Ad account glossary, defined from the platforms' own pages.
An ad account is where your campaigns, billing settings and spending limits live on an ad platform, and it usually sits inside a business account above it. Below are the words around it, as Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat and X use them.
What is an ad account?
Snapchat's definition is the shortest we found. Going by Snap's developer pages, an organization owns the ad account, the ad account holds the campaigns, and one or more funding sources pay for them. X's developer pages describe an advertising account that links straight to the money paying for it and to the handles whose posts it can promote. On TikTok an ad account keeps its own budgets, campaigns and performance data, and its time zone and currency can't be edited once it exists.
Above it sits a business account, a business portfolio on Meta, a manager account on Google, a Business Center on TikTok and an organization on Snapchat. On Google an ad account can also stand alone, and one email address can hold up to 20 of them.
Agency ad account
It has its own guide, what agency ad accounts are and how to get them, so we don't repeat it here.
One job, five names
The five platforms we read have the same pieces under different names.
| Job | Meta | TikTok | Snapchat | X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The business account above | Business portfolio | Manager account, or MCC | Business Center | Organization, set up in Snap Business Manager | None we found. Each ads account links its funding sources and handles |
| People and roles | Full or partial access, finance access on top | Administrative, Standard, Read only, Email only, Billing | Admin and Standard, Finance Analyst and Finance Manager | Roles on the organization and on each ad account | Account administrator, Ad manager, Creative manager, Campaign analyst, Organic analyst |
| A cap you set | Ad account spending limit | Account budget, on monthly invoicing | Budget Manager spending cap | Ad account spend cap | Not on the pages we read |
| A cap the platform sets | Daily spending limit | Account-level daily spending limit, common on new accounts | No fixed cap for new accounts that we found | None we found | Credit limit |
The business account above
- Meta
- Business portfolio
- Manager account, or MCC
- TikTok
- Business Center
- Snapchat
- Organization, set up in Snap Business Manager
- X
- None we found. Each ads account links its funding sources and handles
People and roles
- Meta
- Full or partial access, finance access on top
- Administrative, Standard, Read only, Email only, Billing
- TikTok
- Admin and Standard, Finance Analyst and Finance Manager
- Snapchat
- Roles on the organization and on each ad account
- X
- Account administrator, Ad manager, Creative manager, Campaign analyst, Organic analyst
A cap you set
- Meta
- Ad account spending limit
- Account budget, on monthly invoicing
- TikTok
- Budget Manager spending cap
- Snapchat
- Ad account spend cap
- X
- Not on the pages we read
A cap the platform sets
- Meta
- Daily spending limit
- Account-level daily spending limit, common on new accounts
- TikTok
- No fixed cap for new accounts that we found
- Snapchat
- None we found
- X
- Credit limit
Ask which platform a word comes from.
A seller's word and a platform's word can mean different things. This is the short list.
- BMBusiness portfolio, on Meta
- MCCManager account, on Google
- BCBusiness Center, on TikTok
- Threshold accountPostpay with a payment threshold, on Google
- WhitelistedNo platform tier we found
- UnlimitedOn TikTok, a Budget Manager setting with no cap
Where accounts live
Ad account limits
How many ad accounts a person or a business account can hold. Meta caps a person at 25, while on Google and TikTok the number depends on spend or on the type of Business Center. More in running 100+ ad accounts.
Meta, ad account limitsGoogle, manager account limitsTikTok, ad accounts in Business Center
Business CenterTikTok
TikTok's workspace for ad accounts, assets, people and partners. It owns its ad accounts, so access is given and taken back without anyone sharing a login.
TikTok, Business CenterTikTok, ad accounts in Business Center
Business portfolioMeta
Meta's container for Pages, Instagram profiles, ad accounts, apps and pixels. An asset belongs to one portfolio only, and a person can create up to two. Buyers often call it the BM.
Manager account, or MCCGoogle
A Google Ads account for managing other Google Ads accounts from one place. It's a new account you create, not an upgrade, and monthly invoicing needs one. More in Google Ads agency accounts.
OrganizationSnapchat
Snapchat's business account, set up through Snap Business Manager. Snap describes it as a brand, partner or ad agency, and it owns the ad accounts under it.
Promotable userX
A handle an X ads account can promote. The account's own handle goes in full. Another handle's posts need that handle's permission, and X adds it as retweets-only.
Time zone and currency
Picked when the ad account is created. TikTok won't let you edit either afterwards, and Meta's daily spending limit starts over at 00:00 in the account's own time zone.
Who can do what
Business relationshipX
The field in X's records that marks an ads account as the agency's or as the advertiser's own. A second field, bill to, names who X invoices. More in X ads agency or agency ad account.
Finance accessMeta, TikTok
A permission on top of a role, for invoices, payment methods and spend. Meta adds it to full or partial access, and on TikTok even admins need a finance role to see the money.
Multi-user loginX
How an X advertiser lets an agency into its ads account. The agency works from its own login, so no password changes hands.
OwnershipGoogle
A manager account can own a client account and manage its users. There's one owner per client account, and the client can end it by unlinking.
PartnerMeta, TikTok
Another business you share assets with. Meta lets you add your agency's people to a business portfolio. TikTok asks whether an agency partner you give Admin or Operator access is your primary media agency.
Temporary accessMeta
Basic access that ends by itself after 3 to 75 days, and takes the person off the portfolio. Useful for a freelancer on a short job.
Money and limits
Request them, top them up, see what is left.
Agency credit lineX
Credit with X that lets an agency buy its clients' ads on account. X's API reference lists it as a funding type, and X Japan issues one after a credit review.
Consolidated billingGoogle
One invoice for several Google Ads accounts on monthly invoicing, set up from a manager account, one invoice per currency.
Credit lineGoogle
On monthly invoicing, the most you can owe Google across your accounts, invoiced or not. Go over it and Google may slow or stop the ads. X's word for its version is credit limit, explained in our X guide.
Daily spending limitMeta, Google
A ceiling the platform sets, not you. Meta sets one for most advertisers and none on monthly invoicing. Google often puts one on new accounts, and you can't ask for it to be raised.
Funding sourceSnapchat, X
Whatever pays for an ad account. Snap's examples are a credit card, PayPal and lines of credit, and X calls it a funding instrument.
Insertion orderX, Snapchat
Buying on an agreed order instead of a card. X steers advertisers who plan $5,000 a month or more to one, and on Snapchat it comes with a lifetime spend cap.
Monthly invoicingGoogle, Meta
You run on the platform's credit and pay one invoice a month. Google asks, among other things, for a year as a business, 6 months in good standing and at least $5,000 a month in 3 of the past 12 months. Meta decides from your account's data.
Payment thresholdMeta, Google
The spend at which the platform charges your payment method by itself, while the ads keep running. Google can raise it automatically. Buyers call a Google account on it a threshold account, compared in agency account vs threshold vs monthly invoicing.
Postpay and prepayGoogle
Google's two payment settings. Postpay charges after the ads run. Prepay takes the money first, and a bank transfer can take 2 to 5 business days to show.
Spend cap
A cap you put on a whole ad account. Meta calls it the ad account spending limit and Google offers an account budget on monthly invoicing. TikTok sets it in Budget Manager, and Snapchat's can't be taken off once set. More in unlimited ad accounts.
Meta, budgets and spending limitsGoogle, account budgetsTikTok, Budget Manager
Words from our panel
The Adtucon Platform is in early access with a first group of clients. It opens to every client, with every platform, in early 2027. In it, these three words mean something exact.
Where the money sits and what is still spendable.
- USD wallet5 days left8 days left
Deposit
Money you send into your wallet with us, by bank transfer in dollars or euros, SEPA, or USDT and USDC. On percentage plans you pay nothing until your first deposit. The fee comes out of each deposit.
Top up
Moving budget from your wallet onto an ad account, and in the panel one top up can go to several accounts at once. On Meta the words mean money you add to an ad account yourself, up to a daily top up limit.
Wallet
Where your deposits land. Each team has one and runs one platform, so the money for each platform sits apart. The panel warns you before it runs out.
Permission to advertise
Adtucon Certified
Our own programme, 15 public checks repeated every month. Platforms don't issue it. Read the 15 checks.
Advertiser verificationGoogle
Tasks Google sets an advertiser, with a deadline, and some ads can be restricted until they're done. Google says every advertiser will have to complete it eventually.
Business verificationTikTok
TikTok's check that a company is real and registered, mandatory past your market's spend threshold. Verifying at the Business Center covers every ad account under it.
Certification and pre-authorization
A platform's yes for a restricted category, before the ads run. Google runs a Gambling and games certification, X wants prior authorization, and Snapchat a written pre-approval filed by the advertiser, never by an agency. For gambling, platform by platform, see iGaming ads by market.
Suspension and appeal
A suspended account stops serving, and buyers call it a ban. For egregious violations Google suspends without warning, and opening new accounts to get back in is a violation too. First steps on TikTok, on Google and for your balance.
Whitelisted
A seller's word. No platform we read publishes a tier by that name. Certified is not whitelisted. Real whitelisting is a permission a platform gives, to an account or to an advertiser. Certified is our own check of the account and of your setup, before you spend. More in whitelisted ad accounts.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Business Center the same as a Business Manager?
They do the same job on different platforms. Business Center is TikTok's. Business Manager is what many buyers call Meta's business portfolio, and Snapchat sets up its organizations through Snap Business Manager.
Which of these words come from sellers rather than platforms?
Whitelisted, and agency ad account itself. Neither is a product name on the platform pages we read, though the set-up behind an agency ad account shows up in their records, X's among them. Unlimited is trickier, because TikTok uses it for a Budget Manager setting that means no cap was set.
How current are these definitions?
We read the platform pages on 4 November 2026 and link them next to each term. A few X and Snapchat rules come from our own guides, which read X's help center and Snapchat's business help on 1 November. Platforms rename things, so when a platform page and this glossary disagree, go with the platform.
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