Meta Business Manager Setup Guide for Agencies and Advertisers

Meta Business Manager — now unified under Meta Business Suite and represented as Business Portfolios — is the control room for professional Meta advertising. A clean Business Manager setup determines how safely you can scale, how quickly your team can operate, and how resilient your operation is when Meta introduces policy changes.

Business Manager, Business Suite, Business Portfolio: what's the difference?

• Meta Business Manager — the original container product for organizing ad accounts, Pages, pixels and users.
• Meta Business Suite — the newer, unified interface that combines Business Manager tools with Page and Instagram management.
• Business Portfolio — Meta's current name for the container that used to be called a Business Manager account.

Under the hood, the concept is the same: a business entity that owns advertising assets and controls permissions.

Step 1 — Create your Business Portfolio

Sign in to business.facebook.com and create a Business Portfolio using your legal business name, business email and a Page (or create one during setup). Use a domain email — not a Gmail — to reduce identity friction later.

Step 2 — Verify your business

Complete Business Verification early. Verified businesses unlock advanced features, including access to the Meta Conversions API, larger domain limits, and eligibility for certain agency programs. Verification requires legal documentation (business registration) and, in many jurisdictions, a phone or utility bill.

Step 3 — Add your assets in the right order

1. Add your Page(s) first.
2. Create or claim your ad account.
3. Add your pixel(s) and Conversions API dataset.
4. Add product catalogs if you run e-commerce campaigns.
5. Assign domains and verify each via DNS TXT.

Step 4 — Set up users and permissions correctly

Never share logins. Add each team member as a user with the minimum permissions they need for their role — Admin only for the people who truly manage the business, Employee for everyone else. Scope asset access per-account, not globally.

Step 5 — Enable two-factor authentication for everyone

Meta actively enforces 2FA for Business Portfolios. Users without 2FA get gradually removed. Enroll every account from the beginning.

Step 6 — Configure the pixel and CAPI early

A single, well-configured pixel per domain — deduplicated with the Conversions API — is the foundation of measurable, scalable Meta advertising. Assign the pixel to the ad account before launching, not after.

Step 7 — Use partner access instead of sharing logins

When working with an agency, use Business Portfolio partner access. Share specific assets rather than adding people to your Portfolio, and remove partners as soon as engagements end.

Own Business Manager vs agency Business Portfolio

You can keep your own Business Portfolio and receive ad account access from an agency's Portfolio — this is how managed Meta ad account and agency ad account arrangements typically work. Your assets stay yours; the ad account lives in the agency Portfolio for stability and support reasons.

Common Business Manager mistakes

• Creating multiple Business Portfolios per company (creates confusion and Meta flags).
• Using personal email addresses for admins.
• Skipping domain verification.
• Sharing user logins instead of adding users properly.
• Leaving old employees with active admin access.

Next steps

Once your Business Manager is clean, you're in a strong position to scale — either by requesting higher spend limits on your own ad account, or by adding an rented agency ad account to your operation. See our Meta Business Manager overview for AdScale's operational support offering.