How to give an agency access to your Microsoft Advertising account

Give the agency your Microsoft Advertising account number, an eight-character mix of letters and numbers that is not the account ID. The agency sends a link request from its own account, and you accept it within 30 days under Tools > All accounts > Accounts Summary > Requests > Received, which makes the agency a direct manager of your account. Microsoft strongly recommends that the account is created through Microsoft's own sign-up rather than under the agency's manager account, because an account created there cannot be unlinked from that agency later.

This page covers both sides: the advertiser who owns the account, and the agency that asks to manage it.

Link request or user invitation

Microsoft Advertising has two ways to let an agency in:

• A link request (the agency becomes a direct manager). Microsoft's agency article calls this the recommended process. The agency works from its own account and gets every campaign management task, such as setting budgets, creating ads and updating keyword bids. You can still sign in and view or edit everything.
• A user invitation. You invite one agency person by email and choose their role. Microsoft's article on hierarchies and multi-user access describes this as limited access for one user, which you remove person by person.

Our advice: use the link request when an agency manages the account, and an invitation for a single freelancer or for someone who should only see reports.

Create the account through Microsoft's sign-up

Microsoft's client article strongly recommends that you, or the agency, create a separate account for you through the Microsoft Advertising sign-up process, and that the agency then sends a link request. If the agency creates the account under its own manager account instead, Microsoft says the account cannot be unlinked from that agency, and you would have to re-create it to manage it yourself or switch agency.

Microsoft also says each client needs its own account.

Find your account number

The account number is not the account ID or the manager account ID. It is an eight-digit mix of numbers and letters. Microsoft gives two places to find it:

• In the upper left corner, select the manager account to see all account names and their account numbers in the dropdown menu.
• From the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > All accounts. Under Accounts summary > Performance, the account number is next to the account name in the Account name column.

Agency: send the link request

You need the Super Admin role on your user name, the client's account number and, if you will pay for the client's ads, a valid payment method on file. The steps from Microsoft's agency article:

1. From the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > All accounts.
2. Select Accounts Summary > Requests.
3. Select Link to account.
4. Under Linking details, choose to link to a Microsoft Advertising account, and enter the client's Account number.
5. Enter the Start date. Even with Immediately, you can only manage the account once the owner approves.
6. Optionally, add a Note for the account owner.
7. Select Send request. If you will pay for the account, select I will take over billing for this account instead, enter the payment details and then select Send request.

Microsoft emails the account owner and any other direct managers. The owner has 30 days to accept, after which the request is declined automatically.

Client: accept the agency's request

Microsoft emails you when an agency asks to manage your account. Microsoft's client article gives these steps:

1. From the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > All accounts.
2. Select Accounts Summary.
3. Select the Requests tab, then Received.
4. Under Actions, choose Accept request or Decline request.

Microsoft's client article says only a user with the Super Admin role can accept or decline a link request. Its roles article also lists Standard users as able to approve and reject requests to link a manager account to an account. If you cannot accept, ask a user with the Super Admin role.

Who pays

Decide this before the agency sends the request, because the agency chooses it when sending:

• The agency pays. It becomes the bill-to customer, pays Microsoft and bills you. Microsoft says the agency takes on all of the account's advertising charges, including charges in progress when you approve. If you have a prepaid balance, Microsoft refunds it to your original payment method.
• You keep paying. You pay Microsoft directly while the agency runs the campaigns.

With a monthly invoiced account, Microsoft says the managing agency can create, edit, approve and cancel insertion orders even when you are the bill-to customer.

Invite a person instead

To give one person access with a role, Microsoft's roles article gives these steps:

1. Sign in to Microsoft Advertising.
2. Go to Settings > User management.
3. Select Invite user.
4. Enter the person's email address.
5. Select the role.
6. Select Send invitation.

The person accepts from the invitation email. Microsoft's roles:

• Super: users, account settings, billing, campaigns and account-level operations. Microsoft says Super users can only be added at the manager account level, where they reach every current and future account.
• Standard: campaigns, account settings and day-to-day operations, with limited user and billing management.
• Campaign: creates, manages and optimizes campaigns, without account administration.
• Viewer: sees account information, campaign performance and reports, without making changes.

Our advice: Campaign for a person who runs the ads, Viewer for reporting, and Standard only if the person should also handle account settings and users.

Remove the agency later

To end an agency's management of your account, Microsoft's client article gives these steps:

1. From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Settings and select Direct managers.
2. Under Actions, select Unlink next to the agency.
3. Enter the date the agency should stop, or select Immediately.
4. Select Unlink accounts.

Microsoft's agency article adds that when an agency that is the bill-to customer on a postpay threshold or monthly invoice account unlinks, the account is paused for up to 3 hours while outstanding charges are settled, and no ads run. Agree with the agency when the unlink happens and who pays from then on.

To remove an invited person, go to Settings > User management, select the person, select Delete and confirm. Our guide to removing an old agency's access covers Meta and Google.

Troubleshooting

The agency cannot link to the account

Microsoft lists these reasons an account may not be eligible:

• The account was created under another manager account. It cannot be unlinked from that agency, so a new account is needed.
• The person sending the request does not have the Super Admin role.
• The account is inactive or restricted.

Microsoft also says only five direct managers can be linked to an account, and notes a temporary limit on the number of accounts that can be linked. If you hit that limit, contact Microsoft Advertising Support or your account representative.

The request disappeared

A request that is not accepted within 30 days is declined automatically. Ask the agency to send a new one.

The invited person did not get the email

Microsoft suggests checking the junk or spam folder, checking that the invitation went to the right address, and asking an administrator to resend it.

Doing it with an access link

Our access link covers the second route on this page, inviting a person, as a guided step. It shows the steps beside Microsoft Advertising's own screen, with the agency's email address to copy. Nobody signs in through the link for this: you send the invitation and say when it is done, and the agency confirms once it has accepted. What an agency can ask for is on the Microsoft Advertising integration page.