3 Simple ways to protect your Facebook advertising account from being hacked

Last week I was asked to speak at a local event, which was really awesome. I love hearing from other business owners and getting to know all of the amazing talent in the region. 


It was at this event that we got talking about Facebook and Instagram accounts being hacked and what you can do to protect yourself from that, so I thought it would be a great topic for this podcast episode. 

Because I’m in the Facebook & Instagram advertising trenches every day I’m going to focus on what you can do to protect your advertising account as best as possible with 3 simple steps. 

Tune in to learn more 🎧

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Transcript

Welcome to yet another episode of the new school of marketing podcast. Before we dive in I would love to pay respect and acknowledgement to the palawa people of lutruwita who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates and pay my respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

I’m not sure where you are, but in case you didn’t know, I’m located on the North West coast of Tasmania and right now we’re in our cold season. Actually, it’s more wet than cold at the moment but anyway, we’ve just rolled into winter and the days are either dark and wet or crisp and sunny. I really love the cold crisp sunny days, it so beautiful and for a while I was really hating the wet but we’ve seen so many amazing rainbows that I’m coming around to liking the rainy days - as long as I’m inside. 

There’s actually not that much going on in my life right now, I quite like the winter months to pull back, reflect and take a bit of a break. I recently joined a few local groups and business communities so that’s getting me out of the house. Last week I was asked to speak at a local event, which was really awesome. I love hearing from other business owners and getting to know all of the amazing talent in the region. Working from home, with two dogs, can sometimes be a bit isolating and lonely so I love these opportunities to get out and connect. 

Anyway, it was at this event that we got talking about Facebook and Instagram accounts being hacked and what you can do to protect yourself from that, so I thought it would be a great topic for this podcast episode. 

Because I’m in the Facebook & Instagram advertising trenches every day I’m going to focus on what you can do to protect your advertising account as best as possible with 3 simple steps. 

Let’s first look at why you need to protect your account and what could possibly happen if it’s hacked.

Let’s look at what’s at stake.

Firstly, when someone hacks your account they can gain unauthorized access to your Facebook advertising account which means they can make unauthorized changes to your ad campaigns, they can delete important information or even use your account for fraudulent purposes. 

They may also gain access to your financial information such as your credit card details or bank account information that’s associated with your advertising account. They can basically spend your money or potentially steal your identity. 

A compromised account can be used to post spammy content or malicious content which would damage your brand’s reputation and you’ve spent so much time and effort to build it up so you don’t want to risk it. 

Another risk is data breaches and privacy concerns. If your account holds sensitive data or personal information about your customers the hackers could use or expose that data, which could result in legal action against your business, plus it could harm your customers’ privacy. 

All up, it’s not a great outcome really. You really want to avoid getting hacked and risk your money being spent, your reputation being damaged and privacy breaches happening. 

So how can you best protect your Facebook advertising account and mitigate these risks to maintain the security and integrity of your business and brand?

The first thing you should do is use strong and unique passwords. A strong and unique password might be tricky to remember but it’s the best way to keep your account secure. Use a password that has a combination of letters, numbers and symbols. Avoid using common phrases or personal information that can easily be guessed. It’s also important to use a unique password and avoid reusing passwords across multiple platforms.

The next step is to enable 2FA - two factor authentication. You have the option to enable 2FA for yourself and anyone else in your Facebook ads account and I highly recommend that you do, especially if you have given access to a Facebook ads manager or team member. 

Adding 2FA adds an extra layer of security and when it’s enabled you’ll need to provide a secondary authentication method, such as a verification code to your mobile device in addition to typing in your password. Having this double method might be a bit annoying but it makes it significantly harder for unauthorized users to access your account.

And the third step is to regularly monitor your account activity to make sure nothing sinister is going on. Facebook has a feature called ‘Security and Login’ where you can view your active sessions and recent logins. So if you notice any suspicious activity like unrecognised devices or locations you can immediately take action by logging out of those sessions and changing your password. Also review your ad campaigns regularly to make sure you stay on top of any unusual or unauthorized changes. 

Hackers are getting pretty good and smart so you need to stay on top of these things. Every so often you’ll receive an email or notification that looks like it’s from Facebook, or Meta, with a warning or notification that something is up and there is usually a link that you can click on to have it resolved. 

Do not EVER click on those links. 

If you want to know if it’s legitimate, login to your ads manager dashboard and go to ‘account quality’ as it will tell you if something is actually going on. 

I repeat, do not ever click on links in your email if they look like they’re from Facebook or Meta. 

Sometimes they’re real, but a lot of the time they’re not and you don’t want to get hacked that way. 

So use these 3 simple steps to protect your Facebook advertising account and keep it safe from being hacked. 

There are even more advanced steps to protect your accounts as well as steps to take if you’ve been hacked, but I’ll leave those for another episode. 

I hope this was helpful to you, and if it was, I’d love it if you could leave me a review. Your review will help others find the show – and learn more about the amazing world of online marketing.

Thanks for joining me on this episode of the New School of Marketing podcast, I hope this episode was helpful and I can’t wait to share more marketing tips with you next week. 

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure you visit www.newschoolofmarketing.com to download practical free resources, plus subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.