How to give an agency access to your TikTok ad account in Business Center

If your TikTok ad account is in a Business Center, an admin of that Business Center clicks Partners > Add partner, enters the agency's Business Center ID, chooses the ad account and other assets and the permission, then clicks Next and Confirm, and the agency accepts. If the ad account is not in a Business Center, the agency requests access from its own Business Center with the ad account ID, and whoever created the ad account accepts in TikTok Ads Manager under Notifications > Business Center. With Operator, an agency can create and edit ads and manage finances, but cannot change the ad account's settings.

This page covers both directions: the advertiser who gives access, and the agency that asks for it.

Business Center or only an ad account?

TikTok calls Business Center a central space to manage your business and advertising on TikTok. In it, a partner is another business you work with to manage and build TikTok campaigns, such as an agency.

• Your ad account was created in a Business Center: a Business Center admin can add the agency as a partner, or the agency can request access and one of the ad account's admins accepts.
• Your ad account was created by a person and belongs to no Business Center: the agency requests access, and the person who created the ad account accepts it in TikTok Ads Manager.

Only Business Center Admin members can invite or remove partners, request access to ad accounts and share pixels or catalogs with partners. Standard members work only on what they are given. TikTok lists this in its roles and permissions article.

Client: add the agency as a partner

Ask the agency for its Business Center ID first. TikTok's add partners article gives these steps:

1. Log in to your TikTok Business Center.
2. In the left menu, click Partners.
3. Click Add partner.
4. Enter the agency's Business Center ID.
5. If TikTok asks whether to form a media agency partnership at the Business Center level, select Yes or No (see below).
6. Click Next.
7. Select the ad accounts and other assets the agency should reach, and set the permission for each.
8. Click Next and Confirm.

The agency accepts the invitation, then sees the shared accounts and assets in its own Business Center. TikTok's article also has a second method that starts from the partner's ad account ID instead of its Business Center ID.

Agency: request access to the ad account

You need to be an admin of your Business Center, and you need the client's ad account ID. TikTok's request access article gives these steps:

1. Log in to your TikTok Business Center.
2. In the left menu, click Accounts.
3. Under All accounts, go to Advertiser accounts.
4. Click Add advertiser account.
5. Click Request Access, then Next. If your Business Center has no ad accounts yet, just click Request Access.
6. Enter the client's ad account ID.
7. Choose the permission to request: Admin, Operator or Analyst.
8. If you choose Admin or Operator, confirm whether you are the primary media agency for this ad account with Yes or No.
9. Optionally, select other accounts and assets this ad account should be able to use.

TikTok then emails the ad account's owner to ask for approval. You cannot request access to a disapproved ad account.

Client: accept the agency's request

Who accepts depends on where the ad account was created:

• Created by a Business Center: one of the ad account's admins accepts.
• Created by a person, in no Business Center: the person who created the ad account accepts.

Both accept in TikTok Ads Manager. Log in, click the Notifications icon at the top right, and look on the Business Center tab.

Which permission to give

TikTok's ad account permissions, from its permissions article:

• Admin: manages the ad account's finances, settings and permissions, creates and edits campaigns, and views performance.
• Operator: manages finances, creates and edits campaigns, and views performance. It cannot change the ad account's settings.
• Analyst: views ads, performance data and reports.

Operator includes managing finances, which is more than the name suggests. Our advice:

• An agency that buys your media: Operator. Keep Admin with your own people, so only you change settings and permissions.
• An agency that only reports: Analyst.

The media agency partnership question

TikTok asks this when the agency gets Admin or Operator, or when a Direct Business Center and an Agency Business Center become partners. A media agency partnership marks the agency as the primary media buying agency for that ad account. Both sides can see the label, and both can end the partnership at any time. TikTok says the agency can use it to measure the spend it drives, and that it can later be used for incentive programs and deal management.

Answer Yes for the agency that buys media on the account. Answer No for an agency that only makes creative or reports. If TikTok finds another agency registered as the media buying agency for the account, it asks you to pick the current one.

TikTok's media agency article also recommends that clients own their ad accounts and give agencies access, which is what both routes on this page do.

Pixels, catalogs and other assets

The agency may also need your pixel or catalog. A Business Center admin shares them with the same partner:

1. Log in to your Business Center and click Partners.
2. Choose the agency.
3. On the You've shared tab, choose the type of account or asset and click Share assets.
4. Select the assets and permissions, then click Assign.

TikTok says only Business Center admins can share pixels, catalogs and other assets with partners. To run a TikTok post as an ad with a Spark Ads code, see the Spark Ads guide.

Troubleshooting

You cannot add a partner or request access

Only Business Center Admin members can. Ask an admin of the Business Center to do it, or to make you an admin.

The agency cannot request your ad account

TikTok does not allow requests for a disapproved ad account.

The client cannot find the request

The request appears in TikTok Ads Manager: click the Notifications icon at the top right and open the Business Center tab. The person who looks must be an admin of the ad account, or its creator if it belongs to no Business Center.

Change or remove the partner later

To change the agency's permission on an ad account:

1. In your Business Center, click Accounts in the left menu.
2. On the Advertiser accounts tab, click Filter and choose Owned by this Business Center.
3. In the Action column for the ad account, click View.
4. Click Partners, then Share with partner.
5. Select the agency and the new permission: Admin, Operator or Analyst.
6. Click Confirm.

Only admins of your own Business Center can do this, not the partner's admins. To remove the agency completely, click Partners, select the agency, click Delete on its detail page and Delete again to confirm. TikTok says the partner then loses access to every account and asset you had shared. Our guide to removing an old agency's access covers Meta and Google.