Linking to an existing account

An account link is a powerful thing. When you link to another Microsoft Advertising account, you gain access and control over that account, including:

• Running campaigns
• Ability to take over billing and payment responsibilities
• Granting and removing account access by managing link requests
• Other account management activities

Conversely, if you give someone access to your account, that person—known as a direct manager—has full control to manage your account and your advertising. This includes the ability to take over billing as the bill-to customer responsible for billing and payments. Only one person can serve as the bill-to customer.

Direct managers can grant and remove account access to other direct managers by managing link requests. This means that a direct manager has the power to remove existing direct managers or add new direct managers. However, a direct manager can't remove other users on the account they're linked to (such as Super Admins, Standard Users, Advertiser Campaign Managers, or Viewers who are managed by the account owner).

Note

As an account owner, you always have control on who has access to your account. You can grant access for up to five direct managers on your account. You can also remove their access at any time, as well as take over billing from a direct manager at any time.

If you (as the account owner) unlink a direct manager who is serving as the bill-to customer, you'll become the bill-to customer. Be sure to have a payment method ready to keep your account from going on hold.

You can opt to take over billing when you link to an account. When you do so, you assume responsibility for all advertising charges, including any charges that are pending when the link is established. Therefore, it's best to have an agreement in place with the current bill-to customer (which may be the account owner or another third party) before proceeding with this optional step.

Taking over billing

If you take over billing, you'll need to have a valid payment method on hand. If you plan to prepay the account or use monthly invoice billing, take note:

• If you are trying to fund a prepay account that is in a country/region that taxes online services like Microsoft Advertising, we might be required to deduct tax from the prepay amount. Here are tax requirements for each country/region.
• For a monthly invoice account, you'll need to create an insertion order to serve ads, or else the account will be paused. If your account manager or Microsoft Advertising support creates a linking request on your behalf, it will include an insertion order that you can pre-approve. The insertion order becomes active on its effective date only if the account link is accepted. Learn more about insertion orders.

Keep in mind

Before you link to another account, you'll need to work with the account owner to have a few things ready:

• Have the account number of the account you'd like to link to.
• Determine the start date, which can be immediate or scheduled for a later date.
• Agree on who is responsible for billing.

FAQ

• Link to another manager account

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > All accounts.
  2. Select Accounts Summary > Requests.
  3. Select Link to a Microsoft Advertising manager account and all its accounts.
  4. Enter the Manager account number (alphanumeric) and Manager account ID (numeric).
     Note: Both must match the account you want to link.
  5. Enter the Start date (when you want to begin managing the account).
  6. Add an optional Note, which you can use as a helpful note to the account owner.
  7. Select Send request if you don't wish to take over billing, or select I will take over billing for this account for Who pays.
  8. Select How you pay (prepay, postpay threshold, or monthly invoice) and What you pay with (your payment method).
     Note: For monthly invoice accounts, we encourage you to create an insertion order so that the account will continue to serve ads even as the management responsibilities change hands.
  9. Select Send request.

  We'll email the account owner to let them know about your request. They have 30 days to respond. If they don't, the request is automatically declined.

• Link to one or multiple accounts

  In a bulk link request, you can request access for up to 1000 accounts.

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > All accounts.
  2. Select Accounts Summary > Requests.
  3. Select Link to one or multiple Microsoft Advertising accounts.
  4. Enter the Manager account number (alphanumeric) and Account number (alphanumeric).
     Note: Both must match the accounts you want to link.
  5. Create multiple links at once, up to your account limit.
     If you want to link accounts in bulk, choose Add in bulk, and add the manager account number and account number in pairs.
     Note: Your account limits for bulk linking are shown in Microsoft Advertising.
  6. Enter the Start date (when you want to begin managing the account).
  7. Add an optional Note, which you can use as a helpful note to the account owner.
  8. Select Send request if you don't wish to take over billing, or select I will take over billing for this account for Who pays.
  9. Select How you pay (prepay, postpay threshold, or monthly invoice) and What you pay with (your payment method).
     For monthly invoice accounts, we encourage you to create an insertion order so that the account will continue to serve ads even as the management responsibilities change hands.
  10. Select Next, and you'll see a summary of your request.
  11. Review and correct any errors.
  12. Select then Send request.

  We'll email the account owner to let them know about your request. They have 30 days to respond. If they don't, the request is automatically declined.

• Taking over billing

  As a direct manager, you can take over billing of any account you're linked to. If you're an account owner, you can resume billing responsibilities at any time by taking over billing. The steps are the same, regardless of account ownership. Be sure you have a payment method on file before starting:

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Billing and select Payment methods.
  2. If you have multiple accounts, choose one from the account selector in the top menu.
  3. In Billing summary, select Change who pays in the Who pays tile.
  4. You'll be directed to a new page where you can schedule the take over, specify How you will pay (prepay, postpay threshold, or monthly invoice) and What you pay with (your payment method).
     For monthly invoice accounts, we encourage you to create an insertion order so that the account will continue to serve ads even as the management responsibilities change hands.
  5. Select Submit.

  Note

  Unless it's scheduled for a later date, the billing take over will take place once the account owner accepts the linking request.

• Cancel a pending billing take over request

  You have until the day before a scheduled billing change takes place to cancel your take over request. If you don't cancel in time and the request is processed, you'll need to work with the account owner to identify a bill-to customer who can take over billing.

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Billing and select Payment methods.
  2. Select Billing summary.
  3. If you have multiple accounts, choose one from the account selector in the top menu.
  4. Select Pending Change (which will include the date of the scheduled take over) next to Who pays under Payment.
  5. You'll be directed to a new page, where you can cancel the pending change.

• Find your account link and unlink requests

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > All accounts.

  2. Select Accounts Summary > Requests. There, you'll see a grid containing account link and unlink requests.

  3. Select Received to display active requests you've received, which is the table's default view. If someone wants to link to your account, you'll see a request that contains three options:
     You can also display the full history of Received account link and unlink requests by switching the filter just above the table to Show all requests.

     • View, which will display the details of the linking request
     • Approve, which will grant account access to the requester
     • Reject, which will deny account access to the requester

  4. Select Sent to see active requests you've sent, which is the table's default view. You can display the full history of Sent account link and unlink requests by switching the drop-down menu to Show all requests.

  Note

  If you've sent a scheduled unlinking request in error, you can cancel it by selecting Cancel request. However, if you selected the unlink request time frame as Immediately, it can't be canceled as the account will be immediately removed from the previous manager account that it was linked to. If you unlinked from an account in error, please follow the instructions under Link to one account.

• Verify who has access to your account

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Settings and select Direct managers.
  2. Under Access, you'll see the Account owner, as well as any Direct manager who are linked to the account.
     If you want to remove a direct manager's access to your account, select Unlink to start the process. You'll be directed to a new page where you can confirm the date of when access will be removed.

• Stop managing a linked account

  If you no longer want to manage someone else's account, you need to unlink from them.

  Note

  If you unlink from a postpay threshold or a monthly invoice account where you are the bill-to customer responsible for billing, the account will be paused for up to 3 hours. No ads will serve while Microsoft Advertising settles outstanding charges. So before you unlink, we encourage you to work with the account owner to coordinate the downtime and to identify who will serve as the new bill-to customer on the account.

  1. Select Accounts.
  2. Select the Accounts Summary tab.
  3. Select the Management tab.
  4. Select the linked account.
  5. Select Unlink from account.
  6. Enter the Start date, which is the date you want to stop managing the account.
  7. Select Unlink.

  Note

  If you unlink from a postpay threshold or a monthly invoice account where you are the bill-to customer responsible for billing, the account will be paused for up to 3 hours. No ads will serve while outstanding charges are settled. So before you unlink, we encourage you to work with the account owner to coordinate the downtime and to identify who will serve as the new bill-to customer on the account.