What is at stake
An ad account is more than a place to press "publish". It holds the record of what you have spent and what each campaign did, the ads themselves, the audiences built over time, and the link to the tracking on your website. If that account belongs to someone else, ending the relationship can mean starting again from nothing.
The safe arrangement is simple to describe: your business owns its business portfolio and the assets in it (the ad account, Facebook Page, Instagram account and tracking), pays Meta from its own payment method, and lets the agency in as a partner.
How partner access works
Meta Business Suite is built for exactly this. Meta describes partners as "other businesses, such as agencies or clients, that you work with", and gives two routes: you share your assets with the agency, or the agency asks you to share them. Either way, the assets stay in your portfolio.
According to Meta's help pages:
- Only someone with full control of your business portfolio can add a partner. If you cannot see "Partners" in Settings, you probably do not have full control.
- You share access using the agency's own business portfolio ID, which the agency gives you. You never need to hand over your login.
- You choose the level of access per asset. Partial access covers specific tasks such as managing ads. Even a partner with full control of an asset cannot share it on with another business; only the organisation that owns the asset can.
- Meta asks you to turn on two-factor authentication for the portfolio first, and someone else with full control may need to approve the change.
- You can remove a partner at any time from Settings, Partners, then "Remove from business portfolio".
Most agencies need partial access to the ad account (to create and manage ads) and to the tracking (to check that events are recorded properly). Ask why before granting more than that.
What to put in the agreement
Platform settings cover access. The agreement covers everything around it. Before work starts, it should say in plain words:
- Who owns what. The business portfolio, ad account, Page, Instagram account, tracking and data belong to you.
- Who pays Meta. Ad spend is billed to your payment method in your account, kept separate from the agency's fee and any production costs.
- Who owns the creative. Finished ads made for you should be yours on the terms you agree. Stock images, music, fonts and creator content usually come with licences rather than ownership, and some licences limit where or for how long an ad can run. Ask for a list of each asset and its licence.
- How changes are approved. Which changes need your sign-off (new creative, claims, budget increases) and how they are recorded.
- A change log. A running record of what was changed, when and why, which you can read at any time.
- Handover. What you receive when the work ends (change log, test history, creative files and licence terms) and a commitment that the agency removes its own access.
A short checklist
- Confirm that someone in your business has full control of your business portfolio.
- Turn on two-factor authentication.
- Check that the ad account's payment method is yours.
- Share only the assets and tasks the work needs, using the agency's business portfolio ID.
- Get ownership, approvals, change log and handover in writing.
- When the work ends, check that the partner has been removed in Settings.
This is a practical guide, not legal advice. Meta changes its tools and labels from time to time; the steps above match its help pages as of the date shown.