Best practices on Paid Media Platforms Accesses. Quick guide for Google Ads, Meta and Linkedin Ads

We know, we all had that stuck feeling…

Lost access to an old Inbox, 2nd Factor Authentication Code going somewhere we don't know, Change History with anonymous records, etc etc etc.

All these can be avoided with proper Best Practices on Paid Media Platforms Accesses.
Let's jump into them!

Login details

For login details/credentials/emails, we must avoid at all costs the usage of:

• Non-professional Emails;

• Non-nominal Emails;

• Non-proprietary Emails;

What are these? Let's go into detail below:

Non-professional Emails

Non-professional are emails not hosted on our own website domain like "johnsmith.googleads@gmail.com" or "johnsmith.meta@hotmail.com", etc.

Reasons to avoid:

When using non-professional emails all notifications from the accounts will be sent to the inboxes that aren't monitored daily, which means important notifications about disapproved ads and billing could be passed unnoticed and harm and suspend our client's accounts.

We can monitor those kind of inboxes? Yes, but this tends to be counterproductive and if we lose their access will have an impact on 2factor code and password resets.

Non-nominal Emails

Non-nominal means generic and collective used like "ppc@[YOUR AGENCY NAME].com" or "paidsocial@[YOUR AGENCY NAME].com".

Reasons to avoid:

Non-nominal logins don't leave user and timestamp registration on any operational edits across any account which means it is easy to lose track of which actions were done by whom on any platform.

Same as above lost access to non-nominal Inboxes will impact 2factor code, password resets, etc.

Non-proprietary Emails;

Non-proprietary means owned externally by third parties like "marketing@[YOUR CLIENT NAME].com" or "media@[YOUR CLIENT NAME].com".

Reasons to avoid:

On the agency side, employees don't usually have access to clients' Inboxes, which will impact disapproved ads and billing notifications, 2nd-factor code processes, password resets, etc.

So, the Best Practice for login details

OK, so what to do if we cannot use all the above? Very simple, ALWAYS use your professional email.

You know, that one that generally uses this naming convention: [YOUR NAME.YOUR LASTNAME]@[YOUR AGENCY NAME].com

Using it we can easily:

• Recover passwords in minutes;

• Receive 2nd Factor Authentication codes straightaway;

• Be notified directly of disapproved ads;

• Be notified directly on billing issues;

• Register properly accounts optimisations and actions on Change History.

Now digging into Accesses per Platform

Now let's have a look specifically per channel/platform:

Google Ads

The initial step for Google Ads agency access is to have an MCC (My Client Centre).
Basically, it's a suite that aggregates all clients' accounts in just one place, one screen, one access.

A few benefits:

Quick Access

It makes day-by-day easier by centralizing all accounts in one place so no need to open incognito browsers, login/logout from Google accounts, etc.
All are listed together with one single login.

Data aggregation

All data is combined in one place, let's say you'd like to quickly check "How much did we spend last month across all clients in Google Ads?".
That info is accessible in a few seconds on one screen.

Google Ads Partners Program

It's a way to build a reputation with Google Ads by showing all the investment consolidated, all Optimization Scores, all Certifications. With that in place, we can earn the Google Ads badge which improve our image and reputation on the market.

Billing

With the MCC we can set up payment profiles for payments via invoice.

Certifications

The Skillshop (where the Certifications are centralized) has a plug-and-play integration to show us how many of the employees are certified or not in every type like Search, Display, Video, Mobile, App, Shipping, etc.

Integrations

Whenever we use other tools like Google SA360 or Google Campaign Manager, all integrations are easier to action via MCC/accounts.

Conversion setup

In some cases, one single pixel at the MCC level can be deployed to more than one account at the MCC umbrella, which makes all conversion setup more organized.

Meta

The initial step for Meta is to have a proprietary Meta Business Manager.
Similar to the Google Ads MCC, Meta Business Manager it's a suite that aggregates all clients' assets in one single place.

Some clients can have their own Meta Business Manager, but that's not an issue, it's actually a best practice, let me explain.
By default, Meta Business Manager owns assets, i.e. have their own Facebook Page, Instagram account, Ad Account and Pixel.
Then, what an agency Meta Business Manager does is just "ask for access" to all those assets to act as an agency.
In the end, we have the ideal scenario which is: "owned by the client, granted access to the agency".

Important to mention that via Meta Business Manager assets are connected to each other, for example:
There is an Ad Account that needs a connection to a Facebook Page, an Instagram account (both mandatory to push campaigns live), and the Pixel to track conversions.

All this setup is done by the Meta Business Manager.

People Tab on Meta Business Manager

Another Meta Business Manager characteristic is the "People" tab.
In there, we add all the people who will have access to any specific assets in a customized way.
Important to mention that the invites to new "People" go via professional email, and then Meta automatically merges personal account + professional email.

Again, non-professional, non-nominal and non-proprietary email should NOT be used here.

LinkedIn Ads

The LinkedIn Business Manager follows the same principles as Meta Business Manager, a suite that aggregates all clients' assets in one place.

With a small difference: pixels/tracking setup isn't visible at LinkedIn Business Manager. Apart from that, the main assets, i.e Ad Account, Pages, Billing, Matched Audiences, are all aggregated in there.

That's a huge help on LinkedIn access as without it, the way of inviting "People" to a LinkedIn Ad Account is via purely their name so when adding people with common names (like hundreds with the same First Name + Last Name) is always challenging to find the correct person.

Now, the professional email invitation is more reliable and quicker via the professional email Inbox.

Conclusion

This is a top-level playbook which applies to other paid media platforms in general, but please let us know if you need a deeper "user's manual style" with step-by-step screenshots and we'll help with that. :)