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Published on June 16, 2025

Meta Business Manager Setup Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Setting up Meta Business Manager might seem straightforward, but even seasoned advertisers make costly mistakes that hurt ad performance, delay campaigns, or even get accounts restricted. If you're running ads at scale—or planning to—your Meta setup needs to be flawless from day one.

Below, we’ll break down the most common Meta Business Manager setup mistakes and how you can avoid them to keep your campaigns running smooth, secure, and profitable.

1. Using a Personal Ad Account Instead of a Business Manager

One of the most common rookie mistakes is running ads through a personal account rather than setting up Meta Business Manager. This might work temporarily, but it comes with huge limitations:

  • No centralized access control
  • No multiple page or ad account management
  • No ability to assign roles for agencies or team members
  • Harder to scale or troubleshoot

Fix: Set up a proper Meta Business Manager from the beginning. It allows structured access to assets, better security, and full control over ad accounts, pages, pixels, and catalogs.

2. Not Verifying Your Domain

Meta requires domain verification for multiple functions, especially for proper event tracking and aggregated event measurement. If your domain isn’t verified, you could run into:

  • Poor tracking performance
  • Attribution issues
  • Ads being rejected or underperforming

Fix: Inside Business Settings, go to “Brand Safety” → “Domains” and follow the steps to verify ownership. You’ll need access to your DNS settings (or other methods like uploading a file).

3. Giving Wrong Access or Permissions to Team Members or Agencies

A lot of advertisers add people or agencies directly as admins to pages or ad accounts, bypassing the correct access flow. This creates:

  • Security risks
  • Lack of transparency
  • Difficulty in revoking access cleanly later

Fix: Always assign roles through the Business Manager’s “People” or “Partners” sections. Use the least privilege principle—only give what’s needed (e.g., analyst vs. admin).

4. Not Setting Up a Pixel Correctly

Your pixel is your campaign's brain. A poorly installed or unverified pixel means poor tracking, missed conversions, and wrong data decisions.

Common mistakes include:

  • Not placing the pixel on every page
  • Not setting up standard events (e.g., Purchase, Add to Cart)
  • Using the wrong pixel altogether

Fix: Use Meta's Event Setup Tool or manually place the pixel. Use tools like Facebook Pixel Helper to validate it. Double-check that you're tracking the right events for your goals.

5. Ignoring Business Verification

Many people skip this until Meta forces them to do it. But without completing business verification:

  • Your ad account could get disabled
  • You may lose access to certain features like Custom Audiences or domains

Fix: Submit your legal business information in the "Security Center" of Business Manager. It might take a few days, but it’s worth the wait to stay compliant and trusted by Meta.

6. Using Personal Payment Methods for Business Ads

Mixing personal and business payments is a recipe for accounting headaches—and even ad account restrictions.

Fix: Add a business credit card or payment method inside your Business Manager. Go to “Payment Settings” and make sure it’s linked to the right ad account.

7. Not Connecting Instagram and WhatsApp Properly

Meta’s ecosystem thrives on cross-platform functionality. If you don’t connect your Instagram and WhatsApp accounts properly, you’ll lose access to:

  • Instagram ads
  • Click-to-WhatsApp ads
  • Unified inbox and engagement tracking

Fix: In Business Manager, go to "Business Settings" → "Accounts" → "Instagram Accounts" or "WhatsApp Accounts" and connect them officially.

8. Skipping Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM) Setup

After Apple’s iOS 14 changes, Meta introduced Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM) to improve attribution. If you skip this step:

  • Your conversion campaigns may underperform
  • You’ll lose accuracy in reporting

Fix: In Events Manager, configure the top 8 events (in priority order) per verified domain. Make sure your most important conversion events are at the top.

9. Mismanaging Custom Audiences and Retargeting

Another overlooked area is audience structure. If you’re not organizing your Custom Audiences or forgetting exclusions:

  • You may waste budget on overlapping or incorrect targeting
  • Retargeting campaigns won’t perform well

Fix: Audit your Custom Audiences inside Ads Manager. Group them by funnel stages (cold, warm, hot). Use exclusions to keep targeting clean and avoid redundancy.

10. Not Setting Up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

This may seem minor, but skipping 2FA puts your account and client assets at risk. Hackers and account takeovers are more common than you think.

Fix: Require 2FA for all users inside Business Manager settings. Meta gives you an option to enforce it across your business.

Wrapping Up

Your Meta Business Manager is the foundation of everything you do in Facebook and Instagram advertising. One bad setup choice can lead to wasted budget, inaccurate tracking, or even account shutdowns.

At Pro Ads Shop, we help you set things up right - so your ads run smarter, your data flows clean, and your scaling isn’t held back by hidden setup issues.

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