Who Owns Your Meta Business Manager? (Hint: It Better Be You)

As a business owner, you are like the captain of a ship. You are at the helm, carefully navigating uncharted waters, while your crew —your employees and marketing agency— keep everything running as it should. But what happens when your crew suddenly decides to abandon ship, or worse, steer the boat into their own port? Despite the fact that you’ve been holding the wheel, you realize that you haven’t been truly steering the ship.

This is what happens when you don’t own your business’s digital backbone: your Meta Business Manager. 

We know that in the rush of delegating responsibilities, it’s easy to hand over control of your Meta Business Manager. After all, your agency knows how to handle all that stuff, and they’re trustworthy…right?

But the reality is that, when it comes to the ownership of your Meta Business Manager, the safest practice is simple: ownership starts and ends with you.

Why Your Meta Business Manager Is the Core of Your Digital Identity

Your Meta Business Manager isn’t just a tool for running ads. It’s the vault that holds your brand’s most valuable digital assets:

• Your ad account: The engine driving your customer acquisition.
• Your pixel data: The breadcrumbs mapping out your audience’s journey.
• Your social media pages: The face of your brand online.

Whoever controls these elements has control of your business’s visibility, reputation, and even your revenue stream. Ownership isn’t just a technicality, it’s a lifeline.

The Risks of Delegated Ownership

When you let your agency, an employee, or anyone else own your Meta Business Manager, you’re handing over the reins to your brand’s most critical asset. Here’s why that’s a dangerous move:

1. Agencies Come and Go
   You’ve hired an agency because they’re great at what they do. But what happens if the relationship ends? If they own your Meta Business Manager, then they also own your ad accounts, your audience data, and everything you’ve spent time and money building. Hopefully you part on good terms and they transfer the ownership to you. But if the separation is not on the best terms, then they can hold your assets hostage, or walk away with them entirely.
   
   Example: A mid-sized e-commerce brand once learned this the hard way. After parting ways with their agency, they realized the agency still owned their ad account and refused to transfer it without a hefty fee. Starting from scratch meant losing years of data, retargeting audiences, and insights.
   
   
2. Employee Turnover Is Inevitable
   You trust your employees, but life happens. People leave for new opportunities, or sometimes not-so-amicable circumstances. If an employee owns your Meta Business Manager and their relationship with your business ends, you could face a lengthy and stressful process trying to regain control.
   
   
3. Data Loss Equals Opportunity Loss
   Your Meta pixel tracks years of valuable customer data. If someone else owns it and takes it with them, you’re left with a blank slate. Your next campaigns won’t just be less effective—they’ll be expensive, as you work to rebuild audience insights from scratch.

The Case for Self-Ownership

Here’s the truth: no one will care about your business as much as you do. Your Meta Business Manager should be owned by the person with the most at stake—you. Owning it ensures you have:

• Full Control: You decide who has access, who doesn’t, and what permissions they have.
• Long-Term Stability: No matter who comes or goes, agency, employee, or consultant, your business continuity isn’t disrupted.
• Data Security: Your audience data stays with you, powering smarter campaigns and saving you money in the long run.

But What About Delegating?

Delegating and trusting others to execute your marketing is smart. But there’s a difference between delegation and abdication. Delegation says, “I trust you to run this for me.” Abdication says, “Here’s the deed to the house, hope you don’t change the locks.”

By retaining ownership of your Meta Business Manager, you can still give your agency or team the access they need to execute campaigns. But the ownership stays where it belongs: with you.

How to Take Control (or Regain It)

If you are not sure that you own your Meta Business Manager (or if you're realizing you need to regain control ASAP), here's what to do today:

1. Check Ownership: Log in to your Meta Business Manager and confirm who the primary admin is. If it’s not you, it’s time to change that.
2. Transfer Ownership: If an agency or employee currently owns it, request a transfer of ownership. Be firm but professional; it’s non-negotiable.
3. Set Up Admin Controls: Once you’re the owner, grant admin access to trusted team members or agencies, but maintain ultimate control.
4. Create a Clear Policy: Ensure that any future partnerships—whether with agencies, employees, or freelancers are based on clear agreements about access, not ownership.

Own the Wheel

Your Meta Business Manager is the command center of your digital marketing efforts. It’s not just a tool; it’s a representation of your brand’s growth and potential. Don’t hand the keys to anyone else, not an agency, not an employee, not even someone you trust implicitly. Ownership is responsibility, and in this case, responsibility equals control.

Because if you don’t own it, you don’t control it. And in business, control is everything.

If you’re not sure how to secure ownership of your Meta Business Manager, Deksia can guide you. Reach out today for a consultation and make sure your digital assets are protected, by you.