Granting Meta Ad Account Access — Partner vs. Person
Imagefactory · Published 2026-09-23
A Meta business portfolio grants access two ways: Partner for an agency, Person for an individual. Inviting an agency as a person ties the access to one employee — it breaks when they change roles and disappears when they leave.
Both paths require full control of the business portfolio. If the Partners menu is missing from the left nav, you do not have it.
Agency — add as a Partner
Ask the agency for its partner business portfolio ID (15–16 digits). You cannot look it up; the agency reads it from its own Meta Business Suite settings.
- Meta Business Suite → Settings → left menu Users → Partners
- Top right Add → Give a partner access to your assets
- Enter the partner business ID → Next
- In the assign dialog, work left to right: asset type → asset → permissions
- Assign assets
Asset types list only what the portfolio owns — Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts, datasets (pixels), catalogues. Each asset type is selected and permissioned separately; assigning the Page and forgetting the ad account is the usual slip.
Choosing the permission level
The available tasks differ by asset type. Assign the ad account, the dataset and the Page separately, choosing as below.
| Asset | Grant the agency | Do not grant |
|---|---|---|
| Ad account | Partial access — Manage campaigns (View performance if they only report) | Full control — Manage ad account |
| Dataset (pixel) | Use events dataset — the minimum for running conversion ads on the pixel | Manage events dataset — only if they also build custom audiences or edit events |
| Page | Partial access (business tools only) — Ads, plus Content if they post | Full control |
If the ad account gets Manage campaigns but the dataset is left out, the agency can build campaigns but cannot pick the pixel for conversion optimisation.
A partner with full control still cannot share the asset with another business — only the owning business can share an asset with another portfolio. Full control does, however, open up deleting the asset and changing its settings, so an agency has no reason to hold it.
When there is only a personal ad account, no portfolio
Without a business portfolio on the advertiser side, the steps above are not available. Instead, the agency goes to Settings → Accounts → Ad accounts → Add → Request access to an ad account in its own portfolio and enters the advertiser's ad account ID.
The same menu also offers Add an existing ad account. Do not use it: it moves ownership of the ad account into the agency's portfolio and cannot be undone. If the pixel is in scope too, have the advertiser create a business portfolio first.
Individual — invite as a Person
- Meta Business Suite → Settings → Users → People
- Top right Invite people
- Enter the person's email address → Next
- Choose business portfolio permissions → Next — leave the default, partial access
- Choose assets and permissions → Invite
Full control at the portfolio level lets someone grant admin rights to others or delete the portfolio. Keep the default even for internal staff.
What commonly blocks this
- No Partners menu — you lack full control. Ask whoever has it; if nobody does, file a request for full control of the portfolio.
- The invitation will not send — you may need to verify your own email first, under Settings → business info.
- A Person invitation must be accepted. The row appears before that, but the access does not exist, and full functionality can take a few days after joining.
- Partners cannot re-share. Only the owner can share assets with another business, so a second vendor must be assigned by the advertiser directly. The agency can only hand the tasks it was given to people inside its own portfolio.
- Two-factor authentication — Meta recommends enabling it on the portfolio before adding partners.
See it alongside GTM and GA4 in the agency handover guide.