Getting started
Set up your own Meta (Facebook/Instagram) advertising
Your personal account, your page, your business portfolio, your ad account, your card — Mmedia only receives partner access, which you can revoke with one click. This guide covers every step, including the traps. About 30 minutes; if you already have a page and a business portfolio, roughly half of it is already done. Meta does not require a registered company: a sole trader follows the same five steps, and where the wording differs the step says so.
Why you set it up yourself
Everything roots in your personal account
On Meta, the page, the business portfolio and the ad account all hang off a personal Facebook account — yours or your staff’s. That account must stay in your hands; nobody should hold it for you.
Your card never touches us
The card binds inside your own ad account. We only ever see whether the account can serve ads — never the card.
Borrowed accounts get banned
Borrowed, bought or proxy-held accounts are where Meta bans hit hardest — and one restricted asset drags down everything linked to it. The only clean path: your accounts, your assets, partner access for us to do the work.
The five steps
- 1
Harden your personal account (10 min — don’t skip)
Turn on two-factor authentication using Google Authenticator — in our own testing, Meta does not accept codes from Apple’s password app. Write the recovery codes down offline. Confirm the email and phone on the account are yours and current. And if this account was ever added to someone else’s business portfolio — a former employer, an old agency — leave it before going further: an old portfolio with problems can drag down everything you build next. One thing worth knowing now: this same check reappears the first time you open Ads Manager in any given browser, with a message about access from a new browser. That is the normal mechanism, not a problem with your account. Complete it once in the browser you plan to keep using and tick “remember this device”.
- 2
Company page (5 min — skip if you have one)
Create your company page with the personal account: real company name, logo, a short intro and your website link. Post two or three normal business updates before any advertising — a brand-new empty page that starts advertising immediately is a known trigger for Meta’s risk systems.
Sole trader — Name the page with your trading name, or your own name if that is what customers know you by. A page is required either way — Meta runs every ad in a page’s name, so this is how ad accounts are structured, not a test of whether you are a registered company.
- 3
Business portfolio (5 min — skip if you have one)
At business.facebook.com create a business portfolio with your company’s legal name and a company email (a verification email arrives — confirm it). Then bring your page into the portfolio: Add assets → Pages → since you are the admin, it takes effect immediately.
Sole trader — Use your own legal name and your own email — the field asks for a business name, and for a sole trader that is you. The portfolio is what lets you grant partner access to us later; a bare personal ad account cannot do that, which is why this step is not optional.
- 4
Ad account and company card (10 min)
Portfolio settings → Ad accounts → Create a new ad account (not “request access to an existing one”). Two settings are locked at creation and can never be changed: time zone (your company’s location) and currency (your local currency) — get them right the first time. Bind a company credit card, not a personal one. New accounts start with a daily spending ramp-up limit; small budgets in the first week or two are Meta’s design for every new account, not a fault.
Sole trader — Set the time zone to where you trade, and bind your personal card — the line above about company cards applies only if you trade through a company. The card sits in your own ad account either way.
- 5
Authorize Mmedia (2 min)
Portfolio settings → Partners → Add → “Share assets with a partner”. Enter Mmedia’s Business ID: 1023858430473771. Assign two assets: your ad account with “Manage ad account” (so we can run campaigns), and your page with “Create ads” (ads run in your page’s name). From then on we operate for you — but the owner is always you, and the Remove button in your partner list is always yours.
Quick answers
I do not have a company — can I still advertise?
Yes. Meta never asks for a company registration to run ordinary ads. You do still need a Facebook page and a business portfolio, but those are how Meta structures ad accounts and partner access — not a company requirement. Fill the business-name fields with your trading name, or your own name if that is what customers know.
Opening Ads Manager asks me to verify again — is my account in trouble?
No — it is a separate gate. Being signed in to Facebook is not the same as being cleared for the business platform, which asks for two-factor verification the first time you open Ads Manager in a given browser. Do it once in the browser you plan to keep using and tick “remember this device”; a new computer or a new Chrome profile will ask again. We hit this ourselves and read it as a ban at first — it is not one.
I am in real estate or mortgage — are there extra restrictions?
Some, and fewer than the overseas coverage suggests. Ads in housing, financial services and a few other categories are declared to Meta as a special ad category — we make that declaration, you do not have to. In September 2026 we measured the effect directly against the platform for New Zealand: age, gender and interest targeting all remain available, and the one constraint we found is a minimum radius of 17km around any address or map pin.
Do I ever give Mmedia my card details?
Never. You bind the card yourself; ad spend goes from your card to Meta. Mmedia only charges its own service fee, separately.
Do I need business verification?
Usually not for regular advertising. Meta only requires it in special cases (restricted ad categories, certain API permissions). If it ever comes up, we walk it with you.
Do I need an Instagram account?
Optional. Ads can run on Instagram placements in your page’s name without one. If you have an official IG account, connecting it in the portfolio is a plus.
Can Mmedia see or operate my personal account?
No. Partner access reaches only the specific assets you assign inside the portfolio. Your personal account, friends and feed have nothing to do with us.
What if the account gets restricted?
Most common during the new-account ramp-up. Appeals run through Meta’s own process, inside your own account — which is exactly why the assets must be in your name: you are the appealing party, and no third party touches your documents.
What if I get stuck on any screen?
Send a screenshot to contact@mmedia.biz — we set up our own Meta assets through this exact flow and will point you to the exact button.