Getting your Facebook set up for the team or to work with an agency can be a little complicated but it is certainly worth doing from the start.
We've put together this handy little guide to take you through the process and hopefully help answer questions you may have as you embark on this fiddly, but essential piece of housekeeping.
Firstly, a couple of quick common questions:
Q. Who sets up the Business Manager account? Can we use a fake business profile?
A. The Facebook Business Manager account should be set up by the primary admin on the company page, it is essential that this is a real person and not a fake account as Facebook may pick up on this and delete the Business Manager account.
Q. If I use my own personal account can my colleagues see everything I post on Facebook?
A. Even though the Business Manager is linked to your Facebook profile nothing is visible. You can’t see any information from other people working in the Business Manager with you. If you have a strange name on your Facebook profile you can also correct it to use only in Business Manager when you join the account.
Ok let's begin...
Creating your facebook business manager account
1. go to facebook business manager
https://business.facebook.com/
2. name the business manager account
This could be the name of your business or if you have a number of businesses it would be the name to encompass them all.
3. create your profile
Clicking 'next' will take you to a screen which allows you to create a profile for how your personal login will appear in Business Manager. This is your professional profile, the information that can be seen by your colleagues even if they can’t see your personal profile.
Your Facebook friends can’t see this either, just those working in the Business Manager account with you. So feel free to use your real name and set a work address for the notifications.
Hit finish and that’s it, Business Manager created! Now on to setting up assets and sharing with others...
setting up your facebook business account
Now that you have a Business Manager account you need to add assets to it, this can be people, pages and ad accounts.
Click on the “Business Manager Set Up Guide” for a walk through tutorial. We've highlighted some of the key elements here.
pages
Adding an existing page to your business account - you can either claim a Facebook page or request access to one.
If it is your business and your page the best thing to do is to claim the page. If you are a marketing agency or a freelancer then requesting access is the best option.
When a page has been claimed by the Business Manager account it is now owned by the Business Manager account and not individuals, this is best for businesses. It also means that you can sponsor posts rather than just boosting them (more performance insights and targeting options.)
1. claim a facebook page (owner)
Click “Claim a Page”, type the name of the page and select it from the dropdown menu.
If you are already admin on the page then it is much easier and it’ll automatically allow the Business Manager account to claim the page.
If not then you now need to check the page and the email account linked to the owner of the page for a request for either access or to claim the page.
Once complete, you will be able to locate the page in your Business Manager settings under People and Assets.
2. request access to a facebook page (third party)
On the main homepage dashboard for Business Manager, navigate to the top right where it says 'Request Access' and click on Page.
You will be prompted to input the name of the Facebook page or URL associated with it.
granting access to others
In the People and Assets section of the Business Manager settings section you can add people to the page, and also partners.
You would want to add a partner if you are working with an agency and would like to give them access to the page.
When you have sent this invite let the recipient know - chances are they get so many email from Facebook they may miss it... and these do expire.
Q. Why assign a partner rather than people to a page?
A. People are personal accounts, partners are another Business Manager account. So this is a business to business interaction. The Business Manager that you are then working with can then link their employees that need to work on the account - at no point are you dealing with people’s personal Facebook accounts.
Q. How do I add people to a Facebook page in my Business Manager?
First you need to add them to your Business Manager account.
You can add people as “employees” or “admins” to do this you just add their email address, select a role, and hit “Add People”
They should receive an email like this, from which they can then setup their own professional name on that account (as per the process for creating the Business Manager account above).
sharing assets with others
Once you have assigned people to the Business Manager account you also need to grant them access to assets.
In the Business Manager Settings (from the homepage dashboard), navigate to the People and Assets section. Here you will find a list of people and their assigned assets for Pages, Ad Accounts and Product Catalogs.
1. assign assets
Click the button on the top right hand corner of the person's profile - 'Assign Assets'
2. select the asset to assign
This would be in the form of Pages, Ad Accounts or Product Catalogs. The process is similar no matter which asset you want to assign as long as you have access to these as well.
Either scroll through or search for the asset you want to assign them to.
3. assign role
You will be asked to assign the role for each user
- Pages: Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser, Analyst
- Ad Accounts: Admin, Advertiser, Analyst
- Product Catalogs: Admin
You can find out more about the roles from the setup wizard - make sure you assign the level you are most comfortable with as they offer different levels of control and editing rights.
Click 'save' and they will then have access to the assets you've applied from their own personal accounts.
Q. How do I see which people and partners are assigned to my Facebook page?
A. You can see this under the People and Assets tab in the Business Manager settings. Then select the Pages tab on the left.
ad accounts
There are three options for Ad Accounts:
- Create a New Advert Account
- Claim an Advert Account - this can only be done once, it will move an ad account from one Business Manager to another, make sure that this really is your own ad account you are trying to claim because you won’t be able to move it back.
- Request Access to an Advert Account - this type of action is relevant to agencies and freelancers, this will give you access to an ad account to work on but will not move it into your own Business Manager account. This means that whoever owns the ad account will still own it but you can work on it from within your own Business Manager (a good thing).
Q. What if I am an agency setting up an ad account for a client, can they claim it later?
A. Yes they can claim it from you later but there is a limit to the number of ad accounts each Facebook Business Manager should have. The best way for an agency to work on a clients ad account is for the client to set it up (following these great instructions) and then either add the agency as a partner or the agency can request access to the ad account.
Create a new advert account
On the main homepage dashboard for Business Manager, navigate to the top right where it says 'Add New'
Clicking on this will trigger a drop down menu - click 'Ad Accounts'
The wizard will take you through the process...
1. Apply general details
2. Add people to manage the account
3. Apply payment method
Payment methods can be found in the Business Manager Settings section
Select Add Payment and apply your card details.
After adding the payment method you are then prompted to attach this payment method to an ad account.
Do this by clicking the link. If you miss the link you can then go into the ad account and assign a payment method, it's like assigning a person to the account.
Claim an advert account
On the main homepage dashboard for Business Manager, navigate to the top right where it says 'Claim Assets'
You will need the Ad Account ID
Request access to an advert account
Agency point of view
On the main homepage dashboard for Business Manager, navigate to the top right where it says 'Request Access.'
Either type the Ad Account ID into the box, or you'll need to contact the ad account owner directly (outside of Facebook) and ask them to assign you as a partner within their Business Manager account. You may need to supply the number provided in the pop-up box (using the method connect partner to ad account via your partner's business ID).
Client point of view
Navigate to Business Manager Settings & click on the dollar sign on the left hand side for Ad Accounts.
On the ad account you want to share click on 'Assign Partner' in the top right hand corner
You can then either select a role and...
- Connect partner to ad account via a link
- Connect partner to ad account via your partner's business ID (this is the ID shown in request access screen on the agency's/third parties business manager account)
Final checklist
- Have you used a real account to set up your Business Manager account?
- Have you added a page to the Business Manager?
- Have you added people to the Business Manager?
- Have you assigned people and partners to the pages that you are managing?
- Have you set up an ad account?
- Have you added people to your Facebook ad account?
- Have you added a payment to your Business Manager account?
- Have you assigned a payment to your ad account?
Your new Business Manager account should now look something like this on the welcome page...with your ad account listed and your page too.
There you go! You should be all set up and good to go!
