Grant Meta Ads Access Safely (Business Manager Roles, Partners, MFA)

Why sharing a login is dangerous

Ads touch budgets, pixels, and customer audiences. Shared logins break audit trails and can expose billing. Use Business Manager roles and Partner access instead.

Safe patterns

• People vs. Partners: add people (employees) to your Business Manager; grant agencies Partner access (they bring their own people).
• Least privilege: assign only what’s needed—Ad Account: Advertiser/Analyst, Pixel: View, Page: Advertiser. Keep Admin tiny.
• Exclude billing: don’t grant Finance Editor unless necessary. Keep cards and payouts under owner control.
• MFA/SSO required for everyone with ad access.

Step-by-step (10 minutes)

1. Verify the invite on a quick call before clicking (watch for look-alike domains). Habit: Verify Links Like a Pro.
2. Add the partner in Business Manager → Partners → Give a partner access to your assets and select only the assets/roles they need.
3. Turn on alerts for new admins, payment changes, and large spend spikes.

Creative assets & audiences

• Don’t email zips of creatives or CSV audiences. Deliver via one-time, expiring links and send the access code by SMS/phone. Basics: The Safe Way to Share Passwords.
• Watermark preview PDFs and strip metadata if sending images externally: Share Sensitive Photos & Documents Safely.

Offboarding & audits

• Remove partner access when the engagement ends; review Page/Ad account roles monthly.
• Rotate API tokens or integrations that agencies used. Incident plan: The Simple Incident Playbook for Leaked Passwords.

Useful external references

• Meta: Add a Partner in Business Manager 🔗
• Meta: People and permissions in Business Manager 🔗
• Meta: Two-Factor Authentication 🔗

Related reading

Share Shopify Access with Roles & Approvals · Secure Client Onboarding (Checklist) · Send CRM Exports Without Leaking PII

Bottom line

Add partners, not passwords. Scope assets tightly, require MFA, exclude billing, and review access on a schedule.