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A contract, a login and an account: three separate questions
We sell an independent check, Profit Forensics, so weigh our view accordingly: quotes and product rules below are Google’s; the step order and the set-up-again assumption are mine. “Who owns our accounts?” usually gets one answer to three questions.
The contract is about money. Google’s CM360 Fees page says your business “negotiates and signs a contract with Google that outlines your fees and payment terms.” It does not say who manages users, Floodlight or SA360.
The login is about control. In SA360, an Admin signed in to a manager account manages users. In Google Ads, a client account has one owner manager, yet “the client account still owns its data and has the ability to remove ownership access by unlinking.”
The account is about where things live. SA360 has three levels: manager, sub-manager and client. Its ownership page gives each item an owner account: custom columns and other custom data can sit at manager level, and manager-owned items open only to users signed in to that manager account. So a company can keep its Google Ads data yet be unable to open columns owned above it.
None of this assumes bad faith. It is the rule behind our Account Audits & Agency Reviews: an answer is verified when a company user can reproduce it from their own login.
What moves, what stays and what to save before notice
Seven objects make up the ownership question: SA360, CM360 and five neighbours an agency change can touch. The last column is my recommendation, built from gaps in Google’s pages: a record you keep, not an export Google provides.
| Object | What you can keep or move | What does not move automatically | Save before notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| SA360 | An existing Admin of the manager account can add your user. Linked Google Ads accounts keep their campaigns. | Manager-owned custom columns stay at manager level. Once a sub-manager is linked to a CM360 advertiser, it cannot be linked to another. | Manager, sub-manager, client and linked advertiser IDs; item owners; users. |
| CM360 and Floodlight | Renaming an advertiser changes neither its ID nor its Floodlight. Additional CM360 accounts come from contacting support. | Accounts share no advertisers, user profiles or Floodlight configurations. No documented transfer path for Floodlight history. | Advertiser ID; parent or child status; configuration; activity IDs; user profiles; billing profile name. |
| Google Ads | The account keeps its data. The current owner manager transfers ownership; with no owner, the client account grants it. | A link alone grants no ownership. Floodlight conversions already shared stop updating once the SA360 manager link is removed. | Customer ID; managers and Owner column; users; paying manager; conversion actions; change history. |
| GA4 | A property moves with Administrator and Editor roles on source and destination. | Google blocks a move between accounts in different Google Marketing Platform organisations, and for a property linked to Google Ad Manager. Change history stays behind. | Property ID; administrators; each account’s organisation. |
| Tag Manager | Administrators delegate account and container access. | Its permissions page documents no container transfer between accounts; ask support before assuming none. | Container ID; administrators; container permissions. |
| Payments profile | Names who is legally responsible for Google Ads costs. | Payment responsibility does not follow campaign access. | Profile ID; the Who pays name; paying manager; payment type, no amounts. |
| Merchant Center | Not covered by the Google pages reviewed. | No reviewed page describes Merchant Center changing hands in an agency change. | Who can open Merchant Center itself. |
Four link rules that decide what moves
A rename is not a move. Google says the CM360 advertiser name “does not affect ad serving, Floodlight, or the advertiser ID”.
A sub-manager’s CM360 link locks once it is made. Once a sub-manager is linked to a CM360 advertiser, Google says it can no longer be linked to another CM360 advertiser, and points to customer support “to help you find an alternative solution”. That is a route for the link, not for history.
Parent and child advertisers do not transfer Floodlight history. A parent advertiser can share its Floodlight configuration only with a child that has no Floodlight conversions yet; once one is added, the option to share that advertiser is lost permanently. Sharing also stops at the account boundary: CM360 accounts share nothing, Floodlight configurations included.
Unlinking SA360 freezes shared metrics; unlinking the paying manager stops ads. After the SA360 manager link is removed, Floodlight conversions already shared stay in Google Ads but “won’t be updated beyond the date the manager account is unlinked.” That covers Google Ads, not SA360’s own data: unlinking a client account in SA360 stops trafficking and syncing, and Google says SA360 conversion data is permanently removed; conversions not yet passed to the client account may be lost. On monthly invoicing, unlinking the paying manager deactivates the billing setup and stops ads immediately.
What Google has not said
In the pages reviewed, Google does not say:
- that signing the CM360 fee contract makes anyone administrator of SA360, CM360 or Google Ads, or that the signatory is usually the agency;
- how to move historical Floodlight conversions to another CM360 account, nor that such a move is impossible;
- how an SA360 client account moves under a different manager account by self-service;
- what happens to a Google Marketing Platform organisation, and the 360 product order attached to it, when an agency relationship ends.
Treat “we’ll migrate it later” as an unverified promise until Google support identifies a route that keeps the data you need.
What to check in your account
Run these in order, ideally with the agency, using sources your company controls: a login, the contract file, a support case.
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Find your own Admin in SA360
An Admin signed in to the manager account manages users, so an existing Admin there must add yours. If every Admin works for the agency, that takes their step.
- Where: SA360 manager account, Access and security.
- Expected: a named colleague with Admin, on a company login.
- Look closer if: your users sit only at sub-manager level, or access is shown only by screenshot.
- Ask: “Which custom columns or other items are owned above our sub-manager?”
-
Separate the contract from the organisation
The CM360 contract covers fees. In Google Marketing Platform, organisation administrators “manage users” in linked accounts; the section I reviewed names Analytics and Tag Manager, not SA360 or CM360.
- Where: your contracts file; your Google Marketing Platform organisation’s linked accounts.
- Expected: signatory and administrators recorded separately, one administrator yours.
- Look closer if: “we signed it, so we control it”.
- Ask: “Which organisation are SA360 and CM360 linked to?”
-
Match the CM360 advertiser to your SA360 link
Each sub-manager is linked to one CM360 advertiser, and the Floodlight configuration comes from the parent advertiser, which Google calls its owner.
- Where: CM360, the advertiser’s properties and its Floodlight configuration.
- Expected: sub-manager and advertiser IDs recorded separately; a named company user profile with access to the advertiser.
- Look closer if: no company profile opens the advertiser, or a rename has been mistaken for a migration.
- Ask: “Who in our company holds full access to this CM360 account?”
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Name the owner of the Google Ads account
A manager that creates an account owns it; one that links it later does not by default. The current owner manager transfers ownership; with no owner, the client account grants it.
- Where: the Owner column in the account’s list of managers; then the list of users.
- Expected: a named owner manager and a colleague with Admin access.
- Look closer if: a manager link is the only evidence offered.
- Ask: “Did your manager account create this account or link it?”
-
Settle billing and save the record before anyone unlinks
The payments profile names who is legally responsible for costs. On monthly invoicing, unlinking the one paying manager stops ads.
- Where: Who pays in your payments profile; the paying manager, recorded separately; Google Ads Change history.
- Expected: a replacement paying manager in place before any unlink, and the table’s last column saved in one dated file.
- Look closer if: the plan removes an agency link before a replacement paying manager is active.
- Ask: “Who becomes paying manager, and who unlinks last?”
Change history, in our judgement, shows edits, not signatures: see our analysis of what gets changed in Google Ads accounts.
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Check Analytics and Tag Manager administrators
A GA4 property can move with Administrator and Editor roles on both accounts. Tag Manager delegates access by account and container, and its administrator approves Floodlight links.
- Where: Analytics, Admin, Property details; Tag Manager user management.
- Expected: a colleague is Administrator on both accounts.
- Look closer if: the destination sits in another Google Marketing Platform organisation, or container publishing rights have been mistaken for account administration.
- Ask: “Who approves Floodlight links on our container?”
When this does not apply
Your company already holds the CM360 account and keeps it. If you also hold Admin at the SA360 level you need and no required items stay agency-owned, nothing moves between CM360 accounts. Remove agency access only under the agreed plan; confirm what stays available.
The change stays inside one Google Ads hierarchy. Google documents moving a directly linked client account from one sub-manager to another within the same manager account hierarchy. It moves nothing between SA360 managers or CM360 accounts, and excludes accounts reached only through the API, Google’s programming interface.
Google support finds a route for your setup. Ask support whether one exists; the reviewed pages promise none for Floodlight history. If support shows a move that keeps the history, my assumption that measurement starts again no longer applies.
Your agreement may set a handover sequence. Follow it where it does: saving records before notice is my sequencing, not a Google rule, and Google does not say whether to tell the agency before adding your own administrator.
When to ask for an independent check
Ask for one when the inventory leaves a gap you cannot close: an advertiser ID no company login opens, a paying manager nobody can name, or “we’ll move everything” with no route per object.
Ask for each step to be labelled documented, shown working or awaiting support. Once your own access works, start with the first item in our audit checklist, ordered by strength of evidence: export one consistent date range before the handover.
For SA360 and CM360 accounts, Profit Forensics is quoted after we review your setup and agree the scope, and the ownership map is part of the work.
Researcher’s take
I would not sign off a handover on a promise to migrate later, only on a map: for each of the seven objects, a company login that opens it, saved identifiers, and a documented route or support answer for anything that moves. On Floodlight history I stay conservative: until support shows a move that keeps it, I plan to set up measurement again and treat the old history as possibly out of reach. That is my assumption, not Google’s rule. The outgoing agency can complete the same inventory with you.
Igor Ivitskiy, Doctor Ads Profit Forensics
FAQ
If we switch agencies, do we lose our conversion history and Floodlight setup?
Not necessarily. In Google Ads, Floodlight conversions already shared stay but stop updating once the SA360 manager link is removed. The setup and its history sit in whichever CM360 account recorded them; confirm whose that is. Keep access to it and nothing needs to move; otherwise ask support whether a transfer route exists.
Who holds the SA360 and CM360 contracts, and does it matter when we change agency?
The pages we reviewed describe only the CM360 fee contract: it covers fees and payment terms, not who administers users or Floodlight.
How do we move an agency-owned SA360 and CM360 setup to client ownership?
Name what “agency-owned” means first: the organisation, the CM360 account, the SA360 manager account, or manager-level items. Add your administrator where the setup stays; ask Google support about any move between CM360 accounts before promising a date.
How we know
Google Help pages, all checked 2 November 2026. Campaign Manager 360: Understand accounts; Edit advertiser properties; Fees; Configure Floodlight for advertisers; Add Floodlight conversions to Google Tag Manager containers. Search Ads 360: Add, edit, or remove users and clients; Assign ownership to accounts; Create a sub-manager account in the new Search Ads 360; the page on unlinking a client account. Google Ads: About ownership of client accounts; About manager linking and unlinking errors; Search Ads 360 Floodlight conversions in Google Ads; Payments profile; Paying manager: Definition; Moving accounts within your MCC (manager account) hierarchy. Google Marketing Platform: Manage account links to organizations. Analytics: [GA4] Move a property. Tag Manager: Managing users and permissions.
No new client or campaign data in this article: it combines Google’s documentation, checked 2 November 2026, with what our audits look for.
The three-question framing, the save-before-notice order and the assumption that Floodlight measurement starts again are Igor Ivitskiy’s judgement. Profit Forensics sells independent checks; Google does not require you to buy one.