How to Give Someone Access to Facebook Ad Account

Thinking about giving a new team member, freelancer, or agency access to your Facebook Ad Account? Let's get right to it. Granting access is simple, but doing it the right way is what keeps your account secure and your campaigns running smoothly. This guide will walk you through the process, explaining the different permission levels and the professional method using Meta Business Suite.

Why You Need to Share Access to Your Ad Account

You can't do it all alone. As your business grows, you'll need to delegate tasks. Sharing access to your Facebook ad account is often one of the first and most important handoffs a business owner or marketer makes. Here are the most common reasons you'll need to grant access:

Hiring a Freelancer or Consultant: You've brought on a specialist to run your campaigns. They need access to create ads, manage budgets, and analyze performance.
Working with a Marketing Agency: Agencies need access to manage your ad spend and report on results. Using the proper "Partner" access protocol is the standard here.
Onboarding a New Employee: A new marketing coordinator or digital ad manager joining your team will need access as part of their daily responsibilities.
Bringing in a Business Partner: If you have a partner who needs oversight of advertising expenses and performance, you may need to grant them high-level administrative access.

In all these cases, giving someone the correct level of permission - and not a blank check of administrative power - is fundamental to maintaining control over your assets and billing information.

Understanding Roles and Permissions in Meta Business Suite

Before you click "Add Person," it's absolutely vital to understand what you're actually giving them access to. The old days of simple "Admin," "Advertiser," and "Analyst" roles have evolved into a more granular, task-based system within Meta Business Suite (formerly Facebook Business Manager). This is a good thing - it gives you much finer control.

The core concept to remember is the principle of least privilege. This just means you should only give people the minimum level of access they need to perform their job, and nothing more.

People vs. Partners

First, it's important to distinguish between adding an individual versus a partner company.

People are individuals you add to your Business Suite, like employees or freelancers. You invite them via their email address and assign them permissions to specific assets (like your ad account, Facebook Page, or Pixel).
Partners are other businesses with their own Business Suite, such as a marketing agency or a tech partner. You share your assets with their business, and they are then responsible for assigning their own employees to work on your account. This is a much cleaner and more secure way to work with external companies.

Task-Based Permissions

When you assign access to an ad account, you aren't just giving a single role anymore. You’re giving people permission to perform specific tasks. This helps prevent someone from accidentally changing a setting they shouldn't.

Here’s a breakdown of common permissions:

View Performance: This is a view-only permission. The user can see campaign performance and access reports but cannot make any changes. It’s perfect for stakeholders who just need to see the numbers.
Manage Mockups: Allows the user to create and edit ad mockups in the Creative Hub but not launch actual campaigns.
Manage Campaigns: This is the most common permission level. It allows users to create, edit, and manage ads, ad sets, and campaigns using the associated pixel and payment method on file. They can do everything an "Advertiser" used to be able to do.
Manage Ad Account (Full Control): This is the equivalent of "Admin" access. A user with Full Control can do everything above, plus manage ad account settings, assign roles, and edit the billing and payment methods. Grant this permission with extreme caution.

The Best Way to Share Access: Meta Business Suite

For any serious business, using Meta Business Suite is the only way to go. It centralizes control of all your assets - ad accounts, Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, Pixels, and more. It securely separates your personal Facebook profile from your business activities and provides the granular permissions we just covered.

If you don’t have one yet, go to https://business.facebook.com/ to create one. Once you’re set up, follow these steps to add a team member.

Step-by-Step: How to Add a Person

Go to your Business Settings. You can get there directly by visiting https://business.facebook.com/settings.
In the left-hand navigation menu, under 'Users', click on People.
Click the blue Add people button in the upper right.
Enter the work email address of the person you want to invite. Important: This must be the email associated with their Facebook profile. They won't need to add you as a friend.
Assign them business access. Employee access is recommended by default. Only assign Admin access if they are a trusted partner who truly needs to manage core business settings. Click Next.
You'll now see the 'Assign Access' screen. In the left column, select Ad accounts. Find your ad account in the middle column and check the box next to it.
In the right-hand column, toggle on the specific tasks you want this person to manage. For a campaign manager, you’ll typically turn on Manage Campaigns.
Click the blue Invite button. The person will receive an email asking them to accept the invitation and join your Business Suite. Their status will show as 'Pending' until they accept.

That's it! Once they accept, they will see your ad account when they go to their Ads Manager.

How to Share Access with an Agency or Partner

Giving access to an agency follows a similar, but distinct, process. Instead of inviting one of their staff as a 'Person', you connect your Business Suite to theirs as a 'Partner'. This is more secure because the agency manages its own team's permissions, and if an employee leaves the agency, a single admin on their side can revoke access without you needing to do anything.

Step-by-Step: How to Add a Partner

Go back to your Business Settings.
In the left-hand navigation, under ‘Users,’ click on Partners.
Click the Add button and choose 'Give a partner access to your assets'.
You'll be asked to enter the partner's Business ID. The agency you're working with will provide you with this number. It's found in their own Business Settings under 'Business Info'. Paste their ID and click Next.
Just like adding a person, you now need to assign assets. Select Ad accounts in the left column, check your ad account in the middle, and toggle on the necessary permissions (usually 'Manage Campaigns') on the right.
Click Save Changes. Your ad account will now appear in their partner portal, and they can assign it to their own team members.

The Old Method: Sharing from a Personal Ad Account (Not Recommended)

Some users who started advertising long ago may still be operating from a personal ad account. While we strongly encourage you to migrate to Business Suite for security and scalability, you can still add people directly if necessary.

Be aware of the main drawback: to add someone, you must be Facebook friends with them, which blurs the lines between professional and personal life.

Navigate to Ads Manager: http://www.facebook.com/adsmanager.
Use the main hamburger menu (the grid of dots in the top left) to go to Ad Account Settings.
Under 'Ad account roles' on the right-hand side, click the Add People button.
Start typing the name of the Facebook friend you want to add and select them from the list.
Use the dropdown menu to assign a role: Ad Account Admin, Ad Account Advertiser, or Ad Account Analyst.
Click Confirm. They will immediately have access.

Best Practices for Managing Ad Account Access

Granting access is easy, but managing it wisely is a habit that will protect your business long-term.

Audit Permissions Regularly: Once a quarter, review everyone who has access to your Business Suite assets. If an employee has left or a freelance contract has ended, remove their access immediately.
Use Business Suite, Not a Personal Account: It's the secure, professional standard. Make the switch if you haven't already.
Apply the Principle of Least Privilege: Always start with the minimum permissions needed. You can always grant more access later if required.
Connect Agencies as Partners: Never add individual agency employees as 'People' in your Business Suite. Let the partner organization manage their own team.

Final Thoughts

Sharing access to your Facebook ad account is a critical skill for growing your marketing efforts. Using Meta Business Suite to grant specific, task-based permissions is the most secure and professional way to bring on freelancers, employees, and agencies without losing control of your assets or billing details.

Often, the primary reason for providing access is simply to report on campaign performance. Instead of adding multiple users directly into your Ads Manager where mistakes can happen, we designed a better way to handle analysis. With https://www.graphed.com/register, you can securely connect your marketing data sources once, then use plain English to build and share real-time reports and dashboards. This gives your clients, team, and stakeholders the essential performance insights they're looking for, without ever needing direct access to your campaigns.