Before you cancel a creative agency, get six things: layered source files and raw footage, creator usage terms with end dates, the brief archive, the test log with its losers, the Meta copy library, and confirmation that your business owns the ad account and pixel. The test log and creator terms are hardest to recover.
Treat the checklist below as the request you send the day you give notice.
What should you get from your creative agency before you cancel?
Rows run from hardest to easiest to recover. That order is our reasoning, not measured data, so ask for every row while the notice period runs.
In our view, the expensive thing to lose when you leave an agency is the test log and the creator terms, not the files.
| Item | Why it matters | What to ask for | Check in your contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test log and winning concepts | In the experiments Kohavi et al. (2022) cover, most didn't win. Ad tests may differ, but losers are learning you paid for | Concept, hypothesis, launch date, spend, result and verdict for every test, plus breakdown exports. See why most concepts lose | Is reporting data yours to keep and export? |
| Creator usage-rights terms and end dates | In our view, a creator ad still running past its term is the costly surprise | Per creator ad: who signed, which platforms, the term, the end date, whether paid usage is allowed. See AI UGC vs creator UGC | Who signed the creator agreement, and can it move to you? |
| Ad account, business portfolio role, pixel or dataset | Meta's Business Management API docs say only the owner business can grant another business access (Meta for Developers) | Confirmation that your business is listed as owner on each asset, and the agency's access removed after handover | Does the contract say which business should own the ad account, pixel and Page? |
| Brief archive | Holds the reasoning: customer avatar, angle, hook | Every brief, including ones never produced. See what a full brief contains | Are briefs and strategy documents deliverables? |
| Meta copy library | Proven primary text and headlines carry into new ads | Primary text, headline, description and CTA per ad, marked by result | Is ad copy covered by the same deliverables clause as the ads? |
| Raw footage and product shots | Feeds new edits and mashups without a reshoot | Original clips, B-roll and selects at full resolution. See what a mashup ad is | Who owns footage the agency shot or bought? |
| Layered source files (PSD, Figma, After Effects) | A flat export can't be edited, so a new team rebuilds each ad from scratch | Editable files for every live and recent ad, plus the templates used | Are source files a deliverable, or only the finals? |
| Licensed stock, music and fonts | A license may be in the agency's name, not yours | A list of every license used in live ads and whose name is on it | Does each license cover your use after the agency leaves? |
Free. 3 researched opportunities, 1 customer-avatar gap, and 1 example concept within 24 hours.
Why is the test log worth more than the source files?
According to Kohavi, Deng and Vermeer (2022), in a KDD conference paper, reported success rates for online controlled experiments run from 8 to 33 percent. Those are product and website experiments rather than ad tests, so read the figure as a parallel, not an ad benchmark. In the online experiments that paper covers, most didn't win. Ad tests may differ, but a log of what lost is still a record you paid for.
That record stops a new team from relaunching angles your agency already ruled out and paying to learn the same lesson twice. Creative hit rate covers why most ad concepts lose.
A usable log holds six fields per test: concept, hypothesis, launch date, spend, result and verdict. Ask for the breakdown exports behind each result as well. The verdict column only means something if you know what counted as a winner, so ask how the agency made that call and compare it with what makes a Meta test result significant.
Who owns your ad account and pixel, and what does Meta say about access?
On its Business-to-Business Functions page, Meta for Developers says access "can only be granted if this business is the OWNER of the asset", and "You cannot grant access to assets of which you are just an AGENCY."
In Meta's Business Management API documentation, only the business that owns an asset can give another business access to it; a business that holds an asset as an agency cannot pass that access on.
Meta's Ad Accounts documentation applies the same split to each ad account: "access_type defines if your business is acting as an OWNER or an AGENCY of the ad account." So the first thing to check before you cancel is which business is listed as owner.
- You open your business portfolio settings and look at which business is listed as owner of the ad account, the pixel or dataset, and the Page.
- You confirm your own business is the owner of each one. If it isn't, you raise it with the agency while the relationship is still working.
- You remove the agency's access only after the handover is confirmed.
Meta's help pages cover the clicks: giving a partner access to business assets and removing partners. The pixel is a business asset with an owner like the others, so check it alongside the ad account.
This is not legal advice. What the agency owes you, and what you own, is set by your contract.
What should you export from Meta before your access ends?
The notice period has a second clock. In an October 2025 update to the Ads Insights API, Meta wrote that from January 12, 2026, unique-count and hourly breakdowns "will be limited to 13-month's of historical data" and frequency breakdowns "will be limited to 6-months of historical data." Total values "will continue to be available for up to 37 months." Meta said total values are "Consistent with Ads Manager behavior".
In the Ads Insights API, total values stay available for up to 37 months, but since January 12, 2026, unique-count and hourly breakdowns are limited to 13 months and frequency breakdowns to 6 months (Meta for Developers, October 2025).
That update covers breakdowns in the Insights API. It doesn't describe other Meta data, and neither does this post.
While you still have access, export the breakdowns for your live and recent ads, and copy the primary text, headline, description and CTA of every winner into a copy library you control. If the agency holds the account, ask for the exports before your access ends.
Covers breakdowns in the Insights API only, not other Meta data. Export the breakdowns while you still have access.
What happens to creator ads when you leave an agency?
The surprise here is a creator ad still running after its term has ended. For every creator ad in the account, ask who signed the agreement, which platforms it covers, the term, the end date, and whether paid usage is permitted.
The question that matters most is who signed the creator agreement, and whether it can move to you. That's a contract question, not a Meta one. This post doesn't cover what happens to a running ad when a creator's permission ends, so check the agreement and the permission settings before the agency leaves.
This section is about the creator content your agency already licensed. How it differs from AI UGC is laid out in AI UGC vs creator UGC.
What should your first 30 days after the agency look like?
Treat the first month as a handover, and start new testing once the basics are in place.
Our suggested plan:
- Week 1: keep your current winners running untouched. Export the breakdowns. Set your own naming convention and test-log template, so every new ad lands in a log you control. Remove the agency's access once the handover is confirmed.
- Weeks 1 to 2: iterate on proven concepts from the log, with new hooks and formats on angles that already won, before you explore new ones.
- Weeks 2 to 4: get back to a weekly cadence of new concepts. How many new ads a week covers how many to aim for.
This is a plan, not a forecast. Results vary, and nothing here is a promise of performance after you switch.
Here is one customer's account of a first week with CreatStrat. It's one account, not a typical result.
We gave CreatStrat one product and within the first week had more genuinely different concepts to test than we'd produced internally in the previous month. The biggest difference wasn't just volume, the ads were based on different customer problems, objections and awareness levels rather than being cosmetic variations of the same concept.
Claire M. · CreatStrat customerWhat are your options once the agency is gone?
The options fall into six categories: an in-house hire, another agency, a freelancer, a UGC marketplace, a design subscription, or an AI ad generator. The agency alternatives comparison sets them side by side. For prices, see what creative strategy costs and what a finished Meta ad costs.
If your next step is a weekly plan, CreatStrat is one agency alternative. It's a software subscription that delivers finished ads every week: CreatStrat researches, plans the tests, writes the brief, and produces the finished statics, carousels, mashups, AI video, and AI UGC, each with its Meta copy. Your creative strategist is built in. Plans are $299 / $499 / $899 a month for 5 / 10 / 20 ads a week, one combined price, billed monthly, cancel anytime. Once you've paid for the period they're delivered in, the finished ads, briefs and Meta copy are yours to use, change and run in your business, including after you cancel (Terms of Service, section 14). Licensed fonts, music or stock inside an ad can be used as part of that ad, and AI presenters aren't exclusive to you unless agreed in writing (Terms of Service, section 14).
You upload product photos and footage to the asset library once. A read-only Meta connection lets it learn from your results, and early batches draw on research before results build up. CreatStrat produces the finished ads; you launch them in your own Meta account. Whoever you pick, hold them to what a weekly creative service should deliver.
Frequently asked questions
What should I get from my ad agency before I cancel? Ask for the test log with its losers, creator usage terms and end dates, the brief archive, the Meta copy library, raw footage and layered source files. Then confirm your business is listed as owner of the ad account and pixel in your Meta business portfolio.
Who owns my Facebook ad account, me or my agency? Check which business Meta lists as owner. According to Meta for Developers, access "can only be granted if this business is the OWNER of the asset", so an agency business can't pass access on. Who should own it is a contract question. This isn't legal advice.
How long does the Meta Ads Insights API keep ad performance data? In the Ads Insights API (October 2025 update), total values stay available for up to 37 months. Since January 12, 2026, unique-count and hourly breakdowns are limited to 13 months and frequency breakdowns to 6 months.
Can I keep running creator ads after I leave my agency? It depends on the creator agreement: who signed it, which platforms it covers, and when the term ends. Check the agreement and the permission settings before the agency leaves.
How do I switch creative agencies without losing performance? Nobody can promise that. Keep current winners running untouched, export the breakdowns before access ends, and iterate on proven concepts from the test log before you test new angles. Results vary.
When should I hire another agency instead? When the work is a rebrand, offline shoots, or creator content. Those need a production team.
Get the log and the terms first
Source files can be rebuilt. The record of what lost, and the date each creator license ends, can't, so put those at the top of your handover request. To see what a researched set of new concepts looks like for your product, start with the Gap Scan. You share a product page URL and an email.
Free. 3 researched opportunities, 1 customer-avatar gap, and 1 example concept within 24 hours.
Want to see the app first? Book a demo →
Sources
- Kohavi R, Deng A, Vermeer L. 2022. A/B Testing Intuition Busters: Common Misunderstandings in Online Controlled Experiments. Proceedings of the 28th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. 3168-3177. doi:10.1145/3534678.3539160.
- Cutlip C. 2025. Ads Insights API Metric Availability Updates. Meta for Developers blog. October 16, 2025. https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2025/10/16/ads-insights-api-metric-availability-updates/
- Meta for Developers. Business-to-Business Functions. Business Management APIs, v26.0. Accessed October 18, 2026. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/business-management-apis/business-asset-management/guides/business-to-business
- Meta for Developers. Ad Accounts. Business Management APIs. Accessed October 18, 2026. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/business-management-apis/business-asset-management/guides/ad-accounts