How do you set up the Meta Business Manager correctly?

A comprehensive guide to setting up Meta Business Manager correctly. From your personal Facebook profile to your first campaign.

There are many guides on the internet. But none of them are complete!

What is the Meta Business Manager?

Meta Business Manager is the account for advertisers who want to place ads on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. The big advantage is that you can manage all the components (“assets”) for this in one account: Facebook page, Instagram account, advertising account, pixels, payment methods, etc.

Before you start

The Meta Business Manager interface has never been user-friendly.

Most people want to start running their ads right away—but Meta puts the brakes on and says, “Hold on a minute. First, I want to make sure that there's a real person and a real company behind your ad account.”

Of course, Meta wants to avoid running ads that no one ends up paying for.

That's why there are some security measures that need to be taken.

Setting up your personal Facebook profile

Yes, you read that correctly. You need your old Facebook profile back.

Here are some important points to keep in mind for your personal Facebook profile:

You can only have one profile

Many people feel the urge to create a second, business account on Facebook. However, this violates Facebook's Community Guidelines. Doing so may result in your profiles being blocked. This brings us to point two:

Your personal profile may not be blocked.

Don't create a second profile if your first profile has been blocked, because Meta can easily identify you via your devices and IP address, which will quickly lead to your second profile being blocked. In extreme cases, try to unblock your first account with the help of support. Or use a family member's profile. (I didn't say that out loud.)

Your profile needs your real full name.

This simply means that you have to enter your real first and last name. No abbreviations, no fantasy names. If you only use Facebook privately, it doesn't matter, but as soon as you want to place ads, you have to be clearly identifiable. You don't need a profile picture. Why this is so important: In case of unusual activity, you have to verify your personal profile with your ID card. If you haven't followed my advice, this is where it ends for you. For Meta, it's also considered unusual activity if your profile has been unused for a long time and suddenly wants to set up a Business Manager.

Your profile must be protected by two-factor authentication (2FA).

This is the most important security measure for your profile. This prevents unauthorized access to your profile and, later on, to your Business Manager, because we will make 2FA mandatory for all members of your Business Manager. You can find out how to set up 2FA for your Facebook profile here.

You must agree to personalized advertising on Meta.

The rule at Meta is simple: if you want to show personalized ads, you must also be able to receive them. You can set this up in your profile under Settings/Account Overview/Ad Preferences. You must have agreed to advertising in general and have personalized advertising enabled.

Your Instagram profile? That is not that important.

Instagram isn't as critical. You don't need a personal Instagram profile. You can simply create one for your brand. Just remember to protect it with 2FA.

Keep your passwords and email adresses ready.

You will need access to your Facebook, Instagram, and email accounts for this process. Have your passwords ready, as you will need to log in to each account and confirm verification emails.

Prepare you payment method

Your payment method is the most important basis for placing Meta Ads, alongside your Facebook profile.

The following points should be noted here:

Use your credit card or PayPal.

Use either a credit card or a PayPal account. If using a credit card, make sure it is enabled for online purchases. If necessary, you can also place ads using prepaid credit. However, this is not recommended, as the campaign will end as soon as the budget is used up. You want to avoid this if you want to place ads continuously. Never use direct debit for payment. This is far too risky and can quickly lead to your payment method being blocked. This brings us to point 2:

Always ensure that you have sufficient funds available for your payment method.

Always ensure that you have sufficient funds available on your payment method to cover Meta's direct debits. Failed payments are the quickest way to have your advertising account, profile, and, in the worst case, your payment method blocked.

It is almost impossible to unblock a blocked payment method.

Create your Business Manager

Once all of the above points have been fulfilled, you can finally get started.

• To do so, go to www.business.facebook.com and log in. If you do not yet have a personal Facebook profile, you will need to register here.

  
  

• Then click on “Create Account.”

  Please note: Each user can only create two Business Managers.

  If you have already created two BMs, you will now receive an error message. Please either ask your business partner to create the BM via their account or use an existing BM.

  
  

• Enter the name of your company, your own name, and your business email address in the pop-up window and click on “Submit.”

  
  

• You will then receive an email at your address, which you must confirm.

  
  

• You can also read about this directly on Facebook: (source)

Setting up the Business Manager

First settings

First, Meta takes you back to the Meta Business Suite. From there, click the “Settings” button at the bottom left to switch to the new Business Manager view.

Your first actions in the Business Manager should be:

Adding a second administrator

Either another person from the company or your service provider. You can find the settings under Settings/People. Always make sure that at least two people are listed as administrators in your Business Manager in case one person loses access or is blocked. To learn how to add someone in Business Manager, see: Adding people.

Set the 2FA as mandatory for all members of Business Manager

Under Company Information, you will also find the Business Options section. Under “Two-Step Authentication” select “All” from the drop-down menu. This means that anyone who wants to access the BM must authenticate themselves with 2FA. This is the best protection against misuse of your advertising accounts.

Add the company information

Here you can add all information about your business. Don't forget to add your VAT-number for your billings.

Adding Assets to the Business Manager

All components of your Business Manager are called “assets.” These include advertising accounts, pixels, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts.

You can now create these one by one. We'll start with the settings at the top:

Adding People

Here you can invite people who should have direct access to the BM. This primarily includes internal people/employees. However, you can also invite freelancers/external service providers directly. Alternatively, you can add them as partners.

How to add a person to Business Manager:

1. Click on the blue button: “+ Invite people”.

2. In the pop-up window, enter the email address of the person you want to invite.

   Important: The invited person must have this email address stored in the contact information of their accounts center.

   Not publicly in their profile!

3. Once you have entered the email address, you can assign access rights to the person.

   

   
   

   You can choose between limited and unlimited control.

   Limited control means that the person can only edit the assets that have been assigned to them. They cannot add or remove anyone from Business Manager. This is useful for employees and external parties.

   Unrestricted control is admin access. This access should only be given to key employees.

   In addition, you can also grant rights for financial management. This is useful for accounting.

4. Next, the assets must be assigned. This point is confusing for many people. There are three columns here: asset types, assets, and the respective permissions. You can only proceed here if you select an asset and then permissions for each business asset type you select:

Example: the asset type is “Facebook pages,” the asset here is "Frederic Wolny - Paid Social Ads Freelancer", and the permission is “content.”

5. Now go through all the asset types. If you have forgotten anything, the “Continue” button will be grayed out.

6. Finally, you need to review and send the invitation.

Additional security measures

If you change the access rights for individuals, you will usually have to verify your own email address again for security reasons.

Adding or deleting an individual often has to be confirmed by a second administrator. That's why you always need at least two administrators in Business Manager.

Adding pages

This refers to your Facebook pages. If you already have a Facebook page, you can claim it in the Pages section.

To do this, simply click on the blue button: “+ Add.”

Then choose whether you want to add an existing Facebook page, request access, or create a new page.

If you want to claim an existing page, just search for the name of the page and claim it.

Adding Ad accounts

The heart of your Business Manager. Here you can create and manage campaigns later on.

You can claim existing advertising accounts here or create a new advertising account.

To do this, simply click on the blue button: “+ Add.”

Then choose whether you want to add an existing advertising account, request access, or create a new advertising account.

Adding Instagram-accounts

This refers to your Instagram accounts. If you already have an Instagram account, you can simply add it in BM.

To do so, just click on the blue button: “+ Add”, accept the Meta guidelines, and log in to Instagram.

After successfully logging in, your account will appear in the overview.

Adding Threads-accounts

Your Threads account should automatically appear in the drop-down menu after creation.

You may be wondering, “Where can I link my Threads profile to Meta Business Manager?”

Don't worry, you don't need to connect your Threads account separately. If you created your Threads profile via your Instagram account, it should be automatically connected.

You can tell this is the case if you can select your Threads account in the Ads Manager at the ad level.

If the drop-down menu does not appear yet, the feature has not been rolled out to you yet.

Adding WhatsApp-accounts

You can now easily add WhatsApp Business accounts to your BM.

To do so, simply click on the blue button: “+ Add”.

You can choose whether you want to add an existing account or create a new one.

A confirmation code will be sent to your WAB, which you must enter in the BM, and you're done.

Further settings

You can also add business asset groups, commerce accounts, and apps. However, these settings are probably less relevant to you at this stage.

Connecting your Facebook-page with your Instagram-account

An important detail that is often forgotten: you still need to connect your Facebook page to your Instagram account.

To do this, you need to exit BM and go to the page settings of your Facebook page. There you will find the item “linked accounts.” Here you can link your Instagram account and a WhatsApp number to your page. For Instagram, you will be asked to log in again. After that, the accounts will be linked.

Adding a payment method

In addition to the advertising account, you will of course need a payment method, as mentioned above. You can add this in the “Billing and Payments” section.

Under Accounts, you can add a payment method to your advertising account.

Under Payment Methods, you can also add a payment method centrally in your BM and use it for multiple advertising accounts in your BM.

For most use cases, however, one payment method at the account level is sufficient.

Important: Use either PayPal or a credit card, never direct debit.

Adding data sources

If you want to track conversions on your website, you absolutely need a pixel.

Only Meta Instant Leads and Click-to-WhatsApp campaigns do not require a pixel.

However, I always recommend using a pixel.

Verifying your Meta Business Manager

Under certain circumstances, you will need to verify your BM. This is usually the case if you:

• Want to become a Meta Business Partner

• Want to manage large budgets

• Want to place ads for special ad categories.

In this case, you will need to verify the authenticity of your business using your business documents. You can find this feature in your business information. By default, the status is set to “unconfirmed.” There you will also find a link called “View details” that will take you to the Security Center, where you will be guided through the verification process.

This feature is only enabled if you need to verify your business. If you don't need to, the option will not be available to you. It does not enable any additional features.

Verifying your phone number

There is now another small change: you now have to verify a phone number to get started.

However, you will only be asked to do this in Ads Manager when you create your first campaign.

All you have to do is enter your desired number and have a verification code sent to you. Then enter this code and you're ready to go.

Costs of the Business Managers

The Business Manager itself is completely free—you don't pay any usage fees.

However, you do have to pay for:

• Running campaigns

• The service provider (agency or freelancer)

Do you need help setting up your Meta Business Manager?

That's quite a lot of stuff to take care of.

If you need help setting it up, let me know. I've done it hundreds of times:

Get in touch