How to Add People to a Business Portfolio and Assign Assets

Why Knowing How to Add User to Business Manager Matters for Your Ad Strategy

To add user to Business Manager, follow these steps:

1. Go to Meta Business Suite and open Business Settings
2. Click People in the left menu
3. Click Add People
4. Enter the person’s work email address
5. Select their role (Admin or Employee)
6. Assign the assets they need access to (Pages, Ad Accounts, Pixels, etc.)
7. Click Invite

The invited person must accept within 14 days or the invitation expires.

Managing who can access your Facebook and Instagram business assets is one of the most important — and most overlooked — parts of running paid media at scale. Whether you’re onboarding a new team member, collaborating with a media buyer, or granting access to an agency, knowing how to properly set up and control user permissions inside Meta Business Suite can save you from costly mistakes like oversharing access, losing control of an ad account, or stalling a campaign launch.

This guide walks you through everything: user types, roles, step-by-step instructions, asset assignment, and how to troubleshoot when things go wrong.

I’m Samir ElKamouny, founder of Fetch and Funnel, and over the years I’ve helped hundreds of e-commerce brands add users to Business Manager securely and efficiently as part of building scalable paid media operations. Let’s get into it.

Quick add user to business manager terms:

• facebook ads for food business

Understanding User Types and Permissions Before You Add User to Business Manager

Before we jump into clicking buttons, let’s talk about who you are actually adding. Meta doesn’t just treat everyone who accesses your business the same way. In fact, to keep things secure, Meta separates accounts into three primary categories: People, Partners, and System Users.

Understanding the differences between these three types prevents you from making the classic mistake of handing over full Admin control to an outside contractor who only needs basic access to run a few ads.

• People: These are individual human beings. They represent your internal team members, employees, or contractors. When you add a person, you invite them via their specific work email address. They log in using their own personal Meta credentials (which remain completely private from you) to access the specific business assets you assign to them.
• Partners: These are external businesses, such as agencies or consulting firms, that already have their own Meta Business Manager or Business Suite account. Instead of adding ten individual agency employees to your portfolio, you add the agency as a Partner using their unique Business ID. This allows the agency to manage their own team’s internal assignments while you retain ultimate ownership of your assets.
• System Users: These are non-human accounts used by servers, software integrations, or APIs to make programmatic calls to your assets. For example, if you are using an advanced third-party reporting tool or a custom-built developer application to pull data from your Facebook Ads Manager, you would set up a System User rather than a standard person.

To help you visualize the different access levels available when you add user to Business Manager, here is a simple breakdown of the core roles and permissions:

Role / User Type	Access Level	Best Used For	Key Capabilities
Admin (Full Control)	Maximum	Business owners, trusted internal stakeholders	Can add/remove users, change business settings, view financial details, and delete the portfolio.
Employee (Partial Access)	Restricted	Media buyers, copywriters, graphic designers	Can only access assigned assets (Pages, Ad Accounts) with specific task-level permissions.
Finance Editor	Financial Only	Accountants, CFOs, billing managers	Can view and edit business credit cards, invoices, and transaction history.
Finance Analyst	View-Only Financial	Financial auditors, external bookkeepers	Can view financial reports and invoices but cannot make payments or change payment methods.
Partner	Collaborative	Marketing agencies, external vendors	Allows another business portfolio to access your assets without individual user onboarding.
System User	API / Programmatic	Developers, automated software integrations	Generates access tokens to allow software tools to interact with your data.

If you want to read the official technical breakdown of these roles, you can learn more about user types directly from the Meta Help Center. For a deeper look into how these roles function in professional marketing settings, check out Jon Loomer’s detailed guide on Facebook Business Manager Users: People, Partners, and System Users.

Prerequisites to Add User to Business Manager

Before you send out that first invitation, there are a few strict requirements you must meet. If you ignore these, you will likely run into frustrating error messages or find yourself unable to complete the setup.

First and foremost, only people with full control (Admin access) of a business portfolio can add people to it. If you are an employee or a contractor with partial access, you won’t even see the option to invite new team members. If you find yourself locked out of these settings, you will need to track down the primary owner of the business portfolio and ask them to upgrade your permissions.

Second, Meta has migrated to managed Meta accounts for organizations. This means invitations to join a business portfolio can only be sent to managed Meta accounts in organizations that have completed this migration. Additionally, both you (the sender) and the person you are inviting must have active, unrestricted Meta accounts. If either account is currently disabled or flagged for policy violations, the invitation process will fail.

Security is also a major priority for Meta. To protect your business assets, we highly recommend enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for everyone in your business portfolio. In fact, many ad accounts will restrict publishing privileges if 2FA is not active.

Lastly, make sure you have confirmed the primary email address associated with your Business Manager account. If you need a comprehensive walkthrough of these security prerequisites, read our step-by-step guide: How to add users to Facebook Business Manager and Meta Business Suite.

How to Add User to Business Manager: Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to add your team? Follow this clear, step-by-step desktop walkthrough to get your users set up in minutes.

Step 1: Open Business Settings Navigate to Meta Business Suite. Once inside, click on the gear icon in the bottom-left corner to access your Business Settings. If you are using the older Business Manager interface, you can find Business Settings in the main navigation menu.

Step 2: Select People Under the Users section in the left-hand navigation menu, click on People. This will show you a list of everyone who currently has access to your business portfolio.

Step 3: Click Add People Click the blue Add People button located at the top of the page.

Step 4: Enter the Work Email Address Type in the professional work email address of the person you want to invite. It is best practice to use their professional work email rather than a personal Gmail or Yahoo address. This keeps your business operations clean, organized, and secure.

Step 5: Select the Base Role Choose between Employee (Partial Access) or Admin (Full Control). Remember the rule of least privilege: only grant Admin access to people who absolutely need to manage your business settings or add other users. For external media buyers or designers, select Employee access.

Step 6: Show Advanced Options (Optional) If you need to assign specialized financial roles, click Show Advanced Options. Here, you can assign the Finance Editor or Finance Analyst roles to control who can view or edit your billing details.

Step 7: Assign Assets and Permissions After selecting the base role, click Next. You will be prompted to select the specific assets (Facebook Pages, Ad Accounts, Instagram accounts, Pixels, Catalogs) this user needs to work on. For each asset, check the boxes next to the tasks they are allowed to perform (e.g., creating ads, viewing performance, or managing content).

Step 8: Send the Invitation Review your selections and click Invite. Meta will send an email invitation to the user. The invitation will show as “Pending” in your People tab until they accept it.

For a detailed visual guide on how to navigate these menus, you can watch the video tutorial on YouTube, or read Social Media Examiner’s guide on how to get started with Facebook Business Manager.

Assigning Assets and Permissions to Your Team

Once you add user to Business Manager, your job isn’t quite finished. Simply adding a person to your business portfolio does not automatically give them access to your Facebook Pages or ad accounts. You must explicitly assign those assets to them.

Think of your Business Manager as a locked office building, and your assets (like Pages and Pixels) as individual locked rooms inside that building. Adding a user to the Business Manager gets them through the front door, but you still need to hand them the specific keys to the rooms they need to work in.

Here is how to assign keys to the most common assets in your portfolio:

• Facebook Pages: Select the Page and choose what the user can do. You can allow them to publish content, respond to messages, create ads, or view Page performance insights.
• Ad Accounts: If you have a media buyer managing your campaigns, you must add them to your ad account. You can assign them the role of managing campaigns, viewing performance, or full ad account control. To learn more about this process, read the official guide on how to add people to ad accounts, check out our Facebook ads management complete guide to see how we structure permissions for high-performing campaigns, or refer to Hootsuite’s Meta Business Suite guide for additional team management tips.
• Instagram Accounts: Before assigning an Instagram account to a user, make sure you have logged into the Instagram account within your Business Settings to claim it. Once claimed, you can assign users to manage content, ads, or direct messages.
• Pixels and Datasets: Sharing your Pixel is crucial for tracking conversions and optimizing campaigns. You can assign users to view performance data or manage the Pixel’s setup.
• Catalogs: For e-commerce brands running dynamic product ads, team members will need access to your product catalogs to manage product feeds, resolve sync issues, and build product sets.

When assigning these assets, always practice the principle of least privilege. Only give team members the exact level of access they need to complete their daily tasks. For instance, a copywriter needs access to create posts on your Facebook Page, but they definitely do not need admin access to your billing and payment methods.

Managing, Updating, and Troubleshooting User Access

Managing your team is an ongoing process. People change roles, freelancers move on to new projects, and sometimes emails get lost in spam folders. Knowing how to manage, update, and troubleshoot access keeps your business running smoothly.

Handling Pending and Expired Invitations

When you invite a user, they must accept the invitation within 14 days before it expires. If they cannot find the email, or if the link has expired, you can easily resend it:

1. Go to Business Settings > People.
2. Click on the user’s name (which will have a “Pending” badge next to it).
3. Click Resend to send a new email invitation, or copy the direct invitation link and send it to them manually via Slack, Microsoft Teams, or direct email.

The 7-Day Security Waiting Period

To protect businesses from unauthorized takeovers, Meta enforces a strict security delay for new profile owners and managers. New profile owners and managers must wait 7 days before they can delete or undelete a profile, remove other owners or managers, or transfer primary ownership. If you have just added a new high-level administrator to your account, keep this delay in mind if you plan to transfer primary ownership or clean up old admin accounts.

Changing Permissions or Removing Users

If a team member’s role changes, you can modify their access at any time:

• To change permissions: Go to People, select the user, click on the asset you want to adjust, modify the toggles for their task permissions, and click save.
• To remove a user: If an employee leaves your company or a contract ends, go to People, select the person, click the three dots in the top-right corner, and select Remove. This instantly revokes their access to all associated business assets.

If you run into persistent errors while trying to add or modify users, you can troubleshoot with Meta Business Help to resolve common permission conflicts.

Frequently Asked Questions about Meta Business Manager Access

Why can’t I add a user to my business portfolio?

There are several common reasons why you might run into issues when trying to add a user:

1. You lack Admin permissions: Only users with full control (Admin access) can invite new users. Verify your own access level in the People tab.
2. Account restrictions: If either your account or the invitee’s account has been restricted or disabled by Meta for policy violations, you will not be able to send or accept invitations.
3. Email mismatches: The invitation must be sent to an email address that can be verified. If your organization has migrated to managed Meta accounts, invitations must be sent to those managed accounts.
4. Pending invite limit: Meta limits the number of pending invitations you can have active at one time to prevent spam. If you have too many unaccepted invites, cancel the older ones before sending new ones.

For more help, read Meta’s official guide on how to add users to Facebook Business Manager or check out KlientBoost’s Facebook Business Manager guide for a detailed walkthrough of common agency onboarding issues.

What is the difference between a user and a partner?

The primary difference lies in who manages the individual permissions.

When you add a user, you are inviting an individual person directly into your business portfolio. You are responsible for managing their specific asset access, their two-factor authentication, and removing them if they leave your company.

When you add a partner, you are granting another business portfolio (like an agency) access to your assets using their unique Business ID. The partner agency can then assign those assets to their own internal team members. This is the safest and most efficient way to work with external teams because you don’t have to manage individual agency employee accounts, and the agency can quickly onboard their own media buyers to your account.

For professional support with managing these partner relationships and running high-performing campaigns, explore our Facebook campaign management services.

How do I share my Facebook Pixel with an agency?

Sharing your Facebook Pixel with an agency is a straightforward process that should always be done through the Partners settings rather than adding individual agency employees as users:

1. Go to Business Settings > Data Sources > Pixels (or Datasets).
2. Select the Pixel you want to share.
3. Click Assign Partners.
4. Enter the agency’s Business ID, select the level of access they need (typically Pixel Editor or full control for custom conversions), and click confirm.

This allows the agency to instantly use your Pixel for campaign tracking and optimization. If you are looking for professional help setting up your tracking infrastructure, check out our full suite of Facebook advertising services.

Conclusion

Managing your Meta Business Manager doesn’t have to be a headache. By establishing a clear process for adding users, assigning specific asset permissions, and conducting regular security audits, you protect your brand’s digital assets while empowering your team to move quickly.

Always remember the golden rules of user management:

• Grant the least privilege necessary for each role.
• Use Partner sharing for external agencies instead of individual user invites.
• Enforce two-factor authentication across your entire organization.
• Conduct quarterly audits to remove inactive users and outdated partner access.

If managing your ad accounts, pixels, and campaigns is taking too much time away from running your business, we can help. At Fetch and Funnel, we specialize in building, securing, and scaling profitable paid media operations for growing brands. Scale your brand with our Facebook ads agency services and let our team of experts handle the complexity of your digital marketing strategy.