I recently found myself in a bit of a Facebook puzzle, and not one of those 35-piece jobs but one where you can’t even seem to find a corner piece.
When I started Brass Ring Social Media, I found myself with a ton of experience but a new Facebook Business Manager account nonetheless. One of the biggest challenges about having a new Business Manager account is that Facebook can be very stingy with its ad accounts, which are used to advertise and analyze on a client’s behalf.
I was able to pretty easily obtain a limit of five. After that, everything I tried seemed to hit a dead end until I learned a trick that worked for me. If you’re in the same boat, I hope it works for you, too!
First, in order to get beyond the initial limit of two ad accounts, you will need to process a successful payment in the account. This is rather straightforward as Facebook gives you a hint in your Business Manager settings.
At this stage, I was upgraded to a limit of five ad accounts. I reached out to Facebook chat several times to request an increase (this had worked for me in the past at my previous agency) but was told not only could I not request an increase, but that I also may not know at exactly what point I would be granted more ad accounts. The reps I chatted with each told me that it would depend on use and need, both of which I have plenty of. The solution provided instead was to have my clients create ad accounts that I could then access as a partner. While this works for some clients (at their preference), this can be an inconvenience for others, especially those smaller clients who are not active on Facebook personally.
Finally, during an unrelated chat session the representative asked if he could call me instead of chatting. During that call, I was able to put on my investigator hat and get some answers. He generously explained that the best way to get the ad account limit lifted is to:
Create an app on the Facebook Developers Dashboard. The app doesn’t need to be live. It doesn’t actually need to do anything at all. It simply needs to exist. Thankfully, I have experience with creating apps, but if you don’t you should have no trouble finding instructions for this online.
Then, he told me to go back to my Business Manager settings and check to see whether the business verification option was available. You can find this in the Security Center tab. Sure enough, it was available. Pre-app, this was grayed out. (I hate when things are grayed out, ha.) I completed that process, which involved submitting some of my business and tax paperwork.
A few days later, I received notification that my business was verified and my ad account limit increased to 30.
While I completely understand the need to ensure advertisers are responsible, I have to admit the whole thing was a bit mystifying. The good news is, my puzzle is complete and now I can focus on what really matters to be: solving business problems for my clients.
