Meta Business Manager, now called Meta Business Portfolio, is the administrative centre for your collection of Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts, catalogs, and datasets.
If you sell on Facebook or Instagram, or run paid campaigns through Meta, you’ll manage the assets in Meta Business Manager. It’s also where you’ll give user permissions and securely share assets with interested parties.
The Meta audience continues to grow. Meta’s family of apps reached 3.58 billion daily active people in December 2025, and Facebook was the most-used social media platform in October 2025, with about three billion monthly active users (MAUs).
This guide walks through how to set up and best use Meta Business Manager.
What is Meta Business Manager?
Meta Business Manager is a free, business-level account that sits above any individual Facebook profile and holds your company’s Meta assets and team access in one place.
Originally called Facebook Business Manager, the tool was rebranded when the company became Meta in 2021. The current Meta documentation refers to it as Meta Business Portfolio.
This resource is not to be confused with Meta Business Suite, which is the broader workspace your portfolio now lives inside.
Meta Business Manager vs. Meta Business Suite vs. Meta Ads Manager
You can manage your business assets on Facebook and Instagram with Meta’s three tools:
- Meta Business Manager (now Meta Business Portfolio). Where you assign granular user permissions, control billing, and securely share assets with external partners or agencies.
- Meta Business Suite. The day-to-day workspace for managing your Facebook and Instagram presence for posting, scheduling, inbox, insights, and ad boosts.
- Meta Ads Manager. The dedicated tool for building, targeting, and optimizing paid campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network.
Here’s a quick overview:
| Tool | Where does it live? | What do marketers and retailers use it for? |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Business Manager (Business Portfolio) | In “Settings” inside Business Suite | To own and organize business assets such as Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts, pixels, catalogs, datasets, and user permissions |
| Meta Business Suite | business.facebook.com | To schedule organic content, manage the inbox, analyze insights, create simple ads, and boost posts |
| Meta Ads Manager | adsmanager.facebook.com | To build campaigns with custom audiences, A/B test, run retargeting, and create Shops ads |
Another resource, Meta Events Manager, is where you test and troubleshoot the conversion data that powers Meta attribution. Shopify’s Facebook and Instagram channel can automatically install a Meta Pixel, while Events Manager is where you monitor Conversions API activity, test events, review deduplication, and check Event Match Quality scores.
Key features of Meta Business Manager
Meta Business Manager combines several administrative functions that help you organize your presence across Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta products.
The most important capabilities fall into four areas:
Business account management
The Business Portfolio holds the page, ad accounts, catalogs, and pixels under the business itself, separate from any one person’s login. That means you can run your Shopify store’s Facebook ads without tying everything to someone’s personal Facebook profile.
Each personal Facebook profile can create up to two portfolios. This is useful if you run two separate businesses, but it’s a hard cap if you’re a freelancer or agency planning to use fresh accounts for each client.
Permissions management
If you hire a freelance social media manager, you probably want them posting on Instagram but not viewing your ad spend.
Meta Business Portfolio has two layers of access: portfolio-level permissions govern what someone can do across the whole business, while asset-level permissions affect what they can do on each page, ad account, catalog, or dataset. When the freelance contract ends, you can revoke access from the portfolio in a click.
Hiring an agency works differently from hiring a single person. You add the agency’s Business Portfolio as a partner—not its individual people—and the agency assigns its own team to your assets from inside their portfolio.
Ad account management
When you advertise the same brand in two countries, you need multiple ad accounts: one per currency, one per billing setup, and one per time zone. Meta Business Portfolio lets you own multiple ad accounts under one business and assign them to different teams or markets.
Each personal profile can manage up to 25 ad accounts across all the portfolios they belong to. Ad accounts can’t be deleted once created, only closed.
Asset management
If you connect your Shopify product catalog to Meta for ads, for instance, that catalog becomes one of several business assets you can bring together under a single Business Portfolio alongside your Facebook page, Instagram account, pixel, and dataset.
Bringing these assets into the same portfolio gives you access to cross-posting between Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, a centralized inbox for messages and comments, and the ability to run Shops on both Facebook and Instagram.
If the wrong portfolio owns one of your assets, like a former agency, you can request a catalog transfer, but the current owner has to give approval before anything moves.
How to set up Meta Business Manager
- Sign in to Facebook
- Set up a Facebook page or Instagram professional account
- Sign in to Meta Business Suite
- Create your Business Portfolio
- Connect your Facebook ad account
- Add users
- Connect partners and agencies
- Set up Meta Pixel and Conversions API
- Connect Instagram and WhatsApp
- Strengthen account security
Follow these 10 steps for setting up your Business Portfolio:
1. Sign in to Facebook
Sign in to your personal Facebook account. If you don’t have a personal account, visit Facebook.com to create one.
If you already have a Facebook profile, go to business.facebook.com and select Continue with Facebook to access Meta’s business tools.
2. Set up a Facebook page or Instagram professional account
At time of this writing, you need either a Facebook page or an Instagram professional account linked to your personal Facebook profile before you can access Meta Business Suite.
If you don’t have one yet, create a Facebook page or switch your Instagram account to a professional account before continuing.
3. Sign in to Meta Business Suite
Go back to business.facebook.com and click Continue with Facebook. Sign in with the personal Facebook account your Page or Instagram account is linked to.
4. Create your Business Portfolio
A pop-up will prompt you to fill in your details:
- Your business and account name. Use your public business name as it will be visible across Facebook.
- Your name. It will be pre-filled from your Facebook profile.
- Your business email address. Use a company address. Meta will send a verification email here and use it for all business portfolio communications.
Click Submit and verify the confirmation email before moving on.
Read more: How To Create and Maintain a Facebook Business Page
5. Connect your Facebook ad account
In your Meta Business Suite, go to Settings > Accounts > Ad accounts.
Click + Add.
From here, you can:
- Create a new ad account if you’re setting up advertising for the first time
- Claim an existing ad account if your business already owns one
- Request access to an ad account owned by another business, such as a client or agency
You’ll need the ad account ID to claim an existing account or request access to one.
If you’re on Shopify, you can also connect your Meta ad account directly through the Facebook and Instagram by Meta sales channel in your Shopify admin, which handles this step automatically.
6. Add users
Meta supports three types of users:
- People for employees and individual collaborators working directly in the business
- Partners for agencies, consultants, and other businesses that need access to specific assets
- System users for software, servers, and integrations that access assets through Meta’s APIs rather than a personal login
In Settings, go to Users > People, then click Invite people.
Assign access based on what each person needs to do. For example, a social media manager may need access to your Facebook page and Instagram account, while a paid media specialist may need access to your ad account and catalog.
Full control gives someone admin-level access across the entire portfolio; reserve it for owners and senior team members. Use asset-level permissions for anyone who only needs access to a specific page, ad account, or dataset.
Add at least two trusted admins with Full control so your Business Portfolio can remain accessible even if one account is locked or compromised.
7. Connect partners and agencies
If you work with a team outside your organization like an agency or consultant, grant partner access instead of giving them your login details.
In Settings, go to Users > Partners and click Add.
You’ll see two options:
- Give a partner access to your assets. If you want an agency or contractor to manage assets that belong to your business.
- Ask a partner to assign you their assets. If another business needs to share assets with you.
To connect a partner, you’ll need their Business Portfolio ID. Once connected, you can choose which assets they can access, such as Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts, catalogs, or datasets.
If an agency asks for your Business Portfolio ID, go to Settings > Business portfolio info. You’ll find the ID listed alongside your business details.
8. Set up Meta Pixel and Conversions API
In Meta Business Suite, go to Settings > Data sources > Datasets.
Click + Add.
Enter a name for your dataset and click Create. Meta automatically generates a pixel linked to the dataset; both share the same ID, which you’ll need if you’re connecting to a third-party platform manually.
If you’re on Shopify, install the Facebook and Instagram sales channel in Shopify and connect it to the Meta business assets you created earlier, including your Business Portfolio, Facebook page, ad account, and Instagram account (if applicable).
To verify your pixel is firing correctly, open Meta Events Manager and go to the Test Events tab. Browse your website and confirm that actions appear in real time. You can also install Meta Pixel Helper to check that pixel is active and working on your site.
For server-side tracking, set up the Conversions API from inside Events Manager.
Shopify’s Maximum customer data-sharing setting enables both Meta Pixel and Conversions API, helping Meta receive conversion data even when browser-based tracking is limited.
9. Connect Instagram and WhatsApp
In Settings > Accounts, connect the Instagram and WhatsApp accounts associated with your business.
To connect WhatsApp, go to Accounts > WhatsApp accounts, click Add, then one of either:
- Create a new WhatsApp Business account
- Link an existing WhatsApp Business account
To connect Instagram, go to Accounts > Instagram accounts and add the account you want to use for your business.
If you’re on Shopify, the Facebook and Instagram by Meta sales channel connects your Instagram account and syncs a single product catalog across Facebook Shop, Instagram Shopping, and Facebook Marketing. This is done without any manual setup in the Business Portfolio.
If you’ve already completed the sales channel setup, your Instagram account should already appear under Accounts.
10. Strengthen account security
Before running campaigns or inviting additional users, configure your Business Portfolio’s security settings.
In Meta Business Suite, go to Security Centre.
From here, you can:
- Require two-factor authentication (2FA) for everyone who accesses the Business Portfolio
- Enable passkeys for additional account protection
- Review user permissions to see who has access to business assets
- Add a backup administrator who can help recover access if an admin account becomes unavailable
2FA adds an extra verification step beyond a password, making it harder for unauthorized users to access your Business Portfolio and its assets.
At this step, you’ll also verify your domain. Domain verification helps establish ownership of the website connected to your Meta assets.
Go to Settings > Brand safety and suitability > Domains and click Add. From there, you can either:
- Create a domain for your business
- Request access to a domain owned by another business
Best practices for using Meta Business Manager
- Manage security and permissions
- Connect partners and system users
- Use business asset groups
- Connect data sources
A well-maintained Business Manager account reduces the risk of losing access to your assets and makes it easier to collaborate with teams and agencies. Follow these best practices:
Manage security and permissions
Review your user list regularly to confirm that people, partners, and system users still need the access they’ve been granted. Pay particular attention to users with full control permissions and remove access for former employees, contractors, and agencies as soon as it’s no longer required.
In Settings > Users > People, check who holds Full control and whether each person still needs it. In Settings > Users > Partners, check which agencies still have active partnerships.
Review asset permissions periodically. A social media manager, for example, may need access to a Facebook Page and Instagram account but not an ad account, dataset, or catalog.
Connect partners and system users
Partners—agencies, consultants, freelancers with their own Business Portfolio—are added in setup (step 7 above).
System users are different: they’re not people; they’re server-to-server integrations that access your assets through Meta’s Marketing API without a personal login attached.
When a third-party tool like a data warehouse needs ongoing API access to your ad accounts or datasets, create a system user rather than granting access through someone’s personal account.
Use business asset groups
A business asset group bundles related assets, so you can assign permissions to the group rather than to each asset individually. They’re useful for businesses that manage multiple brands, markets, teams, or agencies.
To create a group, go to Settings > Accounts > Business asset groups.
Click Add > Create a business asset group.
Once created, you can add assets such as pages, ad accounts, Instagram accounts, catalogs, and datasets to the group. You can then assign people or partners to the asset group instead of managing permissions asset by asset.
Connect data sources
Meta Business Manager also houses the data sources that power measurement, attribution, audience creation, and campaign optimization.
In Settings > Data sources, you can connect and manage:
- Catalogs for Shops, product tagging, and dynamic product ads
- Datasets and pixels for website event tracking
- Offline event sets for in-store and offline conversions
- Custom conversions for tracking specific business actions
- Shared audiences for audience management across ad accounts
If you’re on Shopify Plus, Shopify Audiences connects to your Meta ad account and generates custom audience lists from aggregate commerce data across the Shopify platform.
Take luxury womenswear brand Mac Duggal. They layered Shopify Audiences onto their existing Meta campaigns and saw a 2.3 times larger retargeting audience, 3.6 times lower cost per purchase on retargeting ad sets, and two times increase in return on ad spend (ROAS).
“Shopify Audiences helped us grow and future-proof our campaigns,” says ecommerce director Emily Greenfield. “With all of the tracking challenges in the marketing world, Audiences keeps our campaigns fueled in the right ways.”
Manage your Meta presence from Shopify
Every step in this guide builds the foundation for every Meta campaign you run.
Shopify retailers have a faster start. The Facebook and Instagram by Meta sales channel compresses several of those manual setup steps into a guided flow inside your Shopify admin.
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels, click Add sales channel, and search for Facebook and Instagram by Meta.
A guided setup then connects your Facebook page, Business Portfolio, Instagram professional account, and ad account in sequence, automatically syncs your product catalog across Facebook Shop, Instagram Shopping, and Facebook Marketing, and installs Meta Pixel.
Meta Business Manager FAQ
Is Meta Business Manager free?
Yes. Meta Business Manager (now called Meta Business Portfolio) is a free tool that businesses can use to organize assets, manage permissions, and run online advertising across Meta’s platforms.
While creating a business manager account is free, you’ll still pay for any ads you choose to run.
Do you need a Facebook account to use Business Manager?
Yes. A personal Facebook profile or a professional Instagram account is required as the first step in the setup process.
Your business pages and business settings stay entirely separate from your personal profile, so customers and coworkers can’t see your personal information.
How do I get to my Meta Business Manager?
Go to business.facebook.com and sign in with your personal Facebook account.
This opens Meta Business Suite, where your business settings—pages, ad accounts, datasets, and user permissions—live under Settings in the left nav.
What is the difference between Meta Business Manager and Meta Ads Manager?
Meta Business Manager is where you own and organize your assets, like business pages, ad accounts, Instagram accounts, and who has access to them.
Meta Ads Manager is where you build and run ad campaigns.
Is Meta Business Suite the same as Meta Business Manager?
No. Meta Business Suite (formerly known as Facebook Business Suite) is the front-end workspace for day-to-day tasks.
Meta Business Manager is the permissions and ownership layer, where you control access to your business pages, ad accounts, and assets.
