--- title: "Never asked, waiting, lapsed, revoked: four ways an ad account is not connected" description: "On a franchise marketing call, \"not connected\" is the most useful thing a location page can say, as long as it says which kind. Here is how the Hub tells them apart, and why each one is a different job." section: Inside Sneeze It author: David Steel published: 2026-10-10T20:15:01.535Z url: https://one.sneeze.it/blog/the-four-states-of-ad-account-access tags: ["inside-sneeze-it", "hub", "ad-account-access", "franchise-marketing", "multi-location"] --- # Never asked, waiting, lapsed, revoked: four ways an ad account is not connected _On a franchise marketing call, "not connected" is the most useful thing a location page can say, as long as it says which kind. Here is how the Hub tells them apart, and why each one is a different job._ Every multi-location marketing call reaches the same question within five minutes: are we actually connected to this location's ad accounts? In a lot of agencies the answer lives in a grey cell in a shared spreadsheet. Grey means "no." It does not say why, and the why is the whole job. A grey pill that means "never asked" and a grey pill that means "they revoked us last week" are different problems. The first is a link nobody has sent. The second is a conversation somebody needs to have. Treat them the same and you send a cheerful reminder to an owner who deliberately took your access away, or you wait politely on a reply from someone who was never asked in the first place. So when we [rebuilt our portal around the location](/blog/we-rebuilt-our-portal-around-the-location), we gave "not connected" four separate answers. ## Why "not connected" deserves four answers Every location page on the [Hub](https://hub.sneeze.it) carries a pill for Facebook, Google Ads and the Google Business Profile, the three that matter on a call. A connected pill shows what it is connected *to*: the exact account, not a checkmark. A pill that is not connected says which of four things is true. | State | What it means | The job it creates | |---|---|---| | Never asked | Nobody has asked this location for access | Send the request. This one is on us. | | Waiting | A link was sent and has not been used yet | Follow up with the person who has the link | | Lapsed | It worked once and needs granting again | Get the grant renewed before anything runs blind | | Revoked | Someone took the access away | A conversation with the owner, not a reminder | Four states, four different owners of the next step. That is the reason they look different on the page. When a franchise marketing lead scans thirty locations, the grey pills sort themselves into a to-do list: these need a first ask, these need a nudge, these need a renewal, and these need a phone call. :::pullquote "Not connected" is the most useful thing a location page says, and an empty row cannot say it. ::: ## Every location has a row for every account The design decision underneath this is small and it matters. Most systems record a connection when one exists. If there is no connection, there is no row, and an absent row cannot tell you anything. It cannot say "never asked" because it does not exist. The Hub does the opposite. Every location has a row for every platform whether or not it is connected. The row is what holds the state. That is why the page can say "2 of 3 connected. Missing: Google Ads." in one line at the top, and why a list across 523 locations can show you every location still missing a Business Profile grant without anyone building a report. There is a second layer you only see as Sneeze It. Google Analytics, Search Console and call tracking are tracked too, but they sit on our view, not the owner's. An empty one there is a job for us rather than a question for them, so we keep it off the owner's page. :::stats 523 | locations on the Hub 4 | ways an account can be not connected, each shown differently 5 | roles that each see the page at their own level source: [hub.sneeze.it](https://hub.sneeze.it) live count, October 10, 2026, and the Hub's own documentation ::: ## The owner grants access on their own page The old way to get access was an email chain: we send instructions, the owner forwards them to whoever set up the account, someone clicks something, and afterward nobody is quite sure what was granted, or to whom. Now the access provider's own connect form is embedded on the location's page, with the location named around it. The owner opens the page for their location, grants access, and the Hub records what was actually granted rather than what somebody believed was granted. :::flow "How a location goes from grey to connected" Never asked | The location has a row, and the row says nobody has asked yet Link sent | The state moves to waiting, so the follow-up has an owner Owner grants | On their own location page, with the location named around the form Match | The grant is matched to exactly one location, or set aside for a person Connected | The pill shows the exact account it is connected to ::: The matching step is where we were most careful. The connect form is shared across a whole brand, so the provider is never told which location is connecting. The page tells the person which location they are connecting and which email address to use, because that address is what makes the match possible. The Hub then matches on that email, then on the account names that came back. Two rules hold that step together. A guess between two matching locations is never taken. And anything that cannot be matched lands on a review list instead of being dropped, because on a brand-wide form an unmatched grant is somebody's real connection. We have also built an exact match that tags each grant with its location. It stays switched off until we have verified it against a live account, so the email-and-name match is what actually runs today. :::figure wide ![A franchise owner at a studio front desk holding a tablet, granting access on a page that shows their own location's name, while a sorted row of grey and magenta tags hangs on the wall behind them](/blog/media/b626c4ac9e44beb6af881a53.jpg) The owner grants access on the page for their own location, and the Hub records what was actually granted. ::: ## What it changes if you run many locations The four states are a small piece of the location page. Next to them sits a related distinction we apply to tracking: an id somebody typed is shown as "on file," and a tag someone saw fire on the live site is shown as "firing," with the date. Both rules come from the same habit. We would rather show you an honest gap than a reassuring color. :::compare "A grey cell in a spreadsheet" "A pill with a state" "Not connected." Nobody knows if anyone asked. The same reminder goes to everyone, including the owner who revoked access on purpose. Somebody has to check each account by hand to find out. --- "Never asked," "waiting," "lapsed" or "revoked," each one visibly different. The list sorts itself into first asks, nudges, renewals and phone calls. Connected shows the exact account, and every grant is recorded as it happened. ::: For a franchisor, this is the difference between "we think most locations are set up" and a page that tells you exactly which ones are not, and what has to happen next for each. For a location owner, it is one page with their location's name on it instead of an email chain. For us, it means every account question starts from a fact. It is also one record, not a copy. The same connection rows feed the rest of our tools, which is the subject of [One record, every tool](/blog/one-record-every-tool). :::takeaways "What this means if you run 20 locations" - Ask your agency which of your locations have never been asked for access, and which revoked it. If the answer is the same list, the system cannot tell them apart. - "Connected" should name the exact account. A checkmark does not tell you whose business manager the spend is on. - Access should be granted on a page with the location's name on it, and recorded as granted, not as promised. - Unmatched grants should go to a person, never into a bin. ::: :::cta button="See the Hub" href="https://hub.sneeze.it" See every location's connections on one page. The public Hub homepage runs on sample data, so you can see the states without a login. :::