How to give an agency access to a Meta catalog

Keep the catalog in your own business portfolio and assign the agency as a partner: in Meta Business Suite open Settings > Data sources > Catalogs, select the catalog, click Assign partners, then either enter the agency's business portfolio ID or create a one-time link, and choose Partial access or Full control. For running catalog ads, Partial access is enough.

Keep the catalog in your business portfolio

Meta's advice for working with an agency is to keep the catalog in your business portfolio and assign the agency as a partner. The catalog then stays yours: Meta says a partner, even with full control, cannot share an asset with another business; only the owner can. A business portfolio is what Meta used to call Business Manager; the glossary lists the other renamed terms.

Before you start

• Find the catalog. In Settings in Meta Business Suite, Data sources > Catalogs lists the catalogs in your business portfolio and those shared with it. Commerce Manager shows the same list on its Assets page.
• Full control. You need full control of the business portfolio the catalog is in. Meta lets a person with full control of the catalog itself manage people's access too, but the other actions, including assigning partners, need full control of the portfolio.
• The agency's business portfolio. The agency needs its own. Ask for its business portfolio ID, or use the link option below.

Assign the agency as a partner

1. Go to Settings in Meta Business Suite and select your business.
2. Click Data sources on the left and select Catalogs.
3. Select the catalog.
4. Click Assign partners.

Then add the agency in one of two ways:

• With its business portfolio ID: click Business ID, enter the ID, select Partial access or Full control, click Next and then Done.
• With a link: click Get link to share, select Partial access or Full control, copy the link and send it to the agency, then click Close.

A link can be used only once and expires after 30 days. If the agency does not use it in time, create a new one.

Which access to give

Meta's two levels for a catalog:

• Partial access (Basic): view products and data sources, create, edit and delete product sets, select the catalog and product sets when creating an ad, and view events and the catalog match rate.
• Full control (Manage everything): all of that, plus adding, editing and deleting products and data sources, connecting the catalog to other business assets, and managing catalog settings or deleting the catalog.

An agency that runs catalog ads needs Partial access. Give Full control only if the agency manages your product feed and catalog settings. Connecting the catalog to another asset, such as a dataset, also needs full access to that other asset.

Once your catalog is shared, the agency's business can turn on Give people access for it, which gives the agency's employees Partial access automatically. Meta also notes that some people can pick a catalog in Ads Manager without being assigned to it: people with full control of the business portfolio, and people creating ads with assets connected to the catalog, such as a dataset or Page.

Catalog segments and Collaborative Ads are a different thing

Collaborative Ads is a Meta product for a retailer and a brand. The retailer, or its marketing partner, shares a catalog segment with the brand advertiser, and the brand runs ads with it. The brand cannot edit the segment, but it can make its own product sets from it.

That is not agency access. If you are a shop and the agency runs ads for you, assign the agency to the catalog as above.

Troubleshooting

The agency sees the catalog marked "No access"

People in the agency's business portfolio who have not been given the catalog see it labeled No access. They can click Details, then Request access, and a person with full control of the agency's portfolio approves. Because the agency has only the access you gave it, a partner with partial access can only request partial access for its people.

The link does not work

Each link works once and expires after 30 days. Create a new one under Assign partners > Get link to share.

You cannot find Assign partners

You need full control of the business portfolio the catalog is in.

The catalog is in the agency's business portfolio

Meta has a transfer process. Ask the agency to make your business a partner on the catalog with Full control. Then, as a person with full control of your business portfolio, go to Settings > Data sources > Catalogs, select the catalog and click Claim twice. The agency gets a notification and accepts or rejects. If it accepts, the catalog moves to your portfolio at once and the agency stays on it as a partner with Full control until you remove it. Catalogs used for collaborative ads or for selling with Shops cannot be transferred.

Check it worked

The catalog now appears in the agency's own Settings under Data sources > Catalogs, among the catalogs shared with its business portfolio. Ask the agency to confirm, and to give its people access to it.

How to remove the access

Meta's catalog article does not describe removing a single partner from one catalog. To end the agency's access, remove it as a partner from your business portfolio: Settings > Partners, select the agency, click Options > Remove from business portfolio, then Remove partner. This removes the agency from your business portfolio, not only from the catalog. The offboarding guide covers the other assets.

Doing it with an access link

Our access link does not handle catalogs today. Use the steps above; the link covers Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts and datasets.