Before a campaign starts, agree in writing that any domain is registered in your business's name and any tracked number can move to you. Better still, keep landing pages on your own domain.

A campaign with an address of its own

An advertising agency running a campaign for your business often builds it somewhere other than your website. It registers a separate domain, puts a landing page on it, adds a form and a phone number, and points the ads there.

Enquiries reach your business as normal. The form forwards to your inbox, and the number rings your phone.

What is easy to miss is who holds each piece. The domain is often registered in the agency's name, the page sits on the agency's hosting, and the number is rented on the agency's account.

While the relationship lasts, none of that matters. When it ends, all of it can stay with the agency.

Why agencies set it up this way

There are good reasons. A separate domain can be built and changed quickly, without waiting for access to your site or for your web developer.

The agency can test versions of a page, measure each one, and keep its methods in one place across many clients. A tracked number shows which ads and printed pieces produce calls.

None of that is sinister. The trouble is only that ownership is rarely discussed, so it falls to whoever clicked register.

What can stay behind

The third outlasts everything else. A web page can be replaced in a week, but a brochure in a rack or a printed guide keeps sending callers to the old number for a season or more.

Numbers that live on paper

Tracked numbers usually come from a call tracking service, which forwards each one to your real line and records the calls. The agency pays for them, and the account is in its name.

When the agency stops paying, the number stops forwarding, or eventually goes to someone else. Every printed piece carrying it then sends your customers somewhere you cannot reach.

Some tracking numbers can be moved to another account or provider, and some cannot. A move usually needs the account holder's authorisation, so whoever's name is on the account decides.

Ask, before anything is printed, whose name the number is in and whether it could follow you to another agency.

A domain that lapses

A campaign domain the agency no longer needs may simply be allowed to expire. Once it does, anyone can register it.

Expired domains that still get visitors are bought for exactly that reason. The new owner can point the links, the listings and the old search results wherever they like, including at a competitor.

Even while it is renewed, a domain in the agency's name is the agency's to point wherever it chooses. Most would never misuse it, but the decision is theirs, not yours.

A worked example

A whale watching company runs a covered boat and a fast open one from a marina in a coastal town, with a ticket booth on the dock and a season from spring to early fall.

Three seasons ago it hired an agency to run its advertising. The agency registered a separate domain built from the words whale watching and the town's name, with a landing page, an enquiry form and its own tracked number.

That number went onto rack brochures in hotels and visitor centres, a regional visitor guide and several directory listings. The landing page gathered links from tourism sites and ranked well for the town's name with whale watching.

This fall the company moved to a new agency. The old one said the domain, the pages and the number were its own, and offered to keep them running for a monthly fee.

Next season's brochures were already printed with the old number. After some negotiation, the domain was transferred and redirected to the company's own booking page, and the number, which could be moved, went to an account in its name.

It cost a transfer fee and several awkward emails. The new agency's contract names the company as the owner of every domain and number created for it.

Agree it before the campaign starts

Ownership is easy to settle at the start and hard to settle at the end. Put it in the agreement, in plain words.

Any domain is registered with your business as the registrant, using your contact details, with the agency as a technical contact if needed. Any tracked number is in your name, or can be moved to you when the work ends.

Landing pages and their wording are handed over on request, enquiry records are exported to you, and the AdWords account belongs to the business, with the agency given access.

Once a year, ask for a list of every domain, number and account created for you, with the name each one is registered under.

Pages on your own domain instead

Better still, keep landing pages on your own website: a page or a folder made for the campaign, at an address under your own domain.

The pages can still be tested and measured, and every link and visit they earn adds to a domain you already hold. When the agency changes, the pages stay where they are.

Ask for it from the start. An agency that knows the question will be asked can plan its work around your site instead of beside it.

The counter-case

Some campaigns are short and self-contained: a one-week sale, an event with a date. A separate domain for those does little harm, as long as it is registered in your name.

And an agency that has done the work is entitled to be paid for it. Handovers are fairer when the terms were agreed before anyone was unhappy.

But whatever the campaign, the domain should be yours and the number movable. Agree it before the first ad runs.

Before the next campaign

  1. List every domain created for your campaigns.
  2. Look up the registrant of each one.
  3. List every tracked number and where it is printed.
  4. Ask whether each number can be moved to you.
  5. Put ownership terms in the agency agreement.
  6. Keep new landing pages on your own domain.
  7. Own the AdWords account and grant access.

Step four is the one with the longest tail. A domain can be moved or replaced in an afternoon, but a number printed on brochures keeps working, or failing, long after anyone remembers the campaign.

The same trap for agents and franchisees is covered in the address you leave behind when you change firms.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns a domain my agency registered?

Whoever is named as the registrant, which is often the agency. Look it up, and ask for any campaign domain to be registered in your business name.

What happens to tracked numbers when I leave?

They stop forwarding once the agency stops paying, or stay with the agency. Printed brochures and listings carrying them then send callers somewhere you cannot reach.

Can a tracking number be moved to me?

Sometimes. It depends on the service, and a move usually needs the account holder's authorisation. Ask before the number is printed, not after.

Is a separate campaign domain ever fine?

For a short campaign, if it is registered in your name. For anything lasting, pages on your own domain keep their links and history when agencies change.

What should the agency agreement say?

That domains are registered to your business, tracked numbers are in your name or movable, pages and enquiry records are handed over, and the AdWords account is yours.

What if the domain has already lapsed?

Anyone can register it, sometimes for the traffic it still gets. Try to recover it quickly, and point every link and listing you control at your own site.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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