Lesson 5.3: Connecting Software to Meta API

🎯 What Is an API?

An API is basically a secret tunnel between the software and Facebook. Instead of you clicking buttons on Facebook to create ads, the software uses this tunnel to do it for you.

You set it up once. After that the software can create ads, check results, turn stuff off — without you touching Facebook.

📋 Before You Start — Checklist

Connection Progress 0 / 0 complete

✅ Meta Business Manager set up (from Module 3) You need this before anything else
✅ Facebook Page connected to that Business Manager Your page needs to be linked
Step 1: Go to Meta Developers developers.facebook.com → Log In → My Apps → Create App
Step 2: Create Your App Select Business type, name it, connect your Business Manager
Step 3: Get Your Access Token Graph API Explorer → Add permissions → Generate token
Step 4: Paste Into the Software Settings → Meta Connection → paste token + Ad Account ID
Step 5: Test the Connection You should see your campaigns (or an empty list with no errors)

⚠️ If you're managing a client's account, THEY need to give you access through their Business Manager. Don't skip this. If you're missing anything, pause and go back to Module 3.

🌐 Step 1: Go to Meta Developers

Open your browser → go to developers.facebook.com
Click Log In (top right) — use the same Facebook account linked to your Business Manager
You'll land on the Meta for Developers dashboard
Click My Apps (top right)
Click Create App (green button)

⚙️ Step 2: Create Your App

App type: select Business
App name: something like My Agency Ads Tool (doesn't matter, only you see this)
Contact email: your email
Business portfolio: select your Business Manager
Click Create App
You might get a security check (captcha) — just complete it

"App" sounds scary — it's not. It's just a container that holds your connection keys. You're not building anything.

🔑 Step 3: Get Your Access Token

In your app dashboard, go to Tools in the left menu
Click Graph API Explorer
On the right side, you'll see a dropdown for User or Page — select User Token
Click Add a Permission → search and add these one by one:

ads_management

Lets the software create and edit ads

ads_read

Lets the software see your ad results

business_management

Lets it access your Business Manager

pages_read_engagement

Lets it read your Page info

Click Generate Access Token (blue button)
A popup asks you to authorize — click Continue through it
Copy that long token (the string of random letters and numbers)

🔴 NEVER share this token with anyone. Treat it like your bank password. Anyone with this token can control your ad account.

Heads up: this token expires after ~1 hour. The software will walk you through getting a long-lived one (lasts 60 days).

📋 Step 4: Paste Into the Software

Open the software
Go to Settings → Meta Connection (or API Settings)
Paste your access token
Enter your Ad Account ID — find this in Business Manager → Ad Accounts → the number that starts with act_
Click Connect or Save

🧪 Step 5: Test the Connection

In the software, go to Campaigns or Dashboard
If the connection works, you'll see your existing campaigns show up
If you don't have any campaigns yet, you'll see an empty list — that's fine, it means it connected

If you see your campaigns (or an empty list with no errors) — you're good. Connection works.

🔧 ⚠️ Troubleshooting

1. "Invalid token"

Token expired. Go back to Graph API Explorer, generate a new one.

2. "No ad account found"

Double-check your Ad Account ID. Make sure it starts with act_.

3. "Permissions error"

Go back and make sure you added ALL 4 permissions listed in Step 3.

4. "Business not found"

You need to be an admin on the Business Manager, not just an employee.

🚀 What's Next

✅ Brain (Claude Code) — connected

✅ Hands (Software → Facebook) — connected

➡️ Lesson 5.4: We set up the automation rules — the part that actually makes this thing run on autopilot.

🏷️ Tags

meta-apiaccess-tokenpermissionssoftware-setupconnectionstep-by-step