Facebook Business Manager - A Necessary Evil For Data Control

The Problem: Confusion, Mistrust & Stress

Of all the tools marketers have to be familiar with, Facebook Business Manager may very well be the least user friendly, and most misunderstood. Unfortunately, as Henry Innis described for Mumbrella many advertisers who believe they are in control of their Facebook data, actually are not.

One reason for the lack of control, as Innis points out, is agencies keeping a firm grip on access to data, to control the narrative. Some agencies prefer to work behind an iron curtain, often under the guise of “IP protection”. They can then provide ‘custom reporting’ on metrics of their choosing, only drip feeding raw data here and there when it contributes to the pretty picture they want to portray.

A second reason, less malicious reason is that Facebook Business Manager (and access settings within) is a surprisingly complex, misunderstood and time consuming beast. Often the path of least resistance (for agencies under time pressure) is to set up campaigns within their own system, eliminating the need to patiently explain to clients how to provide the access required.

The Solution: A Dedicated Business Manager That Owns Your Assets

If set up correctly from the start , Facebook Business Manager makes perfect sense:

“a free tool developed by Facebook to allow businesses and agencies to securely manage their company’s Pages and ad accounts they work on in one place, without sharing login information or being connected to their coworkers on Facebook “

• Goinflow.com

In reality, most businesses started with a Facebook page (set up in 2008 by an intern no longer with the company) and then retrofit the accompanying marketing tools (Ad accounts, pixels, catalogs, Instagrams etc etc) onto that original page without ever taking the time to properly structure a Facebook Business Manager.

The result being a tangled web of partial and incomplete access, unrequited user requests, frustration, and lost passwords. Facebook‘s lacklustre support services and out of date instruction manuals do little to remedy the situation. The bad news? There is no easy fix!

To have complete control of your Facebook data, a member of staff will have to:

• Understand Facebook Business Manager structure
• Understand how access is given and received
• Be willing and able to spend time getting the house in order, and
• Be confident enough to stand up for the interests of the company when an agency tries to do the wrong thing.

In an ideal world your Business Manager structure should look like this: