NORWICH, UK. June 26th, 2026 — A pattern of small businesses losing control of their own websites, domain names, and advertising accounts to marketing agencies is prompting renewed concern about standards of conduct in the UK digital marketing industry, according to a performance marketing agency.
Bons & Frazer, founded earlier this year by Jamie Frazer and Jake Bonham, has encountered the problem repeatedly since launching, including directly, when a Norfolk-based cleaning company approached the agency after its previous marketing supplier refused to return the business’s website and Google Ads account without payment of a release fee.
Since launching, Frazer and Bonham say they have heard variations of the same story from multiple prospective clients across different sectors: agencies retaining ownership of client domains and hosting arrangements, Google Ads accounts created under agency ownership rather than the client’s, and websites built on infrastructure the business has no independent access to.
The practical consequence is that a business seeking to leave an agency — or simply to take back control of its own marketing finds itself without access to years of campaign data, an established website, or in some cases, its own domain name.
Jake Bonham added: “We’ve heard this again and again in a short space of time and the troubling thing is it seems to be increasing rather than decreasing. These are small businesses. They trusted an agency with the infrastructure their business runs on, and they had no idea they didn’t own it.”
Beyond asset ownership, the founders describe a second recurring complaint: clients paying monthly retainers with no meaningful visibility into what is happening on their accounts. A report arrives at the end of the month, frequently filled with figures the client cannot interpret, but day-to-day contact is handled by whichever account manager is currently assigned, which itself changes without notice.
“Clients sign up and then don’t hear from the person they signed up with again,” said Jamie Frazer. “They get passed around the office, receive a report they don’t understand, and by the time they realise it isn’t working, they’re tied into a contract they can’t exit.”
Bons & Frazer was structured explicitly to prevent these situations arising. Every client retains full ownership of their digital assets from the outset: domain registration, website hosting, Google Ads accounts, Meta Business accounts, and analytics properties are set up in the client’s name, with Bons & Frazer operating as an invited manager rather than an account owner.
“If a client wants to leave tomorrow, everything they have built is theirs to take,” said Jamie Frazer. “Their campaign history, their data, their website none of it sits with us. It never has.”
The agency operates on a fixed monthly fee from £995 with no contract tie-ins, meaning clients are not bound beyond a rolling monthly arrangement. All accounts are managed personally by Frazer and Bonham, with no account managers, subcontractors, or handovers at any stage of the relationship.
Declan McCahill, Managing Director of AGD Surrey Ltd, has been a client since the agency’s early months. “Jake and Jamie have been a breath of fresh air from day one,” said Declan McCahill.
