Facebook Business Manager was originally created with agencies in mind. Business Manager allows users to pull in employees or contractors as well as client Facebook Pages and Ads account, and assign those employees to work on those various client Pages and Ads accounts…all in one interface. Over time, Business Manager has expanded to include Instagram accounts, your Facebook Pixel, Domain Verification, conversion events, and more. To have and manage a Facebook Page still does not require you to also have a Business Manager. However, Facebook has slowly been adding functionality to its platform that requires use of Business Manager to take advantage of. This post will walk you through accepting an invitation to manage a Page that’s part of Business Manager as well as give you a brief look around the Business Manager interface.
Accepting an Invitation to Facebook Business Manager
To start, you’ll receive an email invitation asking you to manage the Facebook Page using Business Manager.
After clicking the Get Started button, you’ll be asked to enter the first and last name you’d like to use inside that Business Manager.
To move deeper into Business Manager, click on “Business Settings” in the menu on the left sidebar. If you don’t see Business Settings in the list, first click on the icon with the 9 dots to reveal the full menu.
You’ll see the horizontal navigation across the top that directs you to features like your Ads account and payment info. If you hover over the person icon on the left side, a vertical menu pops out revealing features like People, Pages, Ad Accounts, Pixels, etc.
I was Added to Business Manager, but Can’t Access the Facebook Page (or Ads Account)
Part of the confusion and challenge many small business owners face when learning how to navigate inside Business Manager comes from the additional layers of the interface and steps you have to go through compared to simply visiting the Page Roles section of your Facebook Business Page to add a new Admin or Editor. Because Business Manager was originally created with agency use in mind, think of it this way: An agency owner might add 10 employees to its Business Manager, then assign 2 employees to Client A’s Facebook Business Page, 3 employees to Client B’s Facebook Business Page and Ads account, and then 5 employee’s to Client C’s Facebook Page, Catalog, and Ads Account. So, Step 1 with Business Manager is being added *to* the Business Manager. Step 2 is being assigned access to the various Facebook assets that are a part of the Business Manager.
If you are having trouble getting access to a Facebook Business Page or Ads account after being invited to work in a Business Manager, chances are it’s because you haven’t been granted access to those assets after you accepted the invitation to work in the Business Manager.
Important Notes about Facebook Business Manager
It’s important to note that there’s a difference between “Request Access” and “Add a Page/Ads Account” within Business Manager. In order for a Page owner to retain ownership and ultimate control over their Facebook Business Page and Ads account, they need to either invite others to work in their Business Manager *OR* have others request access to their Page and Ads account if the person helping to manage a Page and Ads account is already using Business Manager for themselves. The “Add” option is to add a Page or Ads account you already own into Business Manager, and should not be used if you are trying to request access to a Page that’s not yours, simply to manage that Page in your Business Manager.
You would want to use “Add a Page” when you are setting up Business Manager for yourself to manage the Pages you personally own.
Setting up Business Manager and inviting others to help you manage your Page and Ads account the correct way means the business owner retains their ownership of their Facebook Page and Ads account. I’ve seen this setup incorrectly when I’ve been brought in to an Ads account behind a previous agency. From the admin area of the Facebook Page, it showed that the old agency was the Page Owner instead of any of the people who actually owned that business. When this happens, the business owner cannot simply remove the agency from his Page; he needs to ask his former agency to go in and release his Page from their Business Manager account.
Accepting your Facebook Page into Business Manager
Although this post was written for folks who were be invited to work in Business Manager, I’ve been getting more and more questions about where to find the notification for your Business Page being move into Business Manager as well. Once your Facebook Page has been added to a Business Manager, you as the Page Admin will need to approve that request. To do so, you’ll need to visit your Facebook Business Page (not inside Business Manager, but as you would visit your Business Page before Business Manager was invented). Visit Settings –> Page Roles, and you’ll find the request that needs to be approved.
Once approved, you’ll see your new Business Manager showing as the Page Owner above the Admins of the Business Page.
Here’s how to move your Facebook Business Page and Ads account into Business Manager.
And here’s how to request access to a Facebook Business Page and Ads account using Business Manager.
What has your experience been using Business Manager?
Hello LizJostes,
Thanks for share our knowledge. Can you tell us how we can transfer the page pwnership from one Facebook Business Manager to another. I’ve created a Facebook Business Manager for a friend of mine and i wanted to add his business pages to the business manager but i can’t because they are owned by another business manager.
The business manager that “owns” the Page would need to click to “remove” those Pages from that Business Manager. Once that’s done, you can help your friend claim those Pages in his own Business Manager. Too often, people don’t realize there’s a difference between requesting access or claiming a Page, and business owners end up losing control of their own Pages. Good luck!
Thanks for the info Liz, very helpful. I am trying to add a page into my business manager account, but my request for the page is pending and has been for a few days. I am an admin on the page, but have still not received any emails or alerts regarding the request so that i can accept and integrate it into my Business Manager account. Do you know why this could be and where the request should be coming through to so I can accept?
Thanks,
Iris
Hi Iris,
If you go to your Business Page and visit Settings –> Page Roles, do you see it there?
No, it just keeps saying it is a pending request. I have read in some other areas that since I am an admin ont he page I am trying to add it should just add automatically, but it isn’t and tow other admins on the page have also not received request notifications.
Hi Iris, I’ve been having the exact same problem – did you ever find a resolution? I AM an admin on the page and I still cannot locate where the approval request is.
ER Team, thanks for the informative blog post. Did you have any other suggestions? Is it another FB bug and if so, any suggestions of a workaround?
Hi Jen,
Are you looking for the approval to add the Page to a Business Manager or your personal invite to work in a Business Manager?
Have you tried canceling out the request and re-doing? No, it’s definitely not an automatic thing.
I’m looking for the approval to add the Page to a Business Manager. In fact, I’ve just tried setting up my own Business Manager account and am trying to add 2 different pages and both say the same thing – Request Pending. But I cannot locate the “request” to approve anywhere for either of them. I own one of the pages, and the other page is a client page that I have admin access to.
Have you added yourself to the Biz Mgr for each Page? If you have and you can see yourself as a person who has been granted access to each Page, then I’d suggest deleting and retrying the invitation. Sometimes the invites just don’t seem to go through, and you need to redo them.
Have you added yourself to the Page inside Biz Mgr? I know that seems like a silly thing to need to do, but you can set up a Biz Mgr even for your own Page but still need to add yourself to it.
Hey Jen,
Were you able to find the solution to this problem? I’m facing the same issue on my Business Manager. I’m the admin of the page i’m trying to add yet the request is pending and I can’t find a way to accept the request.
Hi Prerna,
Have you added yourself to the Biz Mgr for the Page? It seems redundant, but you need to add yourself as a person to manage the Page inside Biz Mgr, too. Being an admin of the Page isn’t enough.
I have the same problem.. I tried to request access to a page I’m the admin of. The request is still pending and I cannot cancel the request. I added myself as a person to my business manager, but I cannot add myself as person to this page, since the request is still pending. But I just can’t find out where I can accept this request!
Hi Sacha,
To confirm your moving of your Page into your Business Manager, you’ll need to visit your Page (outside of Business Manager), then click Settings –> Page Roles. On the Page Roles page, you’ll see the pending request. You’ll click to accept/verify there. Thanks!
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately there’s no request there.
I think it was a bug within Facebook, because today I disconnected everything and connected everything again. And not it finally works!
Raj, you can remove a Page or Ads account that’s been put inside Business Manager. Once you do, you can try re-connecting again.
Anne, you can remove a Page or Ads account that’s been put inside Business Manager. Once you do, you can try re-connecting again.
Hi guys. Great post. Has anybody ever had a problem with viewing added pages and ad accounts. I can see them in Business settings but not in the Facebook Business Manager!?
Are these pages and ads account that you personally (Profile) were added to or that were being added to your Business Manager? When I visit Business Settings, I’m shown a list of all the Biz Mgrs I have some type of access to. What are you seeing?
Hi. Thank you for your answer. I found the problem. I had to assign new users to the account that was added to FB BM. Now I see new assets on FB BM page.
Best, Aho
“Your request for access is pending” for a FB business page I want to link to add to a business manager I just created for the page. I have admin access and am logged in as the page owner. Where do I find this request and accept it?
Hi Amanda,
Have you added yourself as a someone to manage the Page inside Biz Mgr as well? You need to add yourself to the Page once inside Biz Mgr. Being an admin of the Page in the traditional way doesn’t automatically add to you manage the Page inside Biz Mgr.
can you please describe how to do this? I’m stuck in this as well.
Hi Viara,
Here are 2 other posts that look at how to work inside Biz Mgr.
https://www.elirose.com/2019/04/how-request-business-manager-access-to-facebook-page-ads-account/
https://www.elirose.com/2018/10/moving-facebook-page-ads-account-to-business-manager/
How do I resend an invitation to a people into my business manager.
You’ll need to cancel the pending invitation first, and then repeat the invite process.
Hi, i recieved an email like the one above but i found out it was a scam and i think i may have been hacked as i cant post on my page now or edit admin roles. The page is http://www.facebook.com/tkwatr
Please can you help me as i need to either regain control back or sort something i am needing help asap please.
Hi Joe,
The best place to start is with Facebook Help. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/business/help
Hello,
I kinda have a weird situation. Hoping you can help. We manage a web page for our University. This page has changed hands several times over the years. I am currently listed as an admin on the page but access to business page is still pending. Where is the request to page pending? Should it not come back to one of the admins? I had the rest of the admins check their inboxes and nothing. I don’t want to delete the page but I don’t know what else to do and Facebook is impossible to get a hold of.
Thanks for your help on this!
Alex
Hi Alex,
So, do you have a Business Manager already setup, and you are trying to add this Page into that Business Manager? Have you added yourself under Users –> People? Have you tried deleting the Page request from inside Business Manager and re-requesting it?
Hi guys, thank you for the insight.
Is it possible to lose my page by accepting an invite from an Advert Account.
Hey Nicholas,
No, you won’t lose a Business Page or Personal Profile by accepting an invitation to another user’s ads account.