Go to Settings, open Integrations, and click Connect next to Meta. You are redirected to Meta Business Manager to grant permissions. You need admin access to the Meta Business account that owns the ad account; the connection happens at Business Manager level, not on a personal profile.
If the status shows waiting for approval, someone in your Business Manager still needs to accept the partnership request under Business Settings in Meta.
Connecting Meta is the highest leverage setup step. It unlocks Partnership and Whitelisting ads in a few clicks, syncs performance data automatically, and feeds the AI Onboarder so your first brief is pre filled instead of blank. What gets shared: spend history, top performing creatives, audience signals, and cost benchmarks. No personal data.