DV360 Remove User Access | OpsBlu Docs

DV360 Remove User Access

How to revoke user access and offboard team members from DV360. Covers account deletion, API key revocation, partial access removal, and security.

Remove User Access

Use this process to offboard users from Display & Video 360 (DV360). Properly removing access protects your partner account from unauthorized activity, maintains compliance, and ensures business continuity.

Removing a user is permanent and cannot be undone. Always transfer asset ownership before removal.

When to Remove Users

Remove DV360 access when:

  • Employee leaves the organization
  • Agency contract ends or agency no longer manages specific advertisers
  • User changes roles and no longer requires DV360 access
  • Security or compliance teams request removal due to policy violation or audit
  • Temporary contractor's project concludes (seasonal campaign, product launch, etc.)
  • User has been inactive for 90+ days per access policy
  • Finance or legal requests removal for billing or compliance reasons
  • Consolidating access to different partner account or role change
  • User needs downgrade to read-only rather than full removal

Deactivation Triggers

Common triggers for immediate removal:

  • Employee termination: Revoke access same day as termination date
  • Agency contract termination: Remove within 24 hours of contract end
  • Role change: If transitioning to non-advertising role, assess removal vs. read-only
  • Security incident: Immediately remove if credentials compromised or policy violated
  • Quarterly access review: Remove users inactive for 90+ days per governance policy
  • Policy violations: Remove per security team or compliance request
  • Duplicate accounts: Remove redundant user accounts or old email addresses

Pre-Removal Assessment

Before removing a user, complete the following assessment:

Identify access level

Determine if user has:

  • Partner-level access: Removal clears access to all advertisers under partner
  • Advertiser-level access: Must remove from each advertiser individually
  • Billing visibility: Removal affects who can see invoices and payment details
  • API credentials: Removal may break automated integrations
  • Floodlight ownership: Removal transfers or orphans conversion tags

Identify owned assets

Campaign assets:

  • Insertion orders they created or manage
  • Line items and campaigns
  • Creative assets they uploaded
  • Saved audience lists
  • Custom bidding strategies

Configuration assets:

  • Floodlight activities and tags they configured
  • Audience segments they created
  • Inventory sources they set up
  • Data transfer configurations

API and integration assets:

  • API keys or service accounts
  • SDF (Structured Data Files) upload credentials
  • Automated reporting scripts
  • Third-party integrations

Transfer ownership

For each asset identified:

  1. Identify new owner (must be another Administrator)
  2. Transfer Floodlight activity ownership in Floodlight configuration
  3. Document transfer in handoff notes
  4. Notify new owner of transferred responsibilities
  5. Verify new owner can access and manage assets

Critical: Floodlight activities and audience lists require explicit ownership transfer. If user is only Administrator with Floodlight ownership, transfer before removal.

Confirm approval

Obtain written approval from:

  • User's manager or partner account owner
  • Finance or HR if due to termination
  • Security or compliance if part of audit or incident response
  • Legal if contractual or vendor-related removal

Save approval in ticketing system or access log for audit trail.

Removal Steps

Step 1: Access user management

  1. Sign in to Display & Video 360
  2. Navigate to the correct Partner from the partner selector
  3. Go to Settings (gear icon) → User Management
  4. Verify you have Administrator access before proceeding

Step 2: Review current access

  1. Locate user in the active users list
  2. Review their:
    • Current role (Administrator, Standard, Read-only, Billing, Finance)
    • Access level (Partner-wide or specific advertisers)
    • Advertiser assignments (if advertiser-level)
    • Billing visibility status
  3. Screenshot user details for compliance and audit record
  4. Document in access log or ticket

Step 3: Transfer Floodlight ownership (if applicable)

If user is Administrator with Floodlight activities:

  1. Navigate to Advertiser → Floodlight → Configuration
  2. Identify Floodlight activities owned by the user
  3. Change owner to another active Administrator
  4. Verify transfer successful
  5. Document ownership change

Step 4: Revoke API credentials (if applicable)

If user has API keys or service account access:

  1. Navigate to Settings → API Access or Service Accounts
  2. Identify credentials tied to the user
  3. Deactivate or delete API keys
  4. Transfer service account ownership to another Administrator
  5. Notify teams using those credentials that rotation is needed

Step 5: Remove user

For partner-level access:

  1. Find user in User Management
  2. Click Remove or Delete
  3. Confirm removal when prompted
  4. User immediately loses access to all advertisers

For advertiser-level access:

  1. Option A: Click Remove to delete user completely
  2. Option B: Click Edit and deselect specific advertisers to reduce access without full removal
  3. Confirm changes
  4. Verify advertiser list updated

For reducing role instead of full removal:

  1. Click Edit for the user
  2. Change role to Read-only if they need reporting access only
  3. Adjust advertiser scope if needed
  4. Save changes

Step 6: Verify removal

  1. Refresh User Management page
  2. Confirm user no longer appears in active users list (or has updated role/advertisers)
  3. Screenshot updated list for audit trail
  4. Check both partner-level and advertiser-level user lists to confirm removal
  5. Verify billing access removed if applicable

Post-Removal Tasks

Update documentation

Update the following:

  • Access log or ticketing system:
    • User email and name
    • Date removed
    • Reason for removal (e.g., "Employee termination," "Contract ended," "Quarterly review")
    • Approver name and approval date
    • Access level removed (Partner or Advertiser, specific advertisers)
    • Role removed (Administrator, Standard, Read-only, etc.)
    • Assets transferred and new owners
    • Screenshots attached
  • SSO/IAM directory: Remove user from DV360 access groups
  • Internal roster: Update team roster, org charts, or RACI matrices
  • Floodlight documentation: Update ownership records
  • API documentation: Update credentials and service account ownership

Notify stakeholders

  • Inform user of removal if appropriate (non-termination scenarios)
  • Alert team members who collaborated with removed user on campaigns
  • Notify new asset owners of their new responsibilities
  • Update documentation or runbooks referencing the removed user
  • Inform finance team if user had billing access

Audit remaining users

Post-removal audit checklist:

  • Verify user fully removed from both partner and advertiser levels
  • Check for duplicate accounts or old email addresses for same user
  • Review other users' access for similar cleanup needs
  • Flag Administrators who no longer need that role for downgrade
  • Identify inactive users for next review cycle
  • Verify Floodlight ownership distributed among multiple Administrators

Rotate credentials

If removed user had sensitive access:

  • Rotate API keys and service account credentials
  • Update SDF upload credentials if user had access
  • Change shared passwords if any were in use (not recommended practice)
  • Review audit logs for user activity before removal
  • Notify security team if removal was due to incident

Schedule next review

  • Add removal to quarterly access review log
  • Set reminder to review all users in 90 days
  • Document any access patterns to improve future onboarding/offboarding

Troubleshooting

Cannot remove user because they own Floodlight activities:

  • Transfer Floodlight activity ownership first in Floodlight configuration
  • If blocked, contact Google DV360 support
  • Ensure new owner is an Administrator

User removed but can still access:

  • Verify removed from correct partner account
  • Check if user has access through different partner or advertiser
  • User may be cached - have them log out and clear browser cache
  • Contact Google support if access persists after 24 hours

Need to restore removed user:

  • Removal is permanent; cannot restore or undo
  • Re-invite user through Add User workflow if needed
  • User will receive new invitation and must re-accept
  • Rebuild advertiser assignments and role

User had billing access and invoices no longer accessible:

  • Ensure another Administrator or Billing user has billing visibility enabled
  • Verify billing toggle enabled for remaining users
  • Add new billing user if needed
  • Contact Google support if invoices inaccessible

User had API credentials and integrations broke:

  • Integrations using user's API keys will fail after removal
  • Rotate API credentials to new user before removal to prevent downtime
  • Update scripts, ETL jobs, and reporting tools with new credentials
  • Test integrations after credential rotation

User was only Administrator with Floodlight ownership:

  • Must transfer ownership before removal or Floodlight configs may become inaccessible
  • Promote another user to Administrator first if needed
  • Transfer ownership, then proceed with removal
  • Keep at least 2 Administrators to prevent lockouts

Removing advertiser-level access but user still appears:

  • If user has partner-level access, they retain access to all advertisers
  • Must remove at partner level to fully revoke
  • Advertiser-level edits only work for advertiser-scoped users

Best Practices

  • Remove access same day as termination or contract end date
  • Always transfer ownership of Floodlight activities and audiences before removing
  • Screenshot before and after removal for compliance and audit trails
  • Run quarterly access reviews to identify and remove inactive users
  • Document every removal with date, reason, approver, and transferred assets
  • Verify removal at both partner and advertiser levels to ensure full removal
  • Rotate API keys and service accounts when removing Administrators
  • Keep at least 2 Administrators to prevent partner lockout scenarios
  • Use read-only role instead of removal if user needs reporting access
  • Maintain access matrix showing all current users, roles, and advertisers
  • Save approval documentation for compliance and audit purposes
  • Notify affected teams when removing users with shared responsibilities
  • Test Floodlight tags after ownership transfer to ensure continuity
  • Review billing access to ensure invoices remain accessible after removal

Common Use Cases

Employee termination:

  1. Receive termination notice from HR
  2. Transfer Floodlight activities and campaigns to manager
  3. Rotate API credentials if user was Administrator
  4. Remove user same day as termination
  5. Screenshot and document removal
  6. Update internal rosters and access logs

Agency contract ends:

  1. Confirm contract end date with procurement or legal
  2. Transfer campaigns back to internal team or new agency
  3. Transfer Floodlight ownership if agency managed conversion tracking
  4. Remove agency users within 24 hours of contract end
  5. Update vendor contact list and access documentation

Role change to non-digital:

  1. Confirm role change with manager
  2. Assess if Read-only access needed for reporting or oversight
  3. If no access needed, transfer assets and remove completely
  4. If read-only needed, edit user to downgrade to Read-only role
  5. Document change and reason

Quarterly access review cleanup:

  1. Export user list from User Management
  2. Cross-reference against HR roster and project assignments
  3. Identify users who left organization or haven't logged in for 90+ days
  4. Transfer assets and remove inactive users
  5. Document batch cleanup in access log

Security incident or policy violation:

  1. Receive removal request from security or compliance team
  2. Immediately remove user to prevent further access
  3. Document incident and removal
  4. Transfer ownership after removal (unless security team advises otherwise)
  5. Rotate API keys and credentials
  6. Report completion to security team

Contractor project completion:

  1. Confirm project completion date with project manager
  2. Transfer deliverables and campaign ownership to internal team
  3. Remove contractor access within 48 hours of project end
  4. Document removal and project completion
  5. Archive contractor documentation
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