How to Add a Partner to Facebook Business Manager

Collaborating on Facebook and Instagram is essential for growth, but giving out your password is a recipe for disaster. Adding a partner to your Facebook Business Manager (now Meta Business Suite) is the secure, professional way to grant an agency, freelancer, or another company access to your accounts. This guide walks you through the exact steps to add a partner, assign the right permissions, and manage their access without giving away the keys to your kingdom.

Why Add a Partner Instead of a Person?

Before jumping into the "how," it's important to understand the difference between adding a person and adding a partner to your Business Manager. It’s a distinction that saves a lot of headaches down the road.

Adding a person (like an employee) grants direct access to an individual’s Facebook profile. They log in with their personal account to manage your business assets. This is great for your internal team members.

Adding a partner is for giving access to another business. Think of your marketing agency, a social media management contractor, or a brand you’re collaborating with. A partner has their own Business Manager account, and you’re essentially creating a secure bridge between your two business accounts. This is the industry-standard method for a few good reasons:

• Better Security: You never have to ask for individual email addresses or worry about what happens if one of their team members leaves. The partner manages access for their own team. If an employee leaves their agency, the agency is responsible for removing that person’s access from your pages - you don’t have to do a thing.
• Clear Ownership: It keeps asset ownership clean. Your agency doesn't own your Page or Ad Account, they're simply granted permission to manage them through their own Business Manager. When your work together is done, you can remove them with a single click.
• Improved Scalability: The partner agency can assign multiple people from their team to work on your assets without you needing to approve each person individually. They handle their own internal workflow, and you just see the results.

In short, if you're working with an external company, you should always add them as a partner, not as individual people.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

Getting your ducks in a row first will make the process go smoothly. Here's a quick checklist of what you need to have ready:

1. Admin Access to Your Business Manager: You must be an admin of your own Meta Business account to add partners. If you're not, you’ll need to ask someone who is to either grant you admin access or handle this process for you. You can check your role under Business Settings > People.
2. Your Partner’s Business ID: This is the most important piece of information you'll need. It’s a long string of numbers that uniquely identifies their Business Manager account. The company you’re working with should be able to provide this to you easily.

How to Find a Partner’s Business ID (or Your Own)

If your partner isn't sure where to find their Business ID, you can send them these simple instructions. This is also how you can find your own ID if you ever need to provide it to someone else.

• Log in to Meta Business Suite.
• Click on "Settings" (the gear icon) in the bottom-left navigation menu.
• Then, click "Business settings." This will open a new, more detailed settings page.
• In the new settings menu, navigate down to "Business info."
• Your Business Manager ID is listed right at the top, under your business name. It's a long number, typically around 15-16 digits.

Once you have their ID, you're ready to grant them access.

How to Add a Partner to Facebook Business Manager: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your partner’s Business ID in hand, follow these steps to securely grant them access to the assets they need to manage.

Step 1: Navigate to Business Settings

First, head over to Meta Business Settings. If you manage multiple businesses, be sure you have selected the correct one from the dropdown menu in the top left.

Step 2: Go to the Partners Section

In the left-hand navigation menu, look for the "Users" dropdown. Click it, and then select Partners.

This is the dashboard where you can see all existing partners you are working with. If this is your first time, it will be empty.

Step 3: Add a New Partner

Now, click the blue "Add" button beneath the "Partners" heading. You'll be given two options:

• Give a partner access to your assets
• Ask a partner to share their assets

In this case, since you are granting access to your agency or contractor, you want to choose Give a partner access to your assets. Click "Next."

Step 4: Enter the Partner Business ID

A new window will appear asking for the partner's contact information. All you need to do here is paste the Partner business ID that you collected earlier into the text box. Double-check that you've copied the number correctly, and then click "Next."

Step 5: Assign Assets and Permissions

This is the most detailed part of the process, but it gives you complete control over what your new partner can and cannot do. A new window will appear where you can assign access to different assets you own.

On the left side of the window, you select the type of asset (e.g., Pages, Ad Accounts, Pixels). On the right, you pick the specific assets and the level of permission you want to grant.

Here are the common assets you’ll likely need to assign:

• Pages: Select your "New Page Experience." Turn on the toggle for the permissions you want them to have. For a social media agency, you’ll typically grant "Content" permissions (create, manage, or delete posts), "Community Activity" (review and respond to comments/messages), and "Ads". Unless they need to manage page settings, you can leave "Full control" off.
• Ad Accounts: Select the ad account you want them to use. The most common permission level is "Manage Campaigns," which allows them to create and run ads using your payment method. Granting "Manage Ad Account" gives them full admin control, including adding payment methods or changing account settings, which is often not necessary.
• Instagram Accounts: Choose your connected Instagram account. Similar to Pages, you can assign access for "Content," "Community Activity," and "Ads." This lets them post, respond to DMs, and run ads on your behalf.
• Pixels: Now called "Datasets," choose the pixel you use for tracking on your website. "View Pixel" is often enough, but if they need to manage conversions or events, they'll need "Manage Pixel" access.
• Catalogs: If you run an e-commerce business, grant them access to your product catalog. "Manage Catalog" will allow them to update and manage your product feeds for dynamic ads.

Always follow the principle of least privilege: grant only the permissions they absolutely need to do their job. You can always add more permissions later if required.

Step 6: Review and Confirm

After you have assigned all the necessary assets and permissions, click "Next." You will be shown a summary of the invitation you are about to send. Review it carefully to make sure everything is correct. If it is, click "Send."

That's it on your end! The invitation has been sent, and the status will show as "Pending" in your Partners dashboard.

What Happens After You Send the Invitation?

Your work is done for now, but your partner has a few small steps to take on their end. They will receive an email and a notification within their own Business Manager letting them know you’ve invited them to work on your assets.

They will need to:

1. Accept the Request: They’ll log into their Business Manager and accept your invitation.
2. Assign Team Members: Once they've accepted, your assets (like your Facebook Page and Ad Account) will appear in their Business Manager. They can then assign specific people from their team to do the work.

This second step is what makes the partner connection so secure and efficient. You don't need to know who at the agency is posting for you - you just give the agency access, and their manager handles assigning the right people internally.

How to Manage or Remove a Partner

Projects end, and business relationships change. When you're no longer working with a partner, it's good security hygiene to remove their access promptly. Luckily, it’s just as easy as adding them.

1. Navigate back to Business Settings > Users > Partners.
2. You’ll see a list of your current partners. Click on the name of the partner you wish to remove.
3. In the panel on the right, you can see all the assets they currently have access to. If you want to simply edit their permissions, you can do that here.
4. To remove them completely, click the Remove button in the top right of that panel.

Facebook will ask you to confirm. Once you do, their access to all of your assets will be instantly revoked. The bridge between your Business Managers will be severed, keeping your accounts secure.

Final Thoughts

Adding a partner to your Facebook Business Manager is the correct and secure way to collaborate with external teams. By using their Business ID and carefully assigning asset permissions, you maintain full control over your accounts while empowering your partners to help you grow your brand effectively.

Of course, once your agency partner has access, the real work of managing your social presence begins - a task that outdated, clunky tools often make feel like a chore. That's a core reason we built Postbase. We wanted to give agencies and brands a simple, modern platform for handling everything after the permissions are set. Features like a central inbox for all comments and DMs, and a visual content calendar make collaborating across multiple accounts feel effortless, not overwhelming.