Facebook Business Manager: Common Myths and Misconceptions

Let’s face it: Business Manager can be downright confusing. There are seemingly endless permission levels, Pages, ad accounts, employees, roles, assets, and much more.

What’s it all about anyway? And how can it help make you and your team less frustrated while also help you work more efficiently?

When it comes to myths and misconceptions about Facebook Business Manager, I’ve truly heard it all. I’ve heard it deletes ad accounts by accident (what?), causes employees to lose access for days at a time (um, huh?), creates multiple pixels without warning (is that even possible?), and plenty more.

In this blog post, I’ll debunk some of the most common Business Manager myths and misconceptions and explain how it actually works to help you and other Facebook marketers succeed.

Myth 1: “Business Manager is more difficult to use than Ads Manager”

This myth arose because Business Manager has so many more options and settings than Ads Manager. As a result, it can be a bit overwhelming when you first log in and see all the various offerings Business Manager has for you.

However, if you have confidently executed ad campaigns within the Facebook Ads Manager or Power Editor, you will also be able to navigate Business Manager with ease.

Remember: Using Business Manager and Ads Manager is not an either or; they work together.

The Ads Manager, Pages, Product Catalogs, more are all connected directly into your Business Manager. This allows Business Manager to centrally locate all the tasks, employees, and assets associated with your Facebook marketing efforts. These various items are no longer siloed in different places; they’re housed together within Business Manager.

One Business Manager feature that confuses folks right from the outset is permissions, and more specifically, admins. There are Business Manager Admins, Page Admins, Ad Account Admins, and the list goes on.

Facebook does an admittedly poor job of explaining how each of these permission levels differ. In classic Facebook fashion, they use the same word for multiple definitions and meanings. In reality, admins have different responsibilities and permission levels depending on the task.

Myth 2: “My clients think Business Manager is a pain and they don’t want to switch”

Switching to Business Manager isn’t a choice, it’s a must do. It’s 2017 and Business Manager is over three years old. In most cases, Facebook will not respond to your support request unless you’re using Business Manager.

Let’s consider what we had before…

The old model required that a marketer or agency contact be connected to all of the client’s assets using their personal Facebook account. Assets were organized in different places. This did not allow for easy connection or disconnection if an employee left or came onboard. In short, it made the initial setup process a huge pain.

That’s not to say that setting up Business Manager from scratch doesn’t take time. It does! For large and complex organizations, it can take a few hours. However, in most scenarios, properly setting up Business Manager for you and your team will take an hour or less.

The real impetus is on us — advanced advertisers and agencies — to prove Business Manager’s lasting benefits to our clients.

We need to better explain how Business Manager leads to more transparency. It allows us to look at the history of any action taken on any asset at any time. It also helps organize complex advertising campaigns in a more straightforward way.

Ultimately, Business Manager saves everyone time. In this business, time is money.

Myth 3: “Business Manager limits what we can do in a client account”

Setting up Business Manager does not change any existing connections in a client account. If you’ve been connected as an Admin previously, adding that account or Page into a Business Manager account doesn’t change that permission level. You have the exact same permissions as before.

If correctly set up, there will be no changes to what you can do with Ads Manager and Power Editor. In fact, gaining access to Business Manager will help you connect additional assets (pixels, Instagram accounts, product catalogs, and more) even more easily than before.

Myth 4: “Business Manager limits the number of ad accounts you can have”

There is no limit to the number of ad accounts that a user can create or be connected to via Facebook Business Manager. There are very rare exceptions to this rule, but they mostly revolve around accounts that have had significant policy violations and are attempting to start anew.

Some of you may have run into this limitation issue in the past, as there once was an ad account limit and Facebook would “whitelist” various accounts. If you are still facing issues with ad account limits, it’s clear that something within the Ad Account isn’t linked to the Business Manager properly, or it could be a bug.

Myth 5: “Business Manager setup requires advertisers to be Facebook friends with clients”

If you’re an advertiser or agency and helping connect your clients via Business Manager (ideally with the client taking the lead and you walking them through it), you do not have to be Facebook friends with the client.

What sometimes ends up happening is that advertisers try to circumvent the process to make it easier on the client by having them send friend requests. In that case, the advertiser goes in and personally sets up the Business Manager on behalf of the client.

This action is actually quite detrimental, as it places the advertiser or agency at the center of the client’s Business Manager, making the client totally dependent on the advertiser for changes or edits. Remember: These assets belong to the client, not to the advertiser or agency.

An agency shouldn’t be listed as an employee of a client’s Business Manager. Instead, they should be listed as what they are in real life: a Partner.

Plus, if you are an official Partner, you or your agency can gain more credibility from Facebook because they can see how much ad spend you personally manage.

Myth 6: “Business Manager is just a fad and doesn’t improve ROI”

Alright, time for some real talk: Business Manager is definitely not a fad and it’s not going away.

As a project management tool, Business Manager will help you and your team save time, which in turn saves you and your clients money. It helps make your workflow more efficient and aids in managing employees more effectively while holding everyone more accountable.

With Business Manager, you can quickly check in and take the temperature of all your accounts, all within one interface with less room for error. It brings greater transparency all around and proves your professionalism from the outset.

Your Turn

Are you or a client balking at connecting to Business Manager? What challenges are you having?

Let me know in the comments below!