Who owns the advertising accounts created by a law firm marketing agency? Whoever created the account, which is why the ninety seconds at setup matter more than any clause — insist the accounts are created under your firm's email with your firm's billing, and the ownership question never arises.
The most expensive decision in your advertising programme is made on day one by whoever happens to be clicking.
- Published pricing — $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month, on the site.
- Month to month. No contract is holding you anywhere.
- A former attorney of 17 years who filed 5,000+ cases works your account.
- You see your rankings move for 14 days before you are billed a dollar.
- Law firms only — no other industries, ever.
| Attorney Pro Marketing | Scorpion | FindLaw | Typical legal agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing published on the website | Yes — $2,500 / $3,500 / $4,500 per month | Not published | Not published | Rarely published |
| Contract term | Month to month, 30 days’ notice | Not published | Not published | Commonly 12 months |
| Who works on your account | A former attorney of 17 years, in every account | Assigned account team | Assigned account team | Account manager, often across industries |
| Your website is built on | Standard, portable code | Proprietary platform | FirmSite platform | Varies — ask before signing |
| See results before you are billed | Yes — 14 days, then you decide | No | No | No |
| Ad spend billed by Google directly to you | Yes, no markup | Ask | Ask | Often passes through the agency |
“Not published” means the figure does not appear on that company’s own website as of October 2026 — check for yourself before you sign anything, with them or with us.
Ownership Is Decided at Setup
There is no registry of ad account ownership and no clause that reassigns it cleanly. The account belongs to the Google or Microsoft login that created it, and everything else is permissions layered on top.
Which means the decision gets made in the first week, by whoever is at the keyboard, while both parties are thinking about keywords. Two paths:
- Created under your firm's email, your firm's card. The account is yours. The agency is added as a manager, with access you can remove in two clicks. If the relationship ends, nothing moves and nothing is lost.
- Created inside the agency's manager account, agency billing. The account is theirs. You may have access, you may see reports, and on departure the account, the conversion history and the audit trail stay with them.
The second is common, frequently not sinister — it is simply faster for the agency and nobody raised it — and it is the arrangement that costs most when you leave.
Manager Access Is Not Ownership
This distinction catches out a lot of firms, including ones who were told they had access and believed they had ownership.
Advertising platforms allow an agency to link your account to its manager account, which lets it work across many clients from one login. That linkage is a permission, not a transfer — and the direction matters. If your account is linked to their manager account, you own the account and they have access. If the account lives inside their manager account because they created it there, they own it.
Three questions resolve which you have, and all three have one-line answers:
“Which email address is the account owner?” If it is not one your firm controls, the account is not yours.
“Whose card does Google bill?” If Google invoices your firm directly, your position is considerably stronger regardless of other arrangements.
“Can I log in without you, right now?” The practical test. Try it before you need it.
What You Lose If It Is Theirs
Four things, in descending order of cost.
Conversion history. The expensive one. Campaigns accumulate data that makes bidding progressively more efficient. A new account starts cold and takes weeks to months to reach comparable performance — which in a practice area where clicks cost $50 is a large number.
The audit trail. Change history, search term reports, spend records. Without them you cannot verify what was done or what was actually paid to Google, which also forecloses any question about markup.
Negative keyword lists. Months of accumulated exclusions, which is unglamorous and genuinely valuable work to rebuild.
Ad copy and structure. Rebuildable, but it is work you already paid for once.
What to Insist On, in Order
- Accounts created under your firm's email, which you control. Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta Business, Analytics, Search Console, and the Google Business Profile.
- Google billing your firm's card directly. No markup is possible when you receive Google's own invoice, and it also means you can stop the spend yourself at any moment.
- The agency added as a manager rather than an owner, with access you can revoke.
- Written confirmation, asset by asset, naming each account and who owns it. Not a general ownership clause.
- A login test in week one. Confirm you can reach every account without the agency's help, while it is easy to fix.
- Removal of their access on any exit, on the effective date. Routinely forgotten, and it leaves a former vendor with admin rights on your advertising.
If It Is Already Theirs
You have options, and they are better the sooner you act — every month adds history you would lose.
Ask for ownership to be transferred to your firm's email. Some agencies will do this without argument; the request itself is informative. Ask for an export of search term reports, change history and spend records as a baseline regardless of the answer. And if transfer is refused, create your own account now and run new campaigns in it going forward, accepting the loss of history rather than compounding it — our page on agencies withholding account access covers the recovery routes.
Attorney Pro Marketing sets this up the other way round as standard: your Google Ads account, Google Business Profile, Analytics and Search Console are created in your firm's name, with Google billing your firm's card directly and no markup, and us added as a manager you can remove. There is nothing to transfer on exit because nothing was ever held on our side.
Published pricing at $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month — with no percentage of ad spend at any tier — month to month with 30 days' notice, and a day 0 baseline with a day 14 report before you are billed for that period.
See it before you pay for it.
We snapshot your rankings on day 0, build and launch your site within three days, and show you the movement on day 14. If it has not moved enough to be worth continuing, you owe nothing for that period and you keep the Google Business Profile work.
Related Questions
Whoever created it under their own credentials. There is no ownership registry and no clause that reassigns it cleanly — the account belongs to the login that created it, which means the decision is made in the first week by whoever is at the keyboard.
No. Linking is a permission, and the direction matters: if your account is linked to the agency's manager account, you own it and they have access; if the account lives inside their manager account because they created it there, they own it. Ask which email is the owner and whether you can log in right now without them.
Four things: conversion history, the expensive one, since a new account starts cold and takes weeks to months to match performance; the audit trail of change history, search terms and spend, which also forecloses any markup question; accumulated negative keyword lists; and ad copy and structure you already paid for.
Accounts created under your firm's email, Google billing your firm's card directly so no markup is possible, the agency added as a manager rather than owner, written confirmation naming each account and its owner, a login test in week one, and removal of their access on the effective date of any exit.