Facebook Allows Advertising Accounts to Have Multiple Users [Updated]
Today, Facebook began to allow multiple personal accounts to be granted permission to access a single advertising account. Previously, an advertising account or campaign could only be accessed by a single personal account. This prevented cooperative management or transfer of control of an ad account, and led many advertisers to technically violate the Facebook terms of service by creating fake, generic personal accounts whose login info could be shared or reassigned.
[Update, 7/21/10: Some readers tell us that they're not getting access yet. Here's what commenter Aaron says he heard from Facebook support: “Unfortunately it’s still not ready and I don’t have a time frame as to when it will be available. I really apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we try to get it rolled out to advertisers.”]
The new addition has been one of the features most heavily requested by advertisers, we’ve heard, and will pave the way for orchestration of complex advertising campaigns by multiple managers working in parallel.
The original owner of an ad account may now “Add a User to This Ads Account” and assign them an access level, including “General User” with full control, or “Reports Only” which merely allows for monitoring of results but not editing of campaigns. In the text, Facebook reassures managers that adding others to a shared ads account won’t give anyone else access to their personal profile or other ads accounts they operate. This relieves privacy concerns, both personal, and for companies who share an ads account manager with other businesses.
Managing large ad campaigns, especially without an API tool provided by Alchemy, ONE Media Manager or another third party provider, can be an incredibly involved process, often more work than a single person can handle. By allowing managers to share the work, ads accounts can have someone managing around the clock, or have specialized experts for tasks such as ads creation, targeting, or bid management. Without this new feature, fake accounts were often created so if a manager left a company, their ads account could be reassigned. This violation of the the Facebook TOS opened these accounts up for suspension, which could cause a disastrous halt of advertising campaigns (although it’s not clear how often Facebook enforced the issue against advertisers). By making shared ads accounts possible, Facebook increases stability and confidence in the ads platforms, solidifying it as serious component of any digital advertising campaign.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:50 am
[...] You can view this feature immediately within your Facebook Advertising account. Thanks to Josh Constine for pointing out the new [...]
July 20th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
I can’t see this in my admin panel, is it live?
July 20th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
This is good, but it still doesn’t solve the issue of the manager leaving, because you can’t switch admin privileges between users. Facebook finally fixed that for Pages, now they need to fix that for Ads Manager!
July 20th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
@Peter: Make sure you’re looking at your advertising account and not a Page admin console. It maybe be rolling out gradually, but if you don’t see it in a few days comment again and we’ll look into it.
@Lisa: Good point! This may have to do with the sensitive nature of exchanging control a credit card, or it could just be something Facebook hasn’t gotten to yet.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:13 am
Hey there, can anyone tell me how to create an advertising account? Thanks, Andreas
July 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
@Andreas: We just covered a product called Answers by Appbistro (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/07/21/appbistromarketplace-qa/) where you can get answers to FB admin questions. See if they can help you out.
July 21st, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I’m not seeing this in my admin panel either – where exactly should it appear?
July 21st, 2010 at 4:11 pm
From Facebook Support: “Unfortunately it’s still not ready and I don’t have a time frame as to when it will be available. I really apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we try to get it rolled out to advertisers.”
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:52 pm
This feature just launched. You’ll find it under the Settings section of Facebook Ads Manager.
July 25th, 2010 at 7:01 am
[...] Facebook Allows Advertising Accounts to Have Multiple Users [Updated] [...]
July 27th, 2010 at 12:38 am
[...] Atnaujintas reklamos modulis, kuris nuo šiol turi funkciją, leidžiančią reklamines kampanijas r…. Galbūt tai padės šiek tiek sumažinti naujų fiktyvių vartotojų kūrimą, kai jie kuriami tik reklaminių kampanijų konfiguravimui. Žydrūnas S: Patiko tai, kad keli žmonės gali administruoti vieną reklamos bloką (šito reikėjo). [...]
November 4th, 2010 at 1:03 am
hi
April 10th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
[...] You can view this feature immediately within your Facebook Advertising account. Thanks to Josh Constine for pointing out the new [...]