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Connecting your Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ad account lets Goose pull a daily performance report, review the ads you’re actually running, and learn what works for your brand — so the creatives it makes for you keep getting sharper. You connect by pasting in a System User access token from your Meta Business account. It sounds technical, but it’s a handful of clicks in Meta Business Settings. This page walks you through it.
There are two levels of access. Read‑only is all you need for reporting and creative analysis, and it’s the safest — Goose can look at your account but can never spend money or change anything. Read/write additionally lets Goose take actions (like pausing an ad) later on. Start with read‑only.

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Before you start

You’ll need:
  • A Meta Business (Business Manager) that owns — or has partner access to — your ad account.
  • A Meta App in that business. If you don’t have one: go to developers.facebook.com → My Apps → Create App → choose Business, then add it to your business under Business settings → Accounts → Apps.
  • Admin access to the business (only a business admin can create a system user and generate a token).

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Connect (read‑only)

1

Open System Users in Business Settings

Go to business.facebook.com/settings → Users → System users.
2

Add a system user

Click Add, give it a name like Gooseworks Ads, set the role to Employee, and create it.
3

Give it access to your app

Select the new system user → Assign assets → Apps → pick your Meta app → turn on Manage app (full control) → Save changes.
4

Give it access to your ad account

Still on the system user → Assign assets → Ad accounts → pick your ad account → turn on View performance → Save changes.
This is the step people skip — and it’s the one that breaks things. If you generate a token without assigning the ad account here, the token looks valid but can’t actually read your data, and the connection fails with “no ad accounts found.” Don’t skip it.
5

Generate the token

Click Generate new token → choose your app → set Token expiration to Never → check the ads_read permission → Generate token.
6

Copy it and paste it into Goose

Copy the token (Meta only shows it once). In Goose, open Settings → Connect Meta, paste the token, and pick your ad account if prompted. Done — Goose can now report on your account.

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Want Goose to take actions too? (read/write)

Read‑only covers all reporting and creative analysis. Only set this up if you want Goose to be able to act on your account (for example, pause an ad) — and note it can then affect a live, money‑spending account, so we always ask you to confirm each action. It’s the same steps as above, with three changes:
In step 2, choose Admin instead of Employee.
In step 4, turn on Manage campaigns (instead of, or in addition to, View performance).
In step 5, check both ads_read and ads_management before generating the token.

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What Goose can see

With a read‑only token, Goose can read:
  • Delivery metrics — spend, impressions, reach, frequency, clicks, CTR, CPC, CPM. These work for every account, no extra setup.
  • Your ad structure — campaigns, ad sets, and the creatives that are running.
  • Your creative images (and, where available, videos) so it can review what’s actually in your ads.
Conversions, cost‑per‑lead, cost‑per‑purchase, and ROAS only show up if your account has the Meta Pixel or Conversions API set up with conversion tracking. Without it, Goose will tell you tracking isn’t configured rather than guess — it never makes up numbers.

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Your access is safe

  • A read‑only token can only read — it can’t spend, launch, pause, or edit anything.
  • The token is encrypted at rest and only used to talk to Meta on your behalf.
  • You can revoke it anytime from Business Settings → System users → Generate new token (regenerating invalidates the old one), or disconnect it in Goose.

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Troubleshooting

The ad‑account assignment (step 4) was almost certainly skipped or saved without a permission. Go back to your system user → Assign assets → Ad accounts, make sure your account is listed with View performance turned on, then generate a fresh token and paste it again.
Only a business admin can generate a system‑user token, and the system user needs your app assigned first (step 3). If you’re not an admin, ask whoever owns the Business Manager to run these steps or make you an admin.
Tokens are shown only once. Just generate a new one (Generate new token) — this replaces the old token — and paste the new one into Goose.
That’s expected if your account doesn’t have the Meta Pixel / Conversions API tracking conversions. Delivery metrics (spend, clicks, CTR, etc.) still work; conversion metrics (CPA, ROAS) need tracking set up on your side.

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Next steps

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