A useful PPC client onboarding checklist starts with ownership and access, then moves through tracking, targets, constraints, approved changes and the first report over 14 days. On day one, ask for account IDs, named-user permissions, billing contacts, analytics and conversion access, business targets, campaign rules, active offers and the people responsible for approvals.
That order matters. A media buyer cannot evaluate performance until the numbers are trustworthy, and should not change an account until the client has confirmed what success means and what must remain untouched.
Days 1 and 2: Confirm ownership, access and decision rights
Start with control of the assets, not campaign settings.
The client should retain ownership of its ad accounts and data. The agency receives the access needed to do the work. If the relationship changes later, the client can remove that access without losing account history.
Do not ask the client to send passwords. Use named-user access, partner access or a manager account where the platform supports it. Record who granted access, what permission level was provided and who can revoke it.
Ask for these items on day one
| Item | What to request | Acceptance check |
|---|---|---|
| Platform accounts | Google Ads, Meta and TikTok account IDs | The buyer can open the correct accounts and see active campaigns |
| Ownership | The business entity that owns each account | Ownership is documented separately from agency access |
| Permissions | Named-user, partner or manager access | The buyer has the permissions required for the agreed scope |
| Billing | Billing owner and backup contact | Payment status is visible and escalation contacts are recorded |
| Analytics | Relevant analytics and tag management access | The buyer can compare platform reporting with site activity |
| Conversions | The events treated as leads, sales or supporting actions | Primary and secondary actions are clearly separated |
| Landing pages | URLs and the person responsible for page changes | Every active campaign has a known destination and owner |
| Offers | Current terms, exclusions and expiration dates | Ad copy and landing pages agree on the active offer |
| Creative | Approved assets and the approval contact | Usage restrictions and replacement assets are documented |
| Reporting | Recipients, format, date range, currency and time zone | Everyone knows what the first report will contain |
| Approvals | People allowed to approve account changes | The agency has a clear decision path |
Access is not complete because an invitation was sent. Sign in and verify each property. Open the campaigns, conversion settings, billing area and linked measurement tools that fall within scope.
Build a simple access register with four fields: asset, owner, agency permission and status. Mark missing access as a blocker rather than working around it.
Record escalation paths
Document the person to contact for billing, tracking, creative, landing pages and final approval. Those responsibilities may sit with different people.
Also agree on the response path for urgent issues. The media buyer should know who can approve a pause, budget correction or tracking repair without searching through an old email thread.
Days 3 through 5: Verify measurement before reading performance
Platform access gives you data. It does not prove the data means what the client thinks it means.
List every conversion action used in bidding or reporting. For each one, record the event, where it fires, what business action it represents and whether it is primary or secondary.
A form submission, phone call, booked meeting and completed sale are not interchangeable. If several actions are grouped under one conversion label, separate them in the onboarding notes before discussing CPA or ROAS.
Review the measurement chain
Trace each important conversion from the ad click to its recorded destination:
- The ad sends the visitor to the intended landing page.
- The landing page presents the current offer.
- The conversion action fires at the correct point.
- The analytics property receives the event.
- The ad platform receives the intended conversion signal.
- The CRM or sales system records the lead or sale when that is part of the agreed setup.
Run a controlled test where practical. Record what was tested, when it was tested and where the event appeared. If a test cannot be completed, mark the conversion as unverified.
Check for duplicate events, outdated tags, conversions firing on page views and old actions still included in bidding. Do not quietly redefine the account. Document the issue, explain the effect and agree on the repair.
For teams that also need page and query data from Search Console and GA4, Search Arsenal keeps those real clicks and conversions visible by page and query. That can help separate a paid media problem from a broader landing-page or search measurement problem.
Capture the inherited baseline
Take a dated snapshot before making changes. Include:
- Active campaigns and their status
- Current budgets and bidding methods
- Conversion actions used for optimization
- Existing CPA or ROAS targets
- Current geographic, audience and placement rules
- Creative currently in rotation
- Active offers and expiration dates
- Tracking issues and access gaps
- Pending changes from the previous team
- Reporting settings, currency, time zone and attribution assumptions
This is not a performance verdict. It is a record of what the agency inherited.
Preserve useful account history. A clean onboarding does not require rebuilding an account just to make its structure look familiar.
Days 6 through 9: Set targets, constraints and operating rules
Targets should describe the business decision the account is trying to support. Start with the conversion being valued, then work back to the platform setting.
Ask what counts as a qualified result, how it is confirmed and which events are only directional signals. If the client values sales but the platform sees only leads, state that limitation in the target sheet.
Use a target hierarchy
A practical hierarchy has three levels:
- An account-level target acts as the fallback.
- Campaign-level CPA or ROAS targets override the fallback where needed.
- Group rules apply one KPI to campaigns that share a purpose, platform or buying method.
Example: Say a campaign has a $50 target CPA. Record which conversion counts toward that target, whether the target applies immediately and which campaign conditions could justify a temporary exception. Do not write only "$50 CPA" and assume every reader will interpret it the same way.
The target sheet should include:
| Field | What to document |
|---|---|
| Business outcome | The lead, sale or other result the client values |
| Platform conversion | The event available to the bidding system |
| Fallback target | The account-level CPA or ROAS target |
| Overrides | Campaigns with a different target |
| Group rules | Campaign sets evaluated on another KPI |
| Evaluation window | When the team will review the decision |
| Exceptions | Launches, tests or promotions requiring different treatment |
| Owner | The person who can approve a target change |
Write the constraints in plain English
Targets say what the buyer wants. Constraints say how the account may pursue it.
Record rules such as:
- Keep this campaign on cost cap.
- Do not change branded search budgets without approval.
- Do not move budget out of a market during its launch period.
- Do not use an expired offer in ad copy.
- Do not pause campaigns tied to a current client commitment.
- Treat these TikTok campaigns as a group and judge them on link cost per click.
- Do not change landing-page URLs until the tracking owner signs off.
- Cap the size of daily budget movements.
Use the client's language where possible. A plain rule is easier to review than a setting with no explanation.
The constraints should also identify what the agency may change, what requires client approval and what is outside scope. This protects the agreed strategy while giving the media buyer room to operate.
If the agency is standardizing its tools around this process, PPC management software for agencies: what to look for before you buy covers the operating requirements worth checking before adopting another system.
Days 10 through 14: Approve the first changes and deliver the first report
By day 10, the agency should have verified access, documented tracking, captured the inherited state and agreed on targets and constraints. The next step is a controlled first round of work.
Rank proposed changes by risk, expected value and confidence. Separate corrections from tests. A broken conversion event, an expired offer and a new audience idea are different kinds of work and should not be bundled into one approval.
For every proposed change, record:
- The setting or asset affected
- The reason for the change
- The numbers supporting the recommendation
- The target or constraint involved
- The approval owner
- The time the change was made
- The check used to confirm it landed
- The date when its effect will be evaluated
- The rollback path
Confirm the change in the account after it is applied. A saved setting is not enough if the wrong campaign, date range or property was selected.
A repeatable PPC client onboarding checklist should leave the agency with a clear operating record, not just a completed intake form. If the process depends on one buyer remembering what the client said, it is not finished.
Build the first report around decisions
The first report should answer six things:
- What access is complete and what remains blocked.
- What tracking was verified and what still needs repair.
- What the agency inherited.
- Which targets and constraints the client confirmed.
- Which changes were approved and applied.
- What the team recommends doing next.
Show platform metrics with their date range, currency and attribution context. If combined reporting includes spend, leads, sales or MER, explain which source supplies each number.
Separate findings from early signals. The first report may show that a conversion is broken or an offer has expired. It may not yet show whether a new strategy worked.
Do not force a verdict from limited data. State what is known, what is still being measured and when the next decision can be made.
A documented onboarding process also makes account growth easier to manage across a team. The related guide on how to scale a PPC agency without hiring a media buyer for every new client explains how standardized operating rules support that work.
FAQ
What do you need from a new PPC client?
Ask for account IDs, named-user access, billing contacts, analytics access, conversion definitions, business targets, campaign constraints and reporting recipients. Confirm who owns each account and who can approve changes.
How long does PPC client onboarding take?
A structured initial onboarding can be completed over the first 14 days, although tracking repairs or access delays may take longer. The account should not be treated as fully understood until access, measurement, targets and constraints have all been verified.
What access does an agency need?
The agency generally needs the permissions required to review and manage the ad accounts, analytics, conversion tracking and related landing pages. Access should be granted to named users or an agency manager account instead of sharing the client's passwords.
How do you set targets with a new client?
Start with the client's economics and define the conversion being valued before setting a CPA or ROAS target. Use an account-level target as a fallback, then document campaign-level exceptions and any rules that apply to groups of campaigns.
What should the first client report cover?
The first report should cover access and tracking status, the inherited account baseline, confirmed targets, approved changes, current risks and the next decisions. It should separate verified findings from early observations that do not yet have enough data.
Carry the onboarding rules into Ads Arsenal
Ads Arsenal runs Google, Meta and TikTok from one login. The client retains ownership of the ad account, while the agency or Ads Arsenal receives admin access that can be removed without losing the client's data. Meta connects when you sign in with your Meta account. During the closed beta, Google connects through a manager-access request set up on a short call.
Set an account-level target as the fallback, add campaign-level CPA or ROAS targets where they differ and apply KPI rules to groups of campaigns. Write how you run the account and what must not be touched in plain English. Ads Arsenal reads each account through those rules, explains recommendations with the supporting numbers and waits for approval before changing anything. If a recommendation does not fit the method, dismiss it with a sentence and that reason becomes a reversible rule for the account.
Ads Arsenal is in a free design-partner beta for agencies and in-house teams running real spend on Google, Meta and TikTok. Become a design partner.