The Marketing Agency New Client Playbook: What to Collect in Week One
The contract is signed. The retainer is live. Your team is ready to work.
And then the first week passes doing almost none of the work you were hired to do — because you're waiting on the client to grant access to a Google Ads account they didn't know they owned, chasing the Meta Business Manager admin who's on a training course until Thursday, and explaining for the third time what Google Search Console is and why you need it.
This is the default new client experience at most marketing agencies. It isn't a client problem. It's a process problem — and it costs agencies real money every month it continues.
This playbook is for account managers, operations leads, and agency founders who want a structured, repeatable way to collect analytics access and all intake data in the first week of a new client engagement — so the second week is spent doing actual work.
Why Week One Breaks Down — and What It Actually Costs
Most agency onboarding processes are sequential and reactive. The account manager finishes the kickoff call, writes up notes, and then starts emailing the client with individual access requests: one for Google Ads, then later one for GA4, then one for Meta, then the realisation that the client uses Shopify and you need that too. Each request requires the client to find the right person, navigate a platform they may not use daily, and complete a permission flow they've never done before.
According to data from Leadsie, 13% of first-time Google Analytics access requests fail on the first attempt — the client grants the wrong permission level, adds the wrong email, or approves access to the wrong property. That's one in eight requests requiring a second round. Across a typical platform stack — Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, Tag Manager, Meta Business Manager, and a CRM — the odds of at least one access request failing or stalling are close to certain.
The person who signs the contract is almost never the person who has admin access to the ad accounts. Most agencies learn this in week one when the marketing director forwards the access request to "IT" or "the person who set that up." That person takes three days to respond. The first week is gone.
The measurable cost: an agency with a team of six billing at an average of £65 per hour, losing two full days of chargeable time per new client engagement across two people, loses approximately £1,040 in margin per onboarding. At one new client per month, that's over £12,000 per year in recoverable time. At three new clients per month, it's more than £36,000 — equivalent to a part-time hire, paid entirely in administrative friction that should have been a structured intake.
The less measurable cost is what the client thinks of you in that first week. A client who signs on a Friday expecting momentum and receives a string of "we're still waiting on access" emails by the following Thursday is already questioning the decision. Research consistently shows the first two weeks of an agency relationship set the retention pattern for the first year. You don't get a second chance at a first week.
The Access Stack: What You Need and in What Order
The single biggest structural improvement most agencies can make is collecting all access requests simultaneously rather than sequentially. Not "we'll send the GA4 request after the kickoff call and then the Meta request once we've confirmed scope" — all of it, in one structured intake, before the kickoff call happens.
Here is what a complete performance marketing access intake looks like, grouped by platform family:
Google stack
Google's platforms are distinct accounts that do not automatically share permissions. Granting access to one does not grant access to the others. Clients frequently assume otherwise.
- Google Ads — via Manager Account (MCC) link invitation, not direct login sharing. The client accepts a link request from your MCC. If they don't have a Google Ads account yet, you'll need to create one under your MCC and they'll transfer billing. Confirm admin access, not read-only — you need to create campaigns, modify settings, and link to Analytics.
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4) — Admin access at the Property level minimum. If the client has the old Universal Analytics properties still active, note these separately — they're sunset but historical data may still be useful for benchmarking.
- Google Tag Manager — Publish access, which allows creating and publishing tags. Editor access alone does not allow publishing. Clarify which GTM container covers the website in scope — clients sometimes have multiple.
- Google Search Console — Required for SEO-adjacent work and for understanding organic search context even for paid-only retainers. Owner-level access is preferable so you can add/verify properties. At minimum: Full User.
- Google Merchant Center — Required for Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. Link to the client's Google Ads account; they need to approve the link from their Merchant Center side.
- Google Business Profile — Required if local search or local campaign extensions are in scope.
Meta stack
- Meta Business Manager — The container for all Meta assets. Your agency's Business Manager needs to be assigned as a Partner on the client's Business Manager — not just given access to individual assets. This is the most commonly done incorrectly. A direct user invitation to a single ad account is not the same as a Business Manager partnership, and it doesn't survive staff changes on either side.
- Meta Ad Account — Admin access through the Business Manager partnership. Confirm the correct ad account ID — clients often have multiple, including dormant or test accounts.
- Meta Pixel — Access to the correct Pixel, shared through Business Manager. Verify the Pixel is installed on the correct domain and firing correctly — this is the first thing to audit, not assume.
- Instagram account — Connected to the Facebook Page through Meta Business Manager. Required for Instagram placements and Story ads.
- Facebook Page — Admin or Advertiser role. Required to run ads that use the Page identity.
- Product Catalogue — Required for Dynamic Product Ads. Confirm catalogue is populated and connected to the Pixel.
Other paid and analytics platforms
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager — Requires the client to add your agency user or agency account as an admin on their Campaign Manager account. The client's LinkedIn personal profile is not the same as their Company Page — access to one does not grant access to the other.
- Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) — If in scope, via manager account link — same process as Google Ads MCC.
- TikTok Ads Manager — Business Centre partnership model similar to Meta. Client creates a Business Centre (if they don't have one), then assigns your agency as a partner.
- Shopify — Collaborator access request, not staff account. Collaborator access is specifically designed for agency access and doesn't consume a staff account slot. Confirm which store URL — clients sometimes have staging and production stores.
- CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Klaviyo, etc.) — At minimum read access to leads, contacts, and deal data. Ideally admin access to set up conversion tracking and audience syncs. Specify which CRM at intake — don't assume HubSpot if you haven't confirmed it.
The Intake Data: What You Need Beyond Access
Access grants get campaigns running. Intake data determines whether those campaigns are built on reality or assumption. Most agencies collect access and then start work — leaving the business context, the performance history, and the account health discovery to emerge slowly over weeks of campaigns. That's the wrong sequence.
Business and audience context
- Core offer and pricing — What does the client actually sell, at what price point, and to whom? If there are multiple products or service tiers, which are in scope for this engagement?
- Target customer description — Job title, company size, industry, geography, seniority. Not "SMBs" — which SMBs, in which sectors, with which job function making the decision?
- Current lead-to-customer conversion rate — What percentage of leads become paying customers? Without this, ROAS and CPL targets are guesses.
- Average deal size / lifetime value — Required for setting meaningful CPA targets. A £200 CPL is excellent for a £10,000 ACV product and catastrophic for a £500 one.
- Sales cycle length — How long from first contact to closed deal? This determines how to set attribution windows and how to interpret early campaign data.
- Current top-performing acquisition channels — What has worked before, even informally? What has the client tried and abandoned?
- Biggest competitors — Not just company names. Which specific competitors are winning deals the client is losing, and why?
Historical performance data
- Previous campaign data export — If they've run Google Ads or Meta before, request an export of the last 12 months of campaign performance data. Even a messy history tells you more than starting blind.
- Best-performing ad creative or messaging — What copy, imagery, or offer has generated the most engagement or conversion historically? This informs your creative brief for week two.
- Current organic search traffic — GA4 overview. What keywords and pages are currently driving organic visits? Relevant even for paid-only retainers — don't bid on terms you're already winning organically.
- Previous agency reports — If there was a previous agency, request their final reports. You need to know the baseline you're being compared against.
Technical and tracking setup
- Website URL(s) in scope — Include all domains and subdomains, including landing pages built on external tools (Unbounce, Leadpages, Webflow).
- Conversion events currently tracked — What is GA4 currently firing as a conversion? What is the Meta Pixel set up to track? Are these the right events, or has the tracking been set up incorrectly or not at all?
- CRM integration status — Is the CRM currently syncing leads from any ad platforms? Is there a lead scoring or qualification step before a lead enters the CRM? This matters for building proper attribution.
- Landing pages in use — Which pages are currently used as ad destinations? Who has access to edit them? What is the average load time?
The Analytics Access Intake Checklist
Use this as both a client-facing request form and an internal completion tracker. Every item should be confirmed as received and validated before the kickoff call — not after.
- Google Ads — MCC link accepted, admin access confirmed, billing contact on file
- GA4 — Admin access at Property level, correct property confirmed (not a test property)
- Google Tag Manager — Publish access, correct container confirmed
- Google Search Console — Full User or Owner access, correct domain property
- Google Merchant Center — Linked to correct Google Ads account (if e-commerce)
- Meta Business Manager — Agency added as Partner, not just individual user
- Meta Ad Account — Admin access, correct account ID confirmed
- Meta Pixel — Access confirmed, installation verified on correct domain
- Facebook Page — Advertiser or Admin role
- Instagram — Connected to Page through Business Manager
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager — Admin access (if in scope)
- TikTok Business Centre partnership (if in scope)
- Shopify — Collaborator access, correct store URL
- CRM — Access level confirmed, CRM platform identified
- Target customer description — received in writing, not just verbally on a call
- Average deal size and LTV — confirmed figures, not estimates
- Lead-to-customer conversion rate — confirmed, or noted as unknown
- Conversion events currently tracked — confirmed in GA4 and Meta Pixel
- Previous 12 months of campaign data — exported and shared
- Previous agency reports — received, or noted as not available
- Website URLs and landing pages in scope — complete list
This checklist maps directly to the fields in the GatherMonk analytics access intake template.
The Sequence: How to Run Week One So Nothing Slips
Having the right list isn't enough if the timing is wrong. Here is the sequence that makes week one productive rather than administrative.
Day of contract signature: send the full intake form
The moment the contract is countersigned, send the structured intake form — containing every access request and every information question above. Not a friendly onboarding email. Not a welcome PDF. The actual form, with every field specified, on the same day.
Include one sentence explaining why each platform matters: "We need Google Tag Manager Publish access because without it we can't install or update conversion tracking without involving your developer — which adds delays to every campaign change." Clients who understand why something is needed move faster than clients who receive a list of unexplained requests.
Day two: identify the right people for each access
The form will surface who actually holds admin rights to each platform. In most businesses, this is not the marketing director. It's the person who set up the original accounts — sometimes a previous agency, sometimes an IT administrator, sometimes a developer who built the website. Follow up directly with those people for the technical access, and copy the marketing director so they know it's in progress.
Day three to four: validate every access as it arrives
Do not wait until everything is in to start validating. Check each access as it arrives: correct property, correct permission level, correct account. The Google Ads account they've given you access to — is it the live account with historical spend data, or a test account created years ago? The GA4 property — is it tracking the right website? A five-minute validation at receipt saves a two-week discovery after launch.
59.2% of Google Analytics access requests are submitted alongside a Google Ads request. 39.5% also include Google Tag Manager. These platforms are almost always needed together — collect them together, don't request them sequentially. (Source: Leadsie)
Day four to five: the conversion tracking audit
Before any campaign goes live, confirm that the conversion events being tracked actually represent business outcomes. A GA4 conversion set to fire on "page view" tells you nothing about leads. A Meta Pixel set to fire on "ViewContent" when you need "Lead" or "Purchase" events means your campaign optimisation data is wrong from day one.
This audit is non-negotiable. Campaigns built on broken or incorrectly configured tracking optimise toward the wrong signal. Every pound spent before this audit is cleared is a pound spent teaching the algorithm something false.
Day five to seven: the kickoff call — with everything already in hand
The kickoff call should happen after access is confirmed and the conversion tracking audit is complete — not before. When your team opens the kickoff call with "We've reviewed your Google Ads history, we can see the last six months of performance, and we've confirmed that your GA4 tracking is currently only firing on page views rather than form submissions — here's what we're going to do about that," you have immediately demonstrated more competence than most agencies show in the first month.
A kickoff call run before access is in hand becomes a status update on why things are pending. A kickoff call run with data already in hand becomes a strategic conversation. One retains clients. The other starts the churn clock.
What Good Week-One Intake Looks Like in Practice
Scenario: Meridian Performance, a seven-person paid media agency, signs a new B2B SaaS client on a Tuesday afternoon. The client is running Google Ads and Meta campaigns managed by a previous agency. Budget is £15,000 per month.
Under the old process: the kickoff call happens Thursday. The account manager explains the access they'll need. The client's marketing director says she'll sort it. She emails her developer on Friday. The developer is working on a product release and doesn't respond until the following Wednesday. Google Ads access arrives Thursday — read-only, not admin. Another two days to correct. Meta Business Manager access requires the client's previous agency to remove themselves first, which takes until the following Monday. By the time all access is confirmed and validated, it is day 14. The first campaign doesn't launch until day 21.
Under the structured intake process: the access intake form goes out Tuesday afternoon, two hours after countersignature. It lists every platform, every permission level required, and includes a short explanation of why each matters. The form also asks directly: "Who manages each of the following platforms? Please add their name and email so we can contact them directly if needed." By Thursday, the marketing director has forwarded the relevant sections to the developer and the previous agency. Meridian's team follows up directly. By Monday — day six — 80% of access is in place. The conversion tracking audit identifies the broken GA4 setup on day seven. The kickoff call on day eight opens with the audit findings. The first campaigns launch on day twelve.
The difference isn't talent. It's the timing and specificity of the intake.
Common Mistakes Agencies Make in Week One
Asking for access after the kickoff call
The kickoff call should not be the trigger for the access request. By the time the call happens, you've lost the best window — the 48 hours after contract signature when client energy and responsiveness are at their highest. Send the intake form the same day the contract is signed.
Using email for access requests instead of a structured form
Email requests for access produce email responses — imprecise, easy to misinterpret, hard to track. "I've added you to our Google" doesn't tell you whether it's the right account, the right property, or the right permission level. A structured intake form with specific fields for each platform forces precision from the client and creates a clear completion record for your team.
Not identifying who actually has admin access
The marketing director who signed the contract almost never has admin rights to the ad accounts. Build "who manages this platform" as an explicit field in your intake form, for every platform. The answer determines who your team needs to contact directly — and prevents three days of the client trying to grant access they don't have.
Treating the Meta Business Manager setup as equivalent to direct user access
A direct user invitation to a single Meta Ad Account is not the same as a Business Manager Agency Partnership. The latter is more stable, survives staff changes on both sides, and gives you the ability to manage multiple assets without individual invitations. Set up the partnership properly, not just the individual account access.
Launching campaigns before validating conversion tracking
This is the most expensive mistake in performance marketing onboarding. A campaign optimising toward a broken conversion event teaches the platform's algorithm something false, and that signal is hard to correct once it's baked in. The conversion tracking audit must happen before any campaign spend, regardless of the pressure to show early results.
Use the Ready-Made Template to Run Every New Client Intake the Same Way
GatherMonk's analytics access intake template includes every platform field above — Google stack, Meta stack, CRM, and e-commerce platforms — alongside the business context and historical data questions that inform your strategy. Every field has the permission level and format required built into the instructions. Clients submit once. Your team receives a single, complete, validated intake rather than a two-week email thread.
→ See the analytics access intake template
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most commonly missing access in a marketing agency new client intake?
Google Tag Manager Publish access is the most frequently missing or incorrectly granted permission. Clients typically do not understand the difference between Publish and Edit access, and an Editor-level grant means tags can be built but not deployed. The second most common issue is Meta Business Manager — agencies are often added as individual users to an ad account rather than as a Business Manager Agency Partner, which creates fragility and access gaps over time.
Should analytics access intake be sent before or after the kickoff call?
Before. Unconditionally. Send the intake form on the day the contract is signed. Access requests sent before the kickoff call are resolved in the window between signature and kickoff, so the call opens with access confirmed and initial data already reviewed. Access requests sent after the kickoff call extend the non-productive onboarding period by the length of time needed to resolve them — typically five to ten additional working days.
What if the client uses a previous agency's ad accounts rather than their own?
If the accounts are owned by the previous agency, the client does not have access to campaign history, audience data, or conversion tracking — all of which belong to the agency. The client needs to create their own accounts, the previous agency needs to export what they can, and you are building from a thinner data base than you would otherwise have. Make account ownership an explicit intake question: who owns your current ad accounts — you or a previous agency?
How should we handle a client who is starting from scratch with no existing accounts?
Starting from scratch is cleaner in some respects — no inherited tracking errors. Create accounts correctly from day one: Google Ads account under your MCC, Meta Business Manager with the client as business owner, GA4 property created and linked correctly. Document the assumptions used for initial CPA targets — average deal size, expected conversion rate, attribution window — and have the client confirm them before any spend begins.
How does a structured week-one intake affect client retention?
The first two weeks set the retention pattern for the first year. An agency that sends a complete professional intake form the day the contract is signed signals competence before any work is produced. An agency that spends two weeks sending ad hoc access requests signals the opposite — regardless of how strong the eventual campaign performance is.
For marketing and performance agencies building a structured new client intake process, see GatherMonk for Marketing Agencies, Client Onboarding, Client Intake & Discovery, Project Kickoff & Asset Handoff, and the Account Manager and Operations Manager resource hubs.