18 Sep How to Safely Give a Consultant Access to Your Ad Account
Bringing in an outside consultant, trainer, or agency almost always means giving them some level of access to your ad account. The mistake worth avoiding: defaulting to full manage access when all they actually need is to look.
The two access levels that matter
Meta’s Business Manager lets you grant partner access at different levels. The one to know is the distinction between view performance and manage. View-only access lets someone see everything — campaign structure, metrics, audience setups, what’s spending and what isn’t — without any ability to change a single setting. Manage access lets them actually create, edit, pause, or adjust campaigns and budgets.
Match the access to what they’re actually doing
If someone is reviewing your account, auditing it, or training your team on how to use it, view-only is the right level. They can see everything they need to give you accurate feedback or teach effectively, without any risk of an accidental change to a live campaign they don’t fully own the context for.
Manage access makes sense when someone is genuinely running your campaigns day to day — an agency retainer, an in-house hire, an ongoing management arrangement. That’s a different relationship with different responsibilities, and it warrants a different access level.
Defaulting to manage access “just in case” isn’t a neutral choice. It’s handing over control you don’t need to hand over for the engagement you actually have.
Clean up access you’ve already granted
Partner access tends to accumulate. A consultant from a year ago, an agency you stopped working with, an old team member — these often stay listed in your Business Manager’s partner settings long after the relationship ended. Periodically reviewing who actually has access, and removing anyone who no longer needs it, is basic account hygiene that’s easy to skip and easy to forget about until something goes wrong.
A quick self-check
- Does this person need to see my account, or actually change it? That answers which access level to give.
- Am I granting manage access out of convenience, rather than because the engagement genuinely requires it?
- When did I last check who has partner access to my Business Manager? If you can’t remember, it’s worth a look.
This breakdown is written by Jason Gan, a Meta Certified Professional and Badged Meta Business Partner who has personally audited over 1,000 advertiser accounts since 2010. You can see real account breakdowns on the Jason Gan YouTube channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What access level should I give a consultant or trainer reviewing my Meta ads account? View performance access, not manage access, unless they’re actually going to be building or running campaigns for you. View-only lets them see everything — campaigns, metrics, audience setups — without any ability to change settings, which is exactly what’s needed for an audit, review, or training engagement.
What’s the difference between view and manage access on Meta ads? View access allows someone to see campaign data and structure without being able to edit anything. Manage access allows them to actually create, pause, or change campaigns, budgets, and settings. Match the access level to what the person actually needs to do, not to what’s most convenient to grant.
Should I periodically review who has access to my ad account? Yes. Access granted for a specific project or a past engagement often outlives its purpose. Reviewing your Business Manager’s partner list occasionally and removing anyone who no longer needs access — including agencies or consultants you’ve since stopped working with — is good account hygiene.
If you’re not sure who currently has access to your account
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