If you come to the point in your relationship with an agency that you think you want to bring your search marketing in house, it can get annoying to get your accounts back in your possession. Some just require a password change, but one in particular (Yahoo) can be very annoying.

Please read this if you are an agency, thinking about working with an agency, or wanting to bring your marketing in house. This might help you in the future, or right now as you are setting up clients.

Google AdWords

Google is the best at this – they have a system for agencies called the My Client Center (MCC) that allows agencies and their employees to have one login to access all of their client’s accounts. It’s easy to set up and easy to detach from.

Steps to Remove an Account from the Agency MCC

1. Login as the client
2. Click on the My Account tab
3. Click on the Access link right below the tabs
4. 
5. This is the section that lists all your logins. Just find the section for “Client Mangers” and click “Terminate Access”

If your agency is logging in under your login, change the password. If they have their own login but no MCC, just disable their login, or give them reports only access by changing their access level on the same Access screen above.

MSN AdCenter

From what I’ve read, MSN now has an agency setup called “Premium Status,” but I do not have experience with it. When we moved away from our agency, all that had to happen was a name and password change. If anyone knows differently, please post a comment.

Yahoo Search Marketing

This is where you hit the proverbial brick wall and where I want everyone to pay attention. When trying to get an account detached from a Yahoo Master account, Yahoo told us it was impossible. I even posted on WebmasterWorld about this, and no one had dealt with the subject before.

The Issue

Yahoo Master Accounts are just like Google MCCs, but with one caveat: you can add a standalone account, but you cannot remove accounts to be standalone.  The client is left with two choices: leave the account under the agency master account or start a new account. With the new account you lose all of your historical data and brownie points you’ve gained over the years.

Yahoo Customer Service was of no help to us, or our former agency. Over about a 24 hour period, I came up with the solution.

The Solution

The one thing Yahoo Search Marketing is great at (they even top Google in this feature) is the ability to allow multiple people to have different levels of access to various accounts. For example:

• Mary is an account executive for Brand A, B, C - She gets an analyst login to her brands only
• Bob is a PPC Specialist on Brand B, D, H - He gets a manager login to the brands above only
• Hector is the client for Brand B - He gets a reports only login to Brand B

This gives the right people the right logins to only those accounts they need to see. This is a fantastic system that has yet to be mirrored exactly by Google.

So the way to go about getting your account standalone with access to your historical data is this:

1. Have a new account set up that is an exact duplicate of your old one. The agency's account manager at Yahoo should be able to do this easily and very quickly.
2. Coordinate the campaign on/off switch.
3. Change the client login to the old account to a reports only login. This allows them to pull reports at their need, without using the resources of the agency.
4. The old account is no longer active, but the reports are accessible.

Downside: It is a new account you are creating, and that is kind of a downer since we all know that the advertising platforms prefer older, more established accounts. But it’s a small price to pay.

Note to Agencies and People Looking to Join an Agency

Please be aware of this issue with Yahoo and talk about it before signing a contract.

Agencies: Discuss it with your clients and allow them to choose if they want to join your master account. It needs to be their choice. Selling points for you include the fact that your master account gets so many more perks than their lowly standalone account.

Kate Morris is the In-House SEM for RateGenius. You can find her on her blog and on Twitter.