How to Use Meta (Facebook) Business Manager: Step-by-Step Guide

Meta Business Manager is an essential tool for any business looking to optimise its presence on Facebook and Instagram. If your brand or business uses Facebook, you should consider using Facebook Business Manager. Business Manager provides a centralised platform to manage your social media assets, run ad campaigns and collaborate with team members and partners.

If you’ve been unsure about setting up Business Manager because you don’t know how it works, we have good news. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up and using Meta Business Manager, making it easier for you to streamline your social media management and enhance your marketing efforts. Let’s get started!

What is a Meta Business Manager?

Meta Business Manager, formerly known as Facebook Business Manager, is a complimentary platform designed to help you manage and organise your business on Facebook. According to Meta, a Business Manager “assists advertisers in integrating Facebook marketing efforts across their business and with external partners.”

In essence, it acts as a centralised hub for overseeing all your Facebook marketing and advertising endeavours. You can also control multiple users’ access to your Facebook page and assets, as well as additional resources like your Instagram account and product catalogues.

Here are some of the key functions of a Business Manager:

• It’s a central place to track Facebook and Instagram ads, providing detailed reports on ad performance.
• It allows you to grant vendors, partners and agencies access to your pages and ads without transferring ownership of the assets.
• It keeps your business activities separate from your profile, ensuring you don’t accidentally post in the wrong place or get distracted by personal content when you’re trying to work.

If you’re still unsure whether setting up a Meta Business Manager account is right for you, let’s explore who should use it and why.

Reasons to Create a Meta Business Manager Account

Meta Business Manager is crucial for managing your business’s Facebook and Instagram presence efficiently. There are several scenarios where having a Meta Business Manager account can be highly beneficial. Below are some compelling motives for setting up an account:

1. Simplify team collaboration: If you’re a social media manager or part of a marketing team, Meta Business Manager allows multiple people to access and manage your Facebook or Instagram business pages easily.
2. Keep business and personal separate: For creators or business owners, Business Manager helps keep your brand activities distinct from your personal Facebook account. This ensures that your audience only sees your professional information, such as your business name, work email and Pages.
3. Organise multiple assets: If you handle several Facebook or Instagram assets like Pages, ad accounts or apps, using a central platform like Facebook Business Manager helps keep everything streamlined and organised.
4. Manage external partnerships: If you work with external vendors such as marketing agencies or freelance social media managers, Meta Business Manager makes it simple to grant them access while ensuring you retain control and ownership of your business assets.

If any of these situations apply to you, let’s go over how to set up your Meta Facebook Business Manager account.

Meta Business Manager Set Up

Before diving into creating your Meta Business Manager account, there are a few prerequisites to consider:

1. A personal Facebook account is essential for establishing a Facebook Business Manager account as it serves as the login credentials and confirms your identity.
2. You are limited to creating a maximum of two Business Manager accounts.

Now that these requirements are clarified, let’s proceed with the steps to initiate your Meta Business Manager account setup.

Step:1 Create Your Business Manager Account

1. Visit business.facebook.com and either log in to your existing Facebook or Instagram account or sign up for a new one.

2. Create your business account by providing your business name, account details, your name and a business email for verification. Submit the information to finalise the account creation.

3. Check your email for a confirmation message titled “Confirm your business email” and click on the confirmation link provided.

4. After verifying your account, input essential business details like legal name, address, phone number and website to complete the setup process.

Step:2 Add Your Facebook Business Page(s)

When adding your Facebook page to Business Manager, you have options: add an existing page, create a new one or request access to others’ pages. It’s key to use Request Access for clients’ pages to avoid access limitations. Assuming you manage your own assets, follow these steps:

1. Go to Business Assets in the menu, click Pages, then Add Pages.

2. Following that, you will have several choices available. You can opt to either establish a new Facebook Page, assert ownership of an existing Facebook Page or seek permission to collaborate on a Facebook Page.

3. Type your business page name, select it from the list and if you’re an admin, your request will be approved automatically.

Step:3 Add Your Facebook AD Account(s)

It’s crucial to remember that once you add your ad account to Facebook Business Manager, it cannot be removed. Therefore, it’s essential to only include accounts that you have ownership of. To access a client’s account, use the Request Access feature.

For those already utilising Facebook ads, follow these steps to link your existing ad account:

• Navigate to the Business Manager dashboard and select Add Ad Account.
  
• Click on Add Ad Account once more.
• Enter the ad account ID, which can be found in Ads Manager.

If you don’t have a Facebook ads account yet, the process of adding an ad account mirrors that of adding a Page.

1. Go to the Business Manager menu and choose Business Assets. Then click on the blue button labelled Add Assets.

2. Choose Advertising from the drop-down options, followed by selecting Ad account.

3. Opt for Create a new ad account. Enter the necessary details such as the ad account name, your time zone and the currency you’ll use for ad payments.

Step:4 Add Team Members to Manage Your Facebook Assets

To efficiently manage your Facebook marketing tasks, consider collaborating with a team using Business Manager. Facebook provides three levels of access for team members:

• Full control: Ideal for business owners, this role grants complete control over account settings, assets, tools and people, including the ability to delete the account.
• Partial access: Suited for marketing team members, individuals with partial access can work only on assigned tasks and assets.
• Advanced options: This level complements full or partial access by granting additional permissions, often needed for financial information handling.

To add team members:

• Access the People section in the Business Manager menu and click Add People.
  
• Enter the business email of the team member, select either Partial access or Full control and specify the business assets they can access.
  
  
• Review the invitation before sending it. You can add more team members as required.

For managing permissions:

• Navigate to People in the Business Manager dashboard.
• Click on a person’s name and use the three dots to edit their role, adjust permissions or remove them from the business account.

Step:5 Connect with Business Partners or AD Agencies

If you are new to Facebook advertising, you may not need to complete this step immediately. However, you can always return to it when necessary.

To share assets with a partner:

• Go to your Business Manager dashboard and click on Business Settings in the left menu.
• Select Partners from the menu and click Add under “Partner to share assets with.”
  
• Your partner should provide their Business Manager ID, which they can find in their own Business Manager under Business Settings > Business Info. Enter the ID and click Add.

Once added, the partner business can manage permissions for their team members using their own Business Manager account. This simplifies the process of assigning and managing permissions for individuals within their organisation, streamlining collaboration with your agency or partner company.

Step:6 Add Your Instagram Account

To use the best time to post on Instagram connect your account to Meta Business Manager and follow these steps:

• Access your Business Manager dashboard and click on Business Settings.
• In the left column, select Instagram accounts, then click Add. Enter your Instagram login details in the pop-up box and click login to establish the connection.

Step:7 Set Up Facebook Pixels

Follow these steps to set up your Facebook Pixel within Meta (Facebook) Business Manager:

• To access your Business Manager dashboard, navigate to the Business Settings section.
• Expand the Data Sources menu in the left column and select Pixels, then click Add.
  
• Provide a name (up to 50 characters) for your pixel, enter your business website URL for tailored recommendations and click Continue after reviewing the Pixel terms and conditions.
• Click on Set up the Pixel Now.
• Refer to our comprehensive Facebook pixel guide for detailed instructions on installing the pixel on your website and initiating data collection.

Remember, you can create a maximum of 100 pixels using your Meta Business Manager account.

Step:8 Enhance Security for Your Account

To enhance the security of your business assets within Meta (Facebook) Business Manager, follow these steps:

1. Access the Business Manager dashboard and click on Business Settings.
2. In the left menu, select Security Center.
   
3. Set up two-factor authentication and for maximum security, consider setting it as required for Everyone. This ensures an added layer of protection for your account and its assets.

How to Create Your First Campaign?

With your account fully configured and your tracking pixels properly integrated, the moment has arrived to debut your inaugural Facebook advertisement.

Step 1: Start Creating an AD

Once you’ve accessed Ads Manager and entered the dashboard, simply tap on the Create button to initiate the process of crafting a fresh campaign, ad set or advertisement.

Step 2: Choose Your Campaign Objective

When you access Facebook’s campaign setup, you’ll be prompted to select a campaign objective from six distinct options. Here’s how these objectives align with various business goals:

• Awareness: Ideal for introducing your brand to a fresh audience.
• Traffic: Efficient for directing visitors to a specific webpage, app or Facebook Page.
• Engagement: Targets individuals likely to engage with your business or initiate a conversation.
• Leads: Aim to attract new prospects into your sales pipeline through messages, phone calls or signups.
• App Promotion: Designed to encourage mobile users to install your app or perform a specific action within it.
• Sales: Focuses on identifying individuals with a high interest in purchasing your product or service.

Select a campaign objective that aligns closely with your objectives for the particular advertisement you’re creating.

Step 3: Define Your Campaign Settings

Facebook Ad Campaign Details:

• Campaign Name: [Please Provide a Name for Your Campaign]
• Special Ad Categories: [Indicate Any Relevant Special Ad Categories]

If you’re interested in setting up an A/B split test, simply enable the Create A/B test option. This enables you to choose different versions to test against your ad post-launch.

Step 4: Set Your Budget

Ad Set Options:
In the Ad Set section, you’ll determine your specific performance objectives and allocate the budget to achieve them. You have the flexibility to choose between a daily budget and a lifetime budget.

• Daily Budget: Runs your ad continuously throughout the day, starting at a minimum of $1.00 per day.
• Lifetime Budget: Operates your ad for a predetermined duration.

Additional Settings:

• Start and End Dates: Schedule your ad to run in the future or make it live immediately.
• Budget Scheduling: Opt to plan your budget, allowing adjustments for high-traffic periods as needed.

Step 5: Target Your Audience

When refining your ad targeting, you have two primary approaches:

• Basic Details with Advantage+ Technology:
  Provide fundamental criteria like age, location and language, allowing Meta’s Advantage+ technology to autonomously identify your audience.
• Original Audience Targeting Options:
  Utilise Facebook’s traditional audience targeting tools to manually construct and refine your audience.

Step 6: Choose Your Facebook AD Placements

When selecting where your ad appears, you have the following choices:
1. Automatic Placements with Advantage+:

Allow Facebook’s Advantage+ placements to automatically optimise where your ad appears. This is recommended for beginners.

2. Manual Options for Optimisation:

After some time, consider reviewing your ad performance and switch to manual placement for enhanced optimisation. Manual options may include:

• Device Type: Mobile, desktop or both.
• Platform: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger.
• Placements: Feeds, Stories, Reels, in-stream (for videos), search, messages, overlay and post-loop ads on Reels, search, in-article, apps and sites.
• Specific Mobile Devices and Operating Systems: iOS, Android, feature phones or all devices.
• Only When Connected to WiFi: Display the ad when the user’s device is connected to WiFi for a better user experience.

Step 7: Create Your AD & Monitor Performance Metrics

As you near completion, proceed to the Ad options section:

• Select Appropriate Ad Format:
  Choose the ad format that aligns with your campaign objectives. The available formats are determined by the campaign objective selected at the start.
• Input Text and Media Components:
  Enter the necessary text and media components for your ad. Follow Facebook’s prompts and design recommendations tailored to your ad type.
• Utilise the Preview Tool:
  Utilise the preview tool on the right side of the page to ensure your ad appears well across all potential placements.
• Publish Your Ad:
  Once satisfied with your choices, click the green Publish button to launch your ad.

After launching your ad, it’s crucial to monitor its performance metrics within Ads Manager. Keep an eye on key indicators such as results, reach, engagement, video views, website actions and more.

To Sum Up

Navigating Meta Facebook Business Manager can significantly enhance your digital marketing efforts. By following a step-by-step guide, you can efficiently set up and manage your business accounts, ad campaigns and analytics in a centralised platform. Understanding the features and functionalities of a Business Manager empowers you to streamline your marketing activities, collaborate with team members and gain valuable insights into campaign performance. Embracing this tool can help you scale your business, reach a broader audience and drive impactful results in the digital marketing world.