Question

Can an agency access my Local Services Ads account without taking ownership?

Answer 1

Yes. An agency can usually access and manage your Local Services Ads account without taking ownership of the business or advertising account. You remain the account owner, while the agency receives a separate Google Account invitation with the access level needed for its work.

Google provides several access levels:

• Email-only: Receives reports and notifications.

• Read-only: Can view leads, business information, settings, and users.

• Standard: Can edit the business profile, respond to leads, and manage lead-related activity.

• Administrative: Can manage bidding, budgets, users, and access.

For most agencies, Standard access may be enough for lead management and profile updates. Administrative access should be given only when the agency genuinely needs to control budgets, bidding, or user permissions. Billing and payment permissions may also be managed separately through the Google Payments profile.

To grant access, open your LSA account, go to the Admin menu, select Access and security, click the plus button, choose the appropriate access level, and enter the agency employee’s Google Account email address. The agency must accept the invitation before it can access the account.

You should never share your personal Google password. Add the agency through Google’s access controls so you can see who has access, change permission levels, or remove access when the contract ends.

Also, remember that LSA access and Google Business Profile access are separate. An agency may be able to manage your ads but still need owner or manager access to the connected Business Profile for certain verification or profile-related tasks. Google also supports manager-account access for agencies managing multiple client accounts.

The safest arrangement is to keep ownership with your business, give the agency only the permissions it needs, and review all users regularly.