Tools and providers
Part of Selecting paid social tools and suppliers through privacy, security and exit gates
Agency access to Google Ads, TikTok and LinkedIn accounts: five gates to clear
A practical guide to paid social agency access in client Google Ads, TikTok and LinkedIn accounts: the roles each platform uses, and the five gates to clear before approval. Meta, X, Pinterest and Snapchat are excluded.
When a client brings in a paid social agency, the access comparison that matters is how each ad platform lets the agency in, and how the client gets it out again. A like-for-like comparison should reveal control differences, not declare a winner. This England operating review compares agency access in Google Ads, TikTok Ads Manager with Business Center, LinkedIn Campaign Manager and a manual baseline. The products serve different advertising populations, so channel suitability must be decided separately. Google Ads is search and display rather than paid social, and is included because many agencies run it from the same client accounts. Meta, X, Pinterest and Snapchat are not covered here; apply the same criteria to their partner-access settings before an agency is added.
What to take away
- No supplier wins on the evidence reviewed; compare control differences instead.
- Each platform separates viewing, editing, billing and administration roles differently.
- Do not total criteria into one score; apply independent privacy, security and commercial gates.
- Approve only after privacy, security, accessibility, procurement and contract reviewers clear their gates.
- Set review triggers for changed permissions, subprocessors, exports, billing terms or incidents.
Scope and method
The reviewing body is CampaignSocial's editorial team. Research reflects the official records checked for this review. Candidates were included only when an official record described account setup or agency access. The common criteria were client ownership, permission granularity, billing boundary, audience and tracking questions, exit, and unresolved procurement evidence.
No supplier funded the review and no affiliate arrangement is present. We excluded prices, user ratings, performance claims and third-party products. All findings are desk-only, and product edition, currency, VAT treatment, buyer geography, billing period and service levels stay unknown unless a signed quote states them.
Platform-by-platform control findings
| Option | First-party evidence checked | Control finding | Unknowns requiring written evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Google's access-level guide | Google documents five access levels, including a billing-only grant that excludes campaign editing; manager ownership can extend control | Exact edition, UK commercial terms, account ownership, exports, retention, support, accessibility and termination |
| TikTok Ads Manager and Business Center | TikTok's permission table and partner-removal process | Advertising-account actions differ for administrators, operators and analysts; the owner can remove Business Center access under the documented process | Account eligibility, transferability, data-access locations, deletion, service level, price, tax and accessible operation |
| LinkedIn Campaign Manager | LinkedIn's advertising-account setup record and Page permission matrix | Advertising-account roles and LinkedIn Page permissions are distinct, and currency is selected at account creation; a Page admin role alone grants no ad-account access | Contracting route, exports, audience retention, support, accessibility, charges, VAT and offboarding evidence |
| Manual baseline | Client-owned native access, controlled documents and scheduled exports | Avoids another integration and supplier, while keeping approvals and reconciliation with the client | Staff capacity, error controls, continuity, secure storage and evidence quality |
LinkedIn names its advertising-account roles ACCOUNT_BILLING_ADMIN, ACCOUNT_MANAGER, CAMPAIGN_MANAGER, CREATIVE_MANAGER and VIEWER; the r_ads permission reads ad accounts only where the authenticated member holds one of those roles, while rw_ads allows creating ads and creatives for a sponsored account. TikTok's Ads Manager permission table names Administrator, Operator and Analyst roles: administrators manage users and billing, operators create and edit campaigns, and analysts view reporting.
Each entry records what the cited supplier says, not independent verification that the feature was available or effective in a particular account. A buyer should capture the live screen and contract, then run a synthetic acceptance test.
The role split a buyer needs decides the fit. A finance-led advertiser wants separated billing access. A brand working with several agencies wants asset-level permissions and a documented route to remove partner access. A small advertiser with no integration appetite is best served by the manual baseline.
In Google Ads, an agency usually reaches a client account through its own manager account. Google's guide to linking accounts to a manager account says that anyone with administrative access to the invited account receives the link request by email, and that pending requests are found under Access and security in the Admin menu, on the Managers tab, where the client can accept or decline them. Before accepting, the client should know which agency the manager account belongs to and which access level it will hold.
Google's access-level guide names the five levels Email-only, Billing, Read-only, Standard and Admin. Standard users can edit campaigns; only Admin users can give account access, accept or reject manager link requests and unlink manager accounts. If the agency's manager account has ownership, its admin users can also edit user access, managers and product links in the client's account, which is why the exit plan starts with knowing who holds Admin.
Billing follows the payment profile held on the account, so the media-spend payer is usually whoever owns that profile, not whoever signed the agency contract.
Where the account currency is not sterling, a pound-sterling budget moves with the exchange rate. UK VAT at the standard rate of 20% applies where the supplier is VAT-registered in the UK; offshore suppliers shift the accounting to the buyer under the reverse charge.
Apply independent gates
Whatever the platform, five gates stand between the agency and the account, each cleared by its own reviewer:
- Data roles.Who is controller and who is processor for each operation under UK GDPR. The agency's processing terms belong in a written data processing agreement under Article 28 of UK GDPR, signed before any client data moves.
- Tracking.A separate PECR assessment for tags and device access.
- Security.Individual access, multifactor protection, logs, leaver removal and recovery.
- Accessibility.Task-based tests against WCAG 2.2 with the people who will use the tools.
- Commercial terms.Legal entity, billing, VAT, renewal and exit in writing.
Do not total these criteria into one score. First map the data roles for each operation. The ICO's controller and processor guidance is under review following legislative change, which makes publication-day and contract-day checks essential. Tracking and device access need a separate PECR assessment.
In the UK, the ICO enforces PECR, which covers storing information on, or gaining access to, a user's device. Public sector bodies also carry accessibility duties under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018. The ICO guidance and WCAG 2.2 standard cited in this section set out the detail.
Next require individual access, multifactor protection, logs, leaver removal, incident contacts and recovery evidence. Check interfaces and exported approvals with intended disabled users against relevant WCAG 2.2 criteria. Supplier assertions do not replace task-based testing.
A usable test records the task, the assistive technology, the criterion, the pass or fail result and the date, because results vary by build and browser.
Commercial review should reconcile the legal entity, plan, currency, billing unit, period, media-spend payer, VAT, renewal, rebates, change rights and exit. Exit terms worth fixing in writing include the export format, deletion timeline on termination, notice period, spend commitments and post-termination support. Mark every absent answer unknown; do not assume two services use comparable units.
Choose by configuration
The conclusion must name the platform, client-owned assets, enabled functions, permitted roles and prohibited data flows. It should also say why the manual baseline is insufficient.
One illustrative configuration, using a client-owned Google Ads account. The client finance lead holds the administrative level, which carries billing. The agency holds standard access for campaign editing only, and the in-house analyst holds read-only access.
Prohibited data flows: no customer list, conversion file or offline sales data leaves the client's Google account, and no agency-side tag or sheet may receive customer data. The manual baseline fails here because campaign volume outruns a spreadsheet.
Set a review trigger for a changed permission model, subprocessor, export, billing term, incident or inaccessible release. Keep a revocation and manual-continuity route ready. That produces a defensible configuration decision without turning a vendor help page into an endorsement.
Before you act
- Fix the configuration in writingplatform, client-owned assets, roles and prohibited data flows.
- Complete an access handover form for each platformasset ID, invited entity, role, start date, expiry or review date, and the removal route.
- Reconcile legal entity, currency, billing unit, VAT and exit terms against the signed quote.
- Keep a revocation and manual-continuity route ready.
Common questions
Why should buyers not combine the criteria into a single score?
The gates cover separate risks, so one combined score would hide whichever gate is still open. Each gate is cleared by its own reviewer, and a strong commercial answer cannot offset an unresolved data-protection question.
What should a conclusion name before approval?
It must name the platform, client-owned assets, enabled functions, permitted roles and prohibited data flows. It should also explain why the manual baseline is insufficient.
What makes the manual baseline worth keeping?
The manual baseline uses client-owned native access, controlled documents and scheduled exports. It avoids another integration and supplier while keeping approvals and reconciliation with the client. Its unknowns are staff capacity, error controls, continuity, secure storage and evidence quality, so it is not automatically sufficient.
