Before launching ads, who can actually use the account?

Once, while preparing a campaign, we could sign in to Meta but couldn’t do what we came to do. Some screens opened just fine. As soon as we tried to grant the team access or open certain settings, we hit a verification step we couldn’t complete.

At the time, I would have said we had access. In a sense we did. What we didn’t have was a way to work without someone else there to approve each attempt.

Signing in isn’t the same as being able to work

When someone says, “I have access,” I now ask what they could do the last time they signed in. Could they post to the page? See an existing campaign? Invite someone to work on the ad account? Those are different things, even if they all sound like “getting into Meta.”

I didn’t just need to see the account. I needed to prepare the campaign and check how we would measure it. Knowing the account existed and someone could open it didn’t get me much closer to launch.

It’s easy to make someone feel they’ve forgotten something obvious. But a business owner can use their page every day without ever inviting an outside team to manage ads. It’s my job to explain what we need to do and check it with them, not send a list of permissions and assume it’s done.

What I’d check before setting a date

I’d run a small test: the account administrator sends the invitation, the person running the campaign accepts it from their own account, and we check together that they can open what they need. We don’t have to spend money or run an ad to find out a permission is missing.

If the test fails, the whole project doesn’t have to stop. We can refine the offer, prepare the creative, or review the landing page. What I wouldn’t do is promise a launch date as if access were sorted. I’d rather say what can move ahead and what still has to happen before launch.

There’s also a reason not to settle for a workaround that only works while we’re on the same screen. When we need to pause an ad, fix something, or check a missing conversion, I don’t want to discover that the only person who can do it is busy. And I don’t want the business to depend on me to get into its own account. The client keeps control; the team gets the permissions it needs.

I still love figuring out whom we’re speaking to, what to say, and what should happen after the click. But before we put a date on any of that, I like to ask a less exciting question: if something needs changing tomorrow, who can change it?

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