How to give an agency partner access to your Meta ad account

How to give an agency partner access: the short answer

Give your agency access through Partners in your business portfolio, not by adding its staff as people. In Meta Business Suite, open Settings, choose Partners under Users, click Add, select Give a partner access to your assets, enter the agency's business portfolio ID, then pick the ad account, Page, Instagram account and dataset it needs and the access level for each. Click Assign assets and the agency assigns its own team from its side.

Only someone with full access to your business portfolio can do this, and your agency needs a business portfolio of its own. For an agency that will build and run campaigns, we give partial access with the Manage campaigns task on the ad account, and keep full access, billing and permissions with the business. When the agency relationship ends, you remove the partner in one step and every person on its side loses access with it.

What you need before you start

• Full access to your business portfolio. If you cannot see Partners in the Settings menu, you do not have it. Ask whoever set the portfolio up, or the person who holds full access, to do this step.
• The agency's business portfolio ID. The agency finds it in Meta Business Suite under Settings, then Business portfolio info, below the portfolio name. It is a long number. Ask for it in writing and paste it, rather than retyping it from a call.
• Two-factor authentication on your portfolio. Meta asks you to turn it on before you add partners. Turn it on for everyone with full access, not only yourself.
• Your assets inside your own portfolio. You can only share what your portfolio owns. If the ad account or Page sits in a former agency's or a staff member's portfolio, sort out ownership first, because a partner with full access still cannot share an asset with another business. Only the owner can.

Step by step in Meta Business Suite

1. Go to Settings in Meta Business Suite and make sure the right business portfolio is selected at the top left.
2. Under Users in the left menu, click Partners.
3. Click Add, then choose Give a partner access to your assets.
4. Enter the agency's business portfolio ID and click Next. Check that the business name Meta shows is your agency before you continue.
5. Choose each asset to share. For each one, choose Full access or Partial access, and for partial access, tick the tasks the agency will do.
6. Click Assign assets. If your portfolio needs a second approver, another person with full access approves the change.
7. Tell the agency it is done. It then opens its own Settings, finds your assets, and assigns its people to them. Until it does, nobody at the agency can open your ad account, so this step is the usual reason an agency says it still cannot see anything.

Both businesses can see the shared assets in their own Settings afterwards, which is the easiest place to check what you have given away.

Which access level to give for each asset

Meta now uses two levels for every asset: full access and partial access. Partial access is split into tasks. These are the ad account tasks, as Meta lists them today:

For your dataset (pixel), partial access lets the agency view the data and analytics and create conversion ads with it. Full access adds control of settings, adding or removing events, editing user access and creating audiences. An agency that will build retargeting or lookalike audiences from your events needs more than view access, so agree which of the two it needs before you assign it.

For your Facebook Page and Instagram account, give the tasks the agency will actually do. An agency that only runs ads needs to advertise from them, not to publish posts or answer messages. Content and community management are separate jobs and separate tasks.

What to share, and what to keep

Here is the access plan we use for a typical Australian ecommerce brand handing Meta ads to an agency. Worked example: a store spending about A$20,000 a month, with one ad account, one Page, one Instagram account and one dataset connected to Shopify.

Two rules sit behind that table. Never hand over the payment method: if your card sits on the ad account, you keep control of the spend, and a billing problem stays visible to you rather than to someone else's inbox. Our guide to an ad account disabled by a payment issue shows how fast that can go wrong. And never create the ad account, dataset or Page inside the agency's portfolio. Whoever owns the asset decides who keeps it.

When the agency sends you a request instead

Many agencies start from their side. In their own portfolio they choose Ask a partner to assign you their assets, enter your email address and business portfolio ID, and choose the asset types and permissions they want. You receive a request, and when you open it you choose the specific assets and can change the permissions before you accept.

This is fine, and it saves you finding their ID. Read the request before you accept it. If an agency asks for full access to the ad account, ask why: building and running campaigns needs Manage campaigns, and nothing in day-to-day ad management needs control of your finances or permissions.

How to check it worked

• In Settings, open Partners and select the agency. You should see each asset you shared and the access level on each.
• Ask the agency to confirm it can open the ad account in Ads Manager and see your campaigns and the dataset's events.
• If it can see the ad account but not the pixel events, the dataset was not shared or its people were not assigned to it. If it cannot create an audience, it has partial access to the dataset.
• If it can see your Page but cannot pick your Instagram account as the ad identity, share the Instagram account as well. They are separate assets.

A well set up account is also easier to hand over. Our Meta ads account structure guide covers how we lay out campaigns before an agency starts, and Meta pixel and Conversions API on Shopify covers what to check on the dataset itself.

How to remove an agency's access

Go to Settings, click Partners, select the agency, click Options at the top right, choose Remove from business portfolio, then Remove partner. Everyone the agency assigned to your assets loses access with it. To pull back one asset and keep the rest, open the partner and remove that asset instead.

Do this on the day an agreement ends, then check three things the partner removal does not touch: people added to your portfolio directly as individuals, any system users or apps the agency connected for the Conversions API or reporting, and audiences or rules it built that you want to keep. Ask the agency to export reports and naming conventions before you remove it.

Mistakes we see most

• Adding agency staff as people. Each person then needs removing one by one, and staff who leave the agency keep their access to your account. Use Partners.
• Sending passwords. Never share a Facebook or Instagram login with an agency. Partner access exists so you never have to.
• Full access by default. It lets the partner change your permissions and finances. Give the task the job needs.
• Assets owned by the old agency. If a previous agency created your ad account in its portfolio, you cannot share it onwards. Ask that agency to transfer what it can, and start a new ad account in your own portfolio if it cannot.
• Forgetting the dataset. The agency can run ads but cannot see conversions or build audiences, so results look worse than they are.

If you would rather have us set up the access and run the account, we work this way with every Australian brand on our Meta ads management, and our comparison of agency, freelancer and in-house covers who should hold which keys.

Questions we get about Meta partner access

What is partner access in Meta Business Suite?

Partner access lets one business portfolio share assets such as an ad account, Page, Instagram account or dataset with another business portfolio, usually an agency. The agency then assigns its own people. You set the access level on each asset and can remove the partner at any time.

How do I add a partner to my Meta business portfolio?

In Meta Business Suite go to Settings, click Partners under Users, click Add and choose Give a partner access to your assets. Enter the partner's business portfolio ID, choose the assets and access level for each, then click Assign assets. You need full access to the portfolio to see Partners.

Where do I find a business portfolio ID?

In Meta Business Suite, go to Settings and select Business portfolio info. The ID is the number shown below the portfolio name. Your agency gives you its ID; you never need to give the agency your login.

What access should I give my agency on the ad account?

Partial access with the Manage campaigns task. It lets the agency view, create and edit ads and access reports. Full access adds control of ad account settings, finances and permissions, which we keep with the business.

Can an agency with full access share my ad account with someone else?

No. Meta says a partner with full access can manage everything on the asset but cannot share it with another business. Only the business that owns the asset can share it.

Why can my agency still not see my ad account after I shared it?

Usually because the agency has not yet assigned its own people to your assets. Sharing gives access to the agency's business portfolio; someone with full access there then assigns the team. Also check the dataset, Page and Instagram account were shared, since each is a separate asset.

Sources

• Meta Business Help Centre: Give a partner access to business assets in your business portfolio
• Meta Business Help Centre: Business portfolio assets and their task-based access settings
• Meta Business Help Centre: About business portfolio and business asset permissions
• Meta Business Help Centre: Ask a partner to share assets with your business
• Meta Business Help Centre: Remove partners from your business portfolio
• Meta Business Help Centre: Find your business portfolio ID