“We don’t know who can give you access to Facebook and Instagram” or “Can you give the new employee access to Facebook?” are sentences that we often hear as social media managers. Therefore, in this article we would like to highlight the most common mistakes that companies make when dealing with their Meta Business Suite and provide instructions on how companies should handle their meta access.
At Google, it’s simple: access to Google Ads, Google Analytics, or other important tools is only based on accounts associated with the company. At Meta, things are different: each account is linked to a private Facebook account. And that’s exactly the problem. Often, only one person is responsible for social media, and as soon as that person leaves the company, they lose access. The second problem: social media is treated as an unimportant secondary task, which is why the employees responsible often don’t know enough about it to handle it properly.
Finding Meta Business ID and why the agency needs it
When we as an agency are commissioned to place advertisements on social media or to take over posting as part of the social media strategy, we request access via the Meta Business ID. This gives us partner access to the customer’s Meta Business account and allows us to access all assets that are important to us. If you don’t know how to get your Meta Business ID, you can find instructions here:
The advantage for us of the request via the Business ID: With our partner access, we can grant everyone in the agency access to the assets that the partner shares with us – so not just one person has access.
The advantage for the company: We cannot edit settings, see who else has access, delete assets or distribute permissions. Unfortunately, the fact that we also distribute permissions often leads to misunderstandings. People quickly believe that we could have access to too many assets. But that is not the case, we only request the things that we actually need.
Why all requests should be accepted
It is important that all requests made through the Meta Business Suite are accepted. This is especially true for access requests from agencies or new employees. If requests are not accepted in a timely manner, this can lead to delays in managing social media activities. Every request that is not accepted means that a person or agency cannot work and therefore important tasks cannot be completed.
If you are not sure which requests are currently pending, you can easily check in the company settings:
Review Meta Business Suite Requests
That is why two people should always be registered as admin
As mentioned above, a common mistake is that only one person has access to the Meta Business account. If this person no longer works for the company, it is often not noticed for a long time that the access no longer belongs to the company, because the people who have restricted access to posts etc. do not know that they are not an admin or a person with unrestricted access. If an agency like us comes into play and wants the people in charge to give us access, they quickly realize that they are not authorized to do so.
Therefore: Always add at least two people in the Meta Business Suite as people with unrestricted access one of them is best to be the managing director. This puts you in a better position than most companies and minimizes the risk of losing access.
If you want to know who has unrestricted access to your Meta Business Suite, you can also check this in the company settings:
Access review Meta Business Suite
How the meta assets should best be stored and which access rights are important
Are you not familiar enough with the meta environment to know what is important in detail? No problem! We will show you the do’s and don’ts in the Meta Business Manager.
If you are the managing director of several companies or several brands, it is not necessary to have a separate business manager for each company or brand. In most cases, the same people need access to both companies. And even if that is not the case, you can give each person the access they actually need. As the managing director of a single company, it is easier anyway: You then generally have a business account to which all assets are subordinate. Unfortunately, in practice we often see that certain assets such as the meta pixel are subordinated in a business suite belonging to other people for example, the previous agency or former employee. This should be avoided at all costs so that the permissions for a company can be distributed in a single environment and an overview is maintained.
Illustration of the Meta Business Suite structure
Ideally, you have a Meta Business Manager in which all Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, advertising accounts, data sets (pixel and conversion API) and catalogs are managed together. This gives you the opportunity to:
- Depending on their responsibilities, assign permissions to employees for postings, advertisements or even just lead downloads.
- Agencies to grant partner access to certain company assets without seeing other people or assets involved.
- Add people with full control if they are responsible for all Facebook and Instagram activity in the Business Suite.
- Permissions can simply be revoked again if the need arises.
What to do if access is lost
It can happen that access to the Meta Business Manager is lost, either through termination or loss of access data. In such cases, quick action is required. Ultimately, there is no alternative but to contact Meta Support and explain the situation. Support will then require a comprehensive letter and numerous company documents to ensure that you are entitled to ownership of the business account. The process of regaining the rights often takes several months or even up to a year. We therefore strongly recommend that you distribute the permissions carefully and always keep them under control.
