Meta Business Suite, business portfolio (Business Manager) and Ads Manager: what each one is for

Business Manager is the old name for a business portfolio: the container that holds a business's Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts and datasets, together with the people and partners who may work on them. Meta Business Suite is the tool you manage the portfolio in, and its Settings is where access is given. Ads Manager is where ads are built and run. So when an agency asks to be "added in Business Manager", the client opens Meta Business Suite > Settings > Partners, not Ads Manager.

Meta has renamed several of these, and the old names still appear in some of its own help pages and menus. This guide gives one definition per tool from Meta's help pages, then the old and new names, then where each kind of access lives.

What each one is

Business portfolio (formerly Business Manager)

Meta describes a business portfolio as the place where an organization brings its Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, Threads accounts, ad accounts, catalogs and other business assets together, so it can manage them and the people who access them from one place. Meta's own phrase is "a Meta business portfolio (formerly called Business Manager)".

Three facts matter for access:

• Each asset belongs to one portfolio. A Page or ad account can sit in only one business portfolio at a time.
• You may already have one. Meta says that if you connect two assets, such as an Instagram account and a Page, and neither is in a business portfolio, Meta creates a new portfolio for you. So a business can have a portfolio that nobody remembers setting up.
• Some things need one. Meta lists using Meta Business Suite, monthly invoicing, ads about social issues, elections or politics, verifying a domain and publisher block lists.

Meta Business Suite

Meta Business Suite is the free tool, on desktop and in a mobile app, for running a business's presence on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp: posts and the content calendar, Inbox, insights and simple ads or boosts. It needs a business portfolio to work.

For access, the part that matters is Settings. Meta lists these sections there: Users (people, partners and system users), Accounts, Data sources, Brand safety, Registrations, Integrations, Payments, Security center, Requests, Notifications and Business info. The All tools menu in Business Suite on desktop also leads to Ads Manager, Events Manager, Business Support Home and Billing & payments.

Ads Manager

Meta Ads Manager is the tool for creating and managing ads on Facebook, Instagram and Meta's other apps. A campaign holds one or more ad sets, and each ad set holds one or more ads. Meta Business Suite can make simple ads and boosts; Meta points to Ads Manager for detailed campaigns with advanced targeting.

Ads Manager is not where a business portfolio's access is managed. It has its own roles for one ad account: Admin, Advertiser and Analyst, which a direct admin of the ad account sets in Ad account settings under Ad account roles. For ad account access managed through a business portfolio, Meta's article on these roles points you to adding the ad account to the portfolio instead.

Events Manager and datasets

Events Manager is where a business's event data, the actions people take on its website, in its app or in its store, is shown. Meta is gradually merging website, app, offline and messaging events into one view called a dataset. A pixel may have been converted to a dataset automatically, and when an existing pixel is linked to a dataset, the dataset ID is the same number as the pixel ID. Sharing it with an agency is covered in how to share a dataset or pixel.

Old names and new names

These are the renames Meta's own pages state, plus the places where the old name is still on screen:

• Business Manager is now business portfolio. The old name lives on: when you ask Meta for full control of a portfolio, the issue to pick in Business Support Home's chat is still called Business Manager admin dispute.
• Full control is now full access. Meta's permissions article says "full access (formerly full control)", and many Meta help pages still say full control. Both mean the top level.
• Employee role is now basic access, the default for people added to a portfolio.
• Developer role is now apps and integrations.
• Business Settings: Meta's help calls the area Settings in Meta Business Suite, but its ad account article still says some screens show an Open Business Settings button.
• Pixel and dataset: the Meta Pixel still exists as one source of website events; the dataset is where its events now sit, under the same ID when the pixel is linked to it.

The glossary keeps short definitions of these terms.

Where access is given

Which place you use depends on who gets access and to what. The first is the one meant for agencies: Meta describes partners as other businesses, such as agencies, that you work with.

1. Partners, for a business such as an agency. In Meta Business Suite, Settings > Partners (under Users) > Add > Give a partner access to your assets. The agency needs its own business portfolio and tells you its ID. The steps are in how to give an agency partner access.
2. People, for a named person in your own business. Settings > People > Invite people. The person accepts an invitation sent to the email address of their Facebook account and gets basic access unless you choose more.
3. Page access, for a Facebook Page that is not in a business portfolio. It is set on the Page itself on Facebook, as Facebook access (full or partial control) or task access. See giving an agency access to a Facebook Page.
4. Ad account roles, for an ad account that is not in a business portfolio, in Ads Manager's Ad account settings.

Ads need two of these at once. Meta says that to advertise for a Page you need full control or partial access with Ads on the Page, and an Admin or Advertiser role on the ad account.

Who owns what

Ownership is not the same as access.

• A Page in your portfolio is owned by your business. Meta says that when you add a Page to your business portfolio, your business owns it.
• A Page shared with you is not. Meta says that when you request access to another person's or business's Page, it shows in your portfolio with their name as the owner.
• Only the owner can pass an asset on. Meta says only the organization that owns an asset can share it with another business portfolio, even if a partner has full control of it.
• An ad account's owner is its Admin. Meta says the owner of an ad account automatically has the Admin role.

To check, open Settings > Accounts > Pages or Ad accounts in Meta Business Suite. The Facebook Page guide explains how to read what you see.

Do you need a business portfolio?

To give an agency partner access, yes: partner access is given from your business portfolio, and only for assets in it. One person at an agency can be given task access to a Page without a portfolio, but then you manage each person yourself.

Meta's steps to create one start at business.facebook.com: open the dropdown menu below Home in the top left, click Create a business portfolio, enter a name that matches your business's public name, add your name and business email if asked, and click Create or Create portfolio. Before you make a new one, check whether you already belong to one; how to find a business portfolio ID shows where to look. Then the access checklist lists what an agency asks for next.