Paid Ads Agency Handoff Checklist for Ecommerce Brands

A new paid ads agency should not spend the first month searching for passwords, rebuilding missing tracking and guessing which products are profitable.

A structured handoff gives the agency enough context to protect what already works, identify risk and improve the account faster.

Use this checklist before onboarding a Meta Ads or Google Ads partner.

1. Define the business objective

Do not begin with a platform metric alone.

Document:

1. Revenue target
2. Contribution profit target
3. New customer acquisition target
4. Maximum acceptable acquisition cost
5. Priority markets
6. Priority products
7. Inventory constraints
8. Cash flow constraints
9. Customer service capacity
10. Expected review period

A target such as “improve ROAS” is incomplete unless the agency knows the product margins and growth priorities behind it.

2. Share product economics

Provide a product or variant file containing:

1. Item ID
2. Product title
3. Selling price
4. Average discount
5. Cost of goods
6. Packaging cost
7. Shipping cost paid by the store
8. Payment fees
9. Expected refund or return cost
10. Contribution margin
11. Break even ROAS
12. Stock level
13. Restock date
14. Priority status

When this information is missing, the agency may scale the products with the highest reported revenue instead of the products that create the most profit.

3. Grant the correct Meta access

The agency may need access to:

1. Meta Business Portfolio
2. Ad account
3. Facebook Page
4. Instagram account
5. Pixel or dataset
6. Product catalogue
7. Commerce account
8. Domain settings
9. Events Manager
10. Relevant reporting tools

Use partner or user access with the permissions required for the work. Do not share personal passwords.

Confirm who owns each asset before the handoff. Client assets should remain under the client's control.

4. Grant the correct Google access

The agency may need access to:

1. Google Ads
2. Google Merchant Center
3. Google Analytics 4
4. Google Tag Manager
5. Google Search Console
6. YouTube channel
7. Business Profile when relevant
8. Product feed app or feed management platform
9. Looker Studio reports
10. Consent management system

Use the agency's manager account where appropriate and keep the business as the owner of core assets.

5. Grant Shopify access safely

Create a collaborator or staff account with the permissions needed for:

1. Apps and sales channels
2. Themes when landing page work is included
3. Products and collections
4. Discounts
5. Analytics and reports
6. Customer events or pixels
7. Markets and domains
8. Orders when transaction validation is required

Limit access to what the project requires. Record any theme or tracking changes before they are published.

6. Document the tracking setup

List every active measurement connection.

Include:

1. Meta Pixel ID
2. Conversions API method
3. Google Ads conversion actions
4. GA4 property
5. Google Tag Manager container
6. Shopify Google and YouTube app
7. Meta sales channel
8. Third party pixel apps
9. Consent platform
10. Server side tracking provider
11. Custom scripts
12. Offline conversion imports

Identify which purchase event is used for bidding on each platform.

A tracking audit should be completed before major campaign changes. Use the Shopify ads tracking audit as the baseline.

7. Share historical performance

Provide at least several months of context when available.

Share:

1. Spend by platform
2. Revenue by platform
3. Store revenue
4. New customer revenue
5. Product level performance
6. Country performance
7. Promotions
8. Seasonal peaks
9. Major budget changes
10. Tracking changes
11. Website releases
12. Stockouts

Explain which results are considered reliable and which periods were affected by tracking problems.

8. Explain the current campaign structure

For each active campaign, document:

1. Purpose
2. Market
3. Product group
4. Audience or search intent
5. Budget
6. Bid strategy
7. Conversion goal
8. Launch date
9. Recent changes
10. Known problems
11. Decision owner

Do not assume campaign names are self explanatory.

9. Share creative assets and rights

Provide organized folders for:

1. Product images
2. Raw video
3. Edited ads
4. Customer reviews
5. Creator content
6. Brand guidelines
7. Logos
8. Fonts or approved typography guidance
9. Product claims and restrictions
10. Previous winners
11. Previous failed concepts
12. Usage rights and expiration dates

Label assets by product, angle, format and date.

The agency should know which claims are approved, which require evidence and which should never be used.

10. Share customer research

Useful sources include:

1. Product reviews
2. Support tickets
3. Sales call notes
4. Survey responses
5. Social comments
6. Search terms
7. Frequently asked questions
8. Return reasons
9. Competitor comparisons
10. Customer language about desired outcomes

This information improves creative and keyword decisions more than generic audience descriptions.

11. Explain the offer calendar

Share upcoming:

1. Product launches
2. Sales
3. Bundles
4. Seasonal campaigns
5. Stock arrivals
6. Price changes
7. Shipping deadlines
8. Email campaigns
9. Influencer activity
10. Website releases

Include approval deadlines so campaigns can be prepared and reviewed before launch.

12. Document what must not change

Identify protected areas such as:

1. Proven brand campaigns
2. Legal or compliance language
3. Restricted claims
4. High priority markets
5. Minimum price rules
6. Brand tone
7. Customer exclusions
8. Product availability rules
9. Tracking connections
10. Existing experiments

A new agency should understand what is stable before restructuring the account.

13. Agree on reporting definitions

Define:

1. Revenue source of truth
2. New customer definition
3. Attribution windows
4. Reporting time zone
5. Tax and shipping treatment
6. Refund treatment
7. Break even ROAS
8. Contribution margin
9. Blended performance metric
10. Platform optimization metrics

Without shared definitions, meetings become debates about dashboards instead of decisions about profit.

14. Agree on communication and approvals

Set:

1. Primary contact
2. Backup contact
3. Reporting schedule
4. Creative approval process
5. Budget approval limits
6. Emergency contact method
7. Website change process
8. Tracking change process
9. Promotion signoff
10. Escalation rules

The agency should know which changes it can make independently and which require approval.

15. Request a first month plan

A strong first month plan should include:

1. Access verification
2. Tracking validation
3. Product profitability review
4. Waste identification
5. Campaign protection plan
6. Creative testing priorities
7. Feed or landing page fixes
8. Reporting baseline
9. Initial experiments
10. Decision dates

The plan should explain what will be changed, what will be protected and what evidence will be used.

Red flags during handoff

Be cautious when an agency:

1. Requests personal passwords
2. Wants to own the client's assets
3. Rebuilds everything before reviewing history
4. Ignores product margin
5. Promises a guaranteed ROAS
6. Uses platform revenue as the only business result
7. Cannot explain conversion goals
8. Changes tracking without documentation
9. Has no creative testing process
10. Cannot define when spend should be reduced

The ideal handoff package

Create one folder containing:

1. Business goals
2. Product profit file
3. Access checklist
4. Tracking map
5. Historical reports
6. Campaign notes
7. Creative library
8. Customer research
9. Offer calendar
10. Reporting definitions
11. Approval rules
12. First month plan

This package saves time and reduces the risk of losing profitable activity during the transition.

For a complete account review, use the ecommerce paid ads audit checklist. For measurement alignment, read Meta Ads vs Google Ads attribution.

Book Your Free Profit Audit.