How to Give Facebook Ad Manager Access

Granting someone access to your Facebook Ad Manager is a necessary step when you bring on a new marketing teammate, freelancer, or agency. The process should be simple, but navigating Meta's business settings can often feel confusing. This guide provides a clear walkthrough on how to share access the right way, ensuring everyone has the permissions they need without compromising security.

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Why You Need to Share Access to Your Ad Account

You rarely manage a business's advertising efforts entirely on your own. As your company grows, you'll need to delegate tasks. Sharing access to your Facebook Ad Manager is the foundation for collaboration and scaling your marketing.

Common scenarios include:

• Working with an Agency: When you hire a marketing agency, they'll need access to run, manage, and report on your campaigns. Using the "Partner" access method is specifically designed for this.
• Hiring a Freelancer: Whether it's a media buyer or a creative specialist, a freelancer will need permissions to do their job within your ad account.
• Onboarding a New Employee: A new marketing hire needs to be added to your business's assets so they can contribute to your advertising strategy from day one.
• Collaborating with a Data Analyst: Someone responsible for reporting needs view-only access to pull performance data without having the ability to change campaigns.

The key is to provide the right level of access to the right people, which is exactly what Meta Business Suite allows you to do.

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Understanding Meta's Business Tools Hierarchy

Before jumping into the "how-to," it helps to understand how Meta organizes business assets. Most confusion comes from not knowing the difference between a personal Profile, a Business Page, an Ad Account, and the Meta Business Suite (formerly Facebook Business Manager).

Think of it like this:

• Meta Business Suite/Manager: This is the main headquarters. It’s a central hub that contains all of your business assets: your Facebook Page, Instagram account, Ad Account, Commerce Account, pixels, and more. You don’t give people access to the hub itself, you invite them into the hub and then assign them specific assets to work on.
• Ad Account: This is a specific department within your headquarters dedicated solely to advertising. It's where you create campaigns, manage budgets, and track performance. An Ad Account must be owned by a Business Suite/Manager.
• People vs. Partners: You grant access in two main ways. People are individuals you add via their email address (e.g., employees, contractors). Partners are other businesses with their own Meta Business Suite, like an agency. Sharing with a Partner via their Business ID is the standard, secure way to collaborate with external companies.

Having this structure in mind makes the process much more intuitive.

Decoding Permission Levels

When you grant access, you're not just flipping a switch, you're deciding exactly what someone can and cannot do. This is a critical security feature. Assigning permissions based on the principle of "least privilege" - giving someone only the access they absolutely need - will help protect your account.

For Ad Accounts, you can choose from several levels of access:

• View performance: This is a read-only role. The user can see all your campaigns, ad sets, and ads, and they can access the performance reports. However, they cannot make any edits, turn campaigns on or off, or spend any money. This is perfect for stakeholders or data analysts who only need to monitor results.
• Manage campaigns: This is the most common role for advertisers and media buyers. Users with this permission can do everything a "View performance" user can, plus they can create and edit ads, change targeting, turn campaigns on or off, and manage creatives. They cannot, however, change billing information or set account-level permissions.
• Manage ad account (Admin access): This is the highest level of control over a specific ad account. The user can do everything mentioned above, and they can also manage billing details, payment methods, and assign roles to other people for that specific ad account. You should reserve this level of access for trusted senior team members or founders.

Always start with the lowest level of permission necessary and upgrade it later if needed.

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How to Give Access to an Individual (Employee, Contractor, Freelancer)

Use this method designed for bringing individuals directly into your Meta Business Suite. You’ll need the email address they use for their personal Facebook account to send the invitation. Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Navigate to Business Settings: Log into your Meta Business Suite at business.facebook.com. On the bottom left sidebar, click the gear icon for "Settings." Then, on the next page, click "More business settings". This will take you to the more detailed, traditional Business Manager view.
2. Add a New Person: In the left-hand navigation menu, under the "Users" section, click on "People." Then, click the blue "Add people" button.
3. Enter Their Email Address: A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter the business email address of the person you want to invite. After typing it in, you'll need to decide on their overall business access role. "Employee access" is the standard default and recommended. "Admin access" gives them full control over your entire Business Suite, so only use it for business partners or high-level administrators.
4. Assign Assets and Define Roles: This is the most important step. On the left side of the new screen, you’ll see various asset types you can assign ("Pages," "Ad accounts," "Catalogs," etc.).
5. Send the Invitation: Once you've configured their permissions, click the "Invite" button. The person will receive an email invitation with a link. They must click this link and accept the invitation to gain access to your Business Assets. Remind them to check their inbox (and spam folder!) for the invite.

How to Give Access to a Partner (Agency or Other Business)

When you're working with an agency or another company that has their own Meta Business Suite, the "Partner" workflow is the correct and most secure method. This approach gives them access to your assets through their Business Manager, rather than adding their individual employees to yours one by one.

To do this, you’ll need their Partner Business ID. Any experienced agency will know what this is and can provide it to you promptly. It’s a long string of numbers assigned to their Business Suite.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Business Settings: Just like before, go to business.facebook.com and navigate to the full "Business Settings" area.
2. Find the Partner Section: In the left-hand menu, under the "Users" section, click on "Partners."
3. Add a New Partner: You'll see two options: "Add a partner to share assets with" and "Add a partner you can request assets from." You want the first one. Click the blue "Add" button and select "Give a partner access to your assets."
4. Enter the Partner Business ID and Assign Assets: A box will appear where you can enter your partner's Business ID. Paste it in and click "Next." The next screen will look very similar to the one used for adding individuals.
5. Save Changes: Once everything is configured, click "Save Changes." This establishes a formal connection between your Business Suite and your partner's. Their team admins can now assign people from their own agency to work on your ad account, without you ever having to add them to your system individually. It’s cleaner, safer, and much more scalable.

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Best Practices for Securely Managing Account Access

Granting access is easy, but managing it responsibly over time is just as important. Follow these best practices to keep your accounts secure:

• Regularly Audit Permissions: Once a quarter, review everyone who has access to your accounts. Go to the "People" and "Partners" sections and make sure everyone listed still needs the access they have.
• Implement the Principle of Least Privilege: Don't give full admin access unless it is absolutely required. Start with the lowest viable permission level. Someone managing campaigns doesn't need to see or change payment methods.
• Revoke Access Immediately: When an employee leaves or you end a contract with a freelancer or agency, remove their access on their last day. For a Person, click their name and "Remove." For a Partner, go to the Partners section, select the partner, and click "Remove Link."
• Enforce Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): This is arguably the most important security measure you can take. In your Business settings under "Security Center," you can require that everyone with access to your Business Suite has 2FA enabled on their personal Facebook account. This makes it significantly harder for an unauthorized party to gain entry.

Final Thoughts

Sharing access to your Facebook Ad Manager is a fundamental part of scaling your marketing program. By understanding the structure of Meta's Business Suite and following the distinct workflows for adding individuals versus partners, you can collaborate effectively while keeping your data and billing information secure.

Once your team is set up and your campaigns are running, the focus shifts to performance analysis and reporting. This often involves manually exporting data and wrangling spreadsheets across Facebook, Google Analytics, your CRM, and your Shopify store. To eliminate this friction, we built Graphed . By connecting all your platforms in one click, you can create real-time dashboards and get answers from your data instantly using simple, natural language - freeing up your team to focus on strategy instead of report-building.