Facebook Business Manager Unveiled

Anyone who has been part of an agency or large internal organization that managed Facebook Ads in its early years can attest to how vigilante it seemed: people creating fake profiles to manage accounts, the entire organization sharing one login, and the bumbling click paths to grant user’s access to pages...ah, the memories.

Facebook has since unveiled Business Manager, which aims to help users manage ad accounts & privileges in a simpler, consolidated fashion. In this guide, we’ll cover the ins & outs of this offering so you’ll be wheeling around the platform with ease.

What is Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook Business Manager is a tool to help businesses and agencies manage their ad accounts, pages and apps in one place.

What Are the Benefits?

• Invite new users to manage ad accounts, Facebook pages or apps from a central location.

• Grant different access levels to users, based on management needs.

• Have a single repository for all your payment funding sources.

• Manage your agency relationship and permissions easily.

• Organize your pages and ad accounts into projects.

Resistance is Futile

I admire those headstrong advertisers who dig in your heels and refuse to comply with breaking changes until it’s forced upon them. But much like their comrades who protested Enhanced Campaigns for AdWords, my friends, change is inevitable.

As of October 1st, 2014 all gray accounts were switched over to “read-only” status. You can no longer actively manage ad accounts or pages. Gray accounts are logins, other than your personal profile, that manage a page or ad account. This type of account applies to the lion’s share of advertisers.

Fret not, because you can add your gray accounts in Business Manager.

How to Get Started

1. Nominate an admin for your business or agency, and have them create an account at https://business.facebook.com .

Tip: Select someone who already have admin access to all your business pages for easy setup.

2.  Migrate your pages, apps, and ad accounts.

• Have the admin who created the Business Account add the associated pages, ad accounts and apps.

  • Click on the Settings tab
  • Navigate to the Pages, Ad Accounts, or Apps tab
  • On the top right corner, click on the Add New button

Connecting Gray Accounts (Shared Logins)

1. Navigate to the Shared Login tab

2. Click on the Add Shared Login button

Creating Projects

Projects allow you to group select pages, ad accounts and apps into clean views for easy management.

To create a project:

1. Ensure you are on the Settings page

2. Navigate to the Projects tab

3. Click the Create New Project button

Tip: If you’re an in-house team with multiple pages and ad accounts, or an agency, I highly recommend setting up projects before assigning roles. It will help save you a considerable amount of time when assigning permissions to individual users.

Assigning Roles

1. Ensure you’ve selected the Settings tab

2. Click on the People button, on the left-hand navigation

3. Click the Add New Person button

1. Enter one or multiple emails of the user(s) you’d like to add.

2. Assign the appropriate role for the new user

   • Most employees and agencies should be given “Business Manager employee” access.

1. Assign the user a select page or pages; then, select their access level for each.

Facebook Page roles:

• Page Admin
  • Can manage all aspects of the Page including sending messages and posting as the Page, creating ads, viewing insights, and assigning Page roles.

• Page Editor
  • Can edit the Page, send messages and post as the Page, create ads, and view insights.
• Page Moderator
  • Can respond to and delete comments on the Page, send messages as the Page, create ads, and view insights.
• Page Advertiser
  • Can create ads for the Page and view insights.
• Page Analyst
  • Can view insights.

Tip: You can assign the user(s) individual page level permissions, or select a default role across all properties for a streamlined setup.

Tip: Quickly sort through pages by using the search field or filtering by project.

1. Next, follow the same process for ad account privileges

Ad account roles:

• Ad Account Admin
  • Can manage all aspects of campaigns, including creating reports, viewing and editing billing details and assigning account roles.
• Ad Account Advertiser
  • Can see and edit ads, and can set up ads using the payment method associated with the ad account; but can't set account level.
• Ad Account Analyst
  • Can view ad performance.

Business Manager Gems

Home Tab

See a rollup view of all your business manager notifications.

• Click on the list icon, in the top right hand corner.

Launch Power Editor from Business Manager

• Click on “Use Power Editor” link, on the right hand side.

Receive a bird’s eye view summary of ad account performance (over the ad accounts you have permissions for)

• Click on the Ad Accounts Summary button, on the right hand side of the table.
• Set your date range using the drop down, and export the data into Excel.

• Use the search bar & filters for quick navigation

• Drill further into an ad account, by clicking Manage Ads in-line with the ad account you’d like to work on.

Settings Tab

Take advantage of the full guide on the right hand side for deeper insights.

Manage all of your payment sources on the Payments Method page

View a log of all your Business Account change history

• Select on the Info tab.
• Click on the View History button.

The Facebook Business Manager is a great tool that brings community management, advertising, app growth, and outsourcing into one central hub. What are your thoughts on the tool? Please comment below.