The Four-Step Onboarding Checklist

These four steps apply to every new client, regardless of ad spend level, campaign type, or how quickly they want to launch.

Step 1 — Provision a Dedicated Business Manager (~30 min)

Every client needs their own isolated BM, nested under your agency’s verified parent BM — not a shared BM with other clients, not a repurposed BM from a previous client relationship.

• Create a new child BM for this client under your verified parent BM
• Verify the client’s business entity within the new BM (or document the verification process if pending)
• Assign admin access only to team members who will actively work on this client’s campaigns — no blanket access
• Confirm no existing ad accounts, pixels, or pages are connected to this new BM before the client’s assets are added

Why this matters: A client BM that inherits connections from a previous client — or shares structure with current clients — is a cross-contamination pathway before a single campaign has run. Starting with a clean, dedicated BM takes 30 minutes. Cleaning up a contaminated one takes weeks.

Step 2 — Set Up a Fresh, Dedicated Pixel (~20 min)

The pixel is the most commonly underestimated cross-contamination vector at onboarding. Reusing an existing pixel — even one from an inactive campaign — creates invisible audience connections that the platform reads continuously.

• Create a new, clean pixel within the client’s dedicated BM — never repurpose an existing one
• Install it on the client’s domain only — never alongside pixels from other clients
• Verify firing via Meta Pixel Helper or Events Manager before any campaign goes live
• Confirm no existing Custom Audiences are pre-populated with data from other campaigns or domains

Why this matters: A pixel that has previously touched another client’s domains or audiences carries signal history. That history can affect ad delivery quality, audience scoring, and the account’s compliance baseline — silently, from the moment the campaign starts.

Step 3 — Run the Pre-Launch Compliance Review (~45 min)

This is the step most agencies skip on the assumption that a client’s landing page and offer are their own responsibility. They’re not — once a campaign runs from your BM, the compliance signal is your account’s signal.

• Review all landing pages against current Meta and Google policy: claims, disclosures, contact information, privacy policy, load speed, and trust signals
• Confirm all offer claims are substantiated — no unqualified superlatives, guarantee language, or before/after comparisons that haven’t been policy-checked
• Ask the client directly whether there are any prior policy flags on their domain or previous ad accounts
• Review all creative assets for compliance before upload — not after the first rejection

Why this matters: A 45-minute compliance review before launch is almost always faster than a post-rejection remediation. We covered exactly what Meta and Google scan on landing pages in landing page policy: what Meta and Google actually check (quority.com/landing-page-policy-meta-google-what-platforms-check/).

Step 4 — Confirm Payment and Billing Structure (~15 min)

Payment consistency is one of the trust signals platforms evaluate continuously. An onboarding that launches on an inconsistent or temporary payment arrangement starts from a weaker trust baseline than necessary.

• Confirm a stable, dedicated payment method for this client’s BM — not a shared card used across multiple clients
• If using credit-line billing through a partner arrangement, confirm the account has been properly provisioned within the credit structure before campaigns go live
• Document the billing contact and payment responsibility in the client’s onboarding record
• Confirm the billing address matches the verified business entity in the BM