A common reason a clinic switch goes badly isn't a bad new agency. It's discovering, partway through, that nobody actually owns the old accounts.
Check ownership first, before anything else
Marketing for a clinic usually touches five or six accounts: Google Business Profile, Google Ads, Meta ads, website hosting, analytics, and the domain name itself. It's common, and not necessarily malicious, for an agency to set these up under their own email address for convenience. The problem surfaces only when the relationship ends.
While you are still a client, and still on good terms, ask to be added as an owner (not just a user) on each of these. This is a reasonable, ordinary request, and a professional agency should do it without friction.
Ask for a handover document
Before ending the relationship, ask for a short, plain-English summary: what's currently live, what's been tried, what worked and what didn't, and which accounts you don't yet have access to. This protects both sides and gives your new agency a real starting point instead of guesswork.
Move ownership rather than passing passwords around. If a password has to be shared, use a password manager, not email or chat. Also ask what patient or enquiry data the agency holds (form submissions, call logs, audiences built for remarketing) and agree how it is returned and deleted: advertising that uses personal data must comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (cl. 7.6).
Check what is live, too
Under the NMC's guidelines of 6 October 2026, using an agency does not by itself remove the doctor's responsibility for content they authorised or knowingly permitted (cl. 4.4). Before anything moves to a new team, look through what is published in your name: testimonials and review requests, before-and-after material, "best" or "No. 1" claims, offers and discounts, and any AI-generated content. Take down or correct what the guidelines do not allow. Our guide to the NMC's guidelines lists the main rules.
Read your current agreement too. Engagements with agencies should not be structured so that payment is linked to the procurement or referral of individual patients (cl. 8.1 viii). If yours is, take medical-law advice before you carry it over.
Overlap, don't cut off
A hard stop-start, ending one agency the same day the next begins, is the riskiest way to switch. A short overlap, even just a week or two, means nothing goes untouched: campaigns keep running, listings stay updated, and your new team can verify everything is in order before taking over fully.
What a calm switch looks like
- Confirm ownership of every account, while your current relationship is still active.
- Request a written handover summary.
- Review what is live against the NMC's 2026 guidelines, and check your agreement.
- Agree a start date with the new agency, with a short overlap.
- Change passwords and remove old access only after the handover is confirmed complete.
None of this requires conflict. A good agency expects and supports it, and so do we.
