Meta Ads Permissions
The Meta Ads connector requires a specific set of permissions (scopes) to access advertising data via the Facebook Graph API. Below is the complete list of requested permissions with a description and requirement category.
Required Permissions
ads_read
- Purpose: Read advertising data
- Description: Access to campaigns, ad sets, ads, and statistics
- API endpoints:
/act_{ad_account_id}/campaigns,/act_{ad_account_id}/adsets,/act_{ad_account_id}/ads,/act_{ad_account_id}/insights - Without this permission: No advertising data can be retrieved at all
read_insights
- Purpose: Read statistics
- Description: Access to performance metrics via the Insights API
- API endpoint:
/act_{ad_account_id}/insights - Without this permission: Structural data is available (campaigns, ad sets, ads), but not metrics
Optional Permissions
business_management
- Purpose: Business account management
- Description: Access to the list of ad accounts in Business Manager
- API endpoint:
/me/businesses - Importance: Recommended for accounts managed through Business Manager. Without it, the account list may be incomplete.
pages_show_list
- Purpose: List of Pages
- Description: View the list of the user's Facebook Pages
- API endpoint:
/me/accounts - Importance: Required to retrieve Instagram accounts linked to Pages
pages_read_engagement
- Purpose: Page engagement
- Description: Access to engagement statistics for Facebook Pages
- API endpoint:
/{page_id}/insights - Importance: Required for the Meta Pages connector
instagram_basic
- Purpose: Basic Instagram access
- Description: Access to basic Instagram account data (name, username, followers)
- API endpoint:
/{ig_user_id}?fields=id,username,name - Importance: Required for the Instagram Insights connector
instagram_manage_insights
- Purpose: Instagram statistics
- Description: Access to Instagram account metrics (reach, impressions, engagement)
- API endpoint:
/{ig_user_id}/insights - Importance: Required for the Instagram Insights connector
Checking Permissions
You can check your current set of permissions via the Facebook Access Token Debugger. Paste in your access token to see:
- The list of active permissions
- The token's expiration date
- The app that issued the token
Token Refresh
Meta access tokens have a limited lifetime:
- Short-lived token: valid for 1-2 hours
- Long-lived token: valid for 60 days, refreshed automatically with user activity
LightLead automatically refreshes long-lived tokens. If a token has expired, you will need to re-authorize — see Reconnecting a Connector.