ownership of the Google Ads account and Google Merchant Center, GA4 property, and landing-page domains before you give notice.
Expected outcome: You keep quality history, audience lists, negatives, and Smart Bidding signals. The new team optimizes instead of re-learning.
2. Freeze your baseline for the last 60-90 days
Your new team cannot protect what it cannot see. Export the numbers before access changes.
Action: Save cost, conversions, conversion value, CPA and ROAS by campaign, plus impression share, search-term waste, and lead quality if you track it. Note budget, bid strategy, and any seasonality.
Expected outcome: You have a fixed target to judge the first 30 days against, not a feeling that things “feel down.”
3. Audit conversion tracking before anyone touches bids
Bad signal is the fastest way to lose performance in a handoff. If conversions are double-counted, missing, or imported late, the new bidding starts on bad data.
Action: Check that primary conversions match real sales and leads, enhanced conversions are working, GA4 and Ads agree within reason, and brand versus non-brand are split.
Expected outcome: Smart Bidding keeps stable volume and does not chase false conversions during the switch.
4. Collect everything the old agency built
Agencies leave with what lives in their heads unless you ask for it in writing.
Action: Ask for: account structure map, keyword and negative lists, audience and asset lists, feed rules, bid-strategy settings and test history, landing-page variants, and what was changed in the last 30 days and why.
Expected outcome: The new team does not un-do winners or re-test losers. No wasted spend rediscovering negatives.
5. Overlap, do not pause
Never pause spend between agencies. A pause resets momentum and starves learning.
Action: Keep budgets and bid strategies unchanged for 7-14 days while the new team reads the account. Give read access first, then admin. Freeze big site, offer, or budget changes during the handover.
Expected outcome: No gap in coverage. Search terms that waste money get cut the day they appear, instead of running free while inboxes are handed over.
6. Give the new team a 30-day runway with guardrails
The first month should be protect, then improve. Set that expectation in writing.
Action: Agree on: what will not change in week one, CPA or ROAS floors, daily budget limits, and how often you will see every action and the reason behind it. Ask what happens in your first 30 days so you know what normal onboarding looks like.
Expected outcome: Small daily decisions — wasted term cut, bid set for each auction, budget moved — keep sales stable while the new strategy takes hold.
7. Cut old access only after the new baseline holds
Revoking too early creates orphan automations and lost logins. Revoking too late creates conflicting changes.
Action: Once tracking is verified and performance is at or above your frozen baseline for two straight weeks, remove the old agency users, old rules, and old scripts. Keep the change log.
Expected outcome: One owner, one log of every change and its result. No mystery edits.
What a clean handover looks like with groas
groas takes over what is already running instead of forcing a rebuild. Senior strategists set direction and accountability, while models make the bid, keyword, and budget moves around the clock.
On the Paid Ads Sprint, your target goes in writing before you pay, shaped around your business: from scratch or spending big, scale as far as it stays profitable with no paying more for each sale. You get a weekly report with every action and the reason behind it, and every change and its result is recorded.
If you are switching, bring your baseline from step 2 and your tracking questions from step 3. That is enough to forecast what an account like yours is likely to do and to protect performance from day one.