Before you hire marketing help, build this handoff pack

A useful marketing handoff lets another person do the agreed work without making that person the only one who understands or controls the business's accounts. Build the pack before the first campaign, website edit, or invoice.

The business should retain its own account ownership, billing visibility, recovery methods, source files, and outcome records. The marketer should receive the access and context needed for the assignment, not a collection of shared passwords and unexplained dashboards.

Start with one handoff index

Create one protected document or spreadsheet that points to the systems where the real records live. Do not store passwords, recovery codes, customer lists, or payment details in the handoff index.

Business owner:
Backup business contact:
Marketing lead:
Scope start and review dates:
Approved offer and service area:
Primary customer action:
Account and asset register:
Measurement dictionary:
Current campaigns and commitments:
Decision log location:
Source-file location:
Access review date:
Offboarding owner:

The index is a map, not a second database. Customer information stays in the approved CRM or operating system. Billing details stay in the platform that processes the payment. Creative source files stay in the business-controlled workspace chosen for them.

1. Write the business truth sheet

A marketer cannot safely infer the offer from an old website or a previous ad. Record the facts that affect what can be promised and delivered.

If these answers keep changing, use the one-page offer worksheet before transferring campaign work. If the business cannot fund a test, serve more customers, or maintain follow-up, review when not to hire an agency yet.

2. Build an account and asset register

Use one row for every platform, website, domain, profile, phone number, form, CRM, email tool, creative folder, and reporting destination.

Do not write the password in the row. Use each platform's invitation, role, or partner-access system when it is available.

Google Ads currently offers email-only, billing, read-only, standard, and admin access levels. Admin access can change users, manager links, product links, and other sensitive settings, while standard access can edit campaigns. Review the current Google Ads access-level table before granting access. Choose the lowest role that still allows the agreed work, then record who can raise or remove that access.

Google Business Profile states that each user should use a separate Google Account rather than sharing the profile password. Owners can manage users and the profile, while managers cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. See the current Business Profile owner and manager guidance. Keep the primary ownership and recovery path with the business.

Search Console has its own owners, users, and permissions. Review the user list and verified ownership methods in Search Console's access guidance, especially before removing someone. Deleting a visible user entry is not enough if a former provider still controls a valid ownership token elsewhere.

LinkedIn Business Manager can share access to Pages and ad accounts through people, roles, and business partnerships. LinkedIn also recommends more than one active admin. Review its current Business Manager role guidance and record which organization owns each asset before accepting a partnership.

Other platforms use different role names and rules. Do not assume that admin, partner, owner, and manager mean the same thing everywhere.

3. Define the numbers before reporting begins

Create a short metric dictionary so the business and marketer do not use the same word for different events.

Inquiry: what event creates it?
Qualified lead: what facts must be true?
Booked appointment: scheduled or attended?
Customer: signed, invoiced, or paid?
Revenue: estimated, invoiced, or collected?
Marketing spend: media only or all acquisition costs?
Reporting window: which dates and time zone?
Source of truth for each outcome:

A platform conversion is not automatically a customer. A scheduled appointment is not automatically an attended appointment. Use the lead-quality scorecard to define the stages, and keep collected revenue separate from configured platform value with the revenue evidence ladder.

4. Freeze a starting snapshot

Record what exists before work begins so later changes can be explained. A starting snapshot can include:

• Active campaigns, budgets, bid settings, audiences, locations, schedules, and landing pages
• Current forms, phone numbers, booking links, confirmation pages, and lead destinations
• Conversion actions and which ones affect optimization
• Current creative files and approved claim evidence
• Open invoices, platform credits, commitments, and cancellation dates
• Known tracking failures, policy issues, access gaps, and unresolved support cases
• The date, time zone, and person who captured the snapshot

Export what the platform permits, but do not turn an export into a second live system. The point is to preserve a dated starting condition, not to create another reporting project.

5. Set decision and approval boundaries

Write down what the marketer may change without asking, what requires approval, and what is prohibited.

Set an approval channel and a response owner. A rule such as "text me if it is urgent" is not complete unless the team agrees what urgent means and who can stop spend when the owner is unavailable.

6. Run the exit test before day one

A handoff is incomplete if the business would lose control or understanding when the relationship ends. Test the exit while everyone is cooperative.

The business should be able to answer yes to each question:

• Can we sign in through business-controlled accounts?
• Can we identify every owner, admin, partner, and billing user?
• Can we remove access without deleting the underlying business asset?
• Can we find the current campaigns, landing pages, audiences, tags, and source files?
• Can we reconcile spend, leads, customers, and collected revenue?
• Can another qualified person understand the decision log and continue the work?
• Do we know what the provider must return, transfer, export, or delete at the end?

If any answer is no, assign an owner and due date before the work depends on that missing item. The test is not a reason to distrust a provider. It protects the business and gives a good provider cleaner information to work with.

Follow one small example

A local HVAC company wants help running ads. Its owner controls the domain, website, Business Profile, ad account, analytics property, payment profile, call-tracking number, and CRM. The agency receives the roles needed to edit campaigns, review measurement, and improve the approved landing page. It does not receive the owner's email password or become the only administrator.

The truth sheet says the promoted tune-up is available in three counties, excludes emergency repair, and can accept 15 additional appointments per week. The metric dictionary says a booked appointment counts only after a date and time are scheduled, while a customer counts only after payment is collected. The starting snapshot records the current $2,000 monthly media budget, two active campaigns, the call-routing destination, and a form-delivery problem already under investigation.

That pack prevents predictable arguments. Capacity is visible before budget rises. The old form problem is not blamed on new work. A booked appointment cannot be reported as collected revenue. If the relationship ends, the company keeps its accounts, history, source files, and recovery path.

The best handoff does not bury a provider in documents. It gives the right person the right facts and access while keeping the business capable of operating without them.