Meta Connection Practice Guide

Use this guide after the Meta connection lesson if you want to connect Meta Ads in your own Claude Code setup. The lesson shows two successful routes. Choose one route for your practice.

The recording reaches connection setup, personal authentication and available tools. The local MCP list shows 97 tools, and a fresh desktop Code conversation reports that the tools are loaded. No advertising account or campaign is read in the recording. Your available tools and account access need their own check.

Find the official instructions first

In your intended Claude Code project, ask:

Find Meta's official Ads MCP documentation and show it to me first. Show the server address and the current setup instructions for Claude Code.

Open the returned Meta Developers page and check the publisher and server address. The lesson uses https://mcp.facebook.com/ads. Follow the current official instructions if the setup screens have changed. The instructor searches connectors and plugins first. The results include third-party services related to Meta, but no official Meta-published listing is shown.

Route 1: add a desktop custom connector yourself

The recording follows these steps:

1. Open Connectors, then Manage connectors, and choose Add custom connector.

2. Name the connector Meta Ads and enter the official server address.

3. Choose Sign in when needed and leave automatic registration selected, then add the connector.

4. Find Meta Ads under Yours as a Web Custom connector. The new entry still needs sign-in.

5. Select Connect and complete the browser approval yourself. The recording uses an existing Facebook sign-in and a reconnect approval.

6. Return to Claude Code and check the Connected message or checkmark. Open the connector entry to inspect its address and tool permissions.

Adding the entry and signing in are separate steps. Keep any personal sign-in and approval with you.

Route 2: ask Claude Code to configure a local project MCP

In the lesson, the instructor deliberately removes the successful desktop connector before showing this route. The removal lets him demonstrate the second setup on its own. You can choose a single route for your own connection.

After checking the official instructions, ask Claude Code:

Add the official Meta Ads MCP to this Claude Code project. Configure it and don't log in. I will log in myself. Tell me where you added it and how I can authenticate it.

The recording shows Claude Code adding the server through a terminal command. Claude reports local scope for the current project and says authentication is still needed. Check the configuration scope Claude reports in your own setup, so you know which project can use the connection.

To follow the recorded authentication route:

1. Open a terminal in the intended project and run claude.

2. Enter /mcp, select the local Meta Ads entry and choose Authenticate.

3. Complete the Facebook sign-in or approval in the browser yourself.

4. Return to Claude Code and check the authentication result.

5. Enter /mcp again and check the local Meta Ads connection and available tools.

The terminal's local MCP list and the desktop's Yours connector list show different configuration stores. In this recording, the local Meta entry does not appear under Yours, but a fresh desktop Code conversation can load its tools.

Check availability in Claude Code

The instructor starts a fresh desktop Code conversation in the same project and asks:

Can you access the Meta Ads MCP?

You can follow that check for your chosen route. The recorded reply says the connection and tools are available, and explicitly says no account query has been made. The fresh conversation is the workflow shown in the lesson. The lesson does not test whether the earlier conversation could use the new connection.

Optional: check your account data with read-only requests

These prompts are follow-up practice for your own authorized account. They describe work beyond the recorded demonstration.

Use the connected Meta tools to list the advertising accounts I can access, with their names and IDs. Read only. I will choose which account to inspect.

Choose the intended account from the actual returned list. If that account has campaigns you want to inspect, use its returned account ID in this request:

Read a small list of existing campaigns from this account: [paste the returned account ID]. Show each campaign's name, ID and current status. Read only. I will compare the records with that same account in Meta Ads Manager.

Open the same account in Ads Manager and compare the returned names, IDs and statuses. Keep the actual response if no accounts or campaigns return. Ask Claude to help check the connection, your authorized account, the requested action and the returned message before trying again.

Optional method resource

The instructor browses the Claude Ads repository and its platform Skill folders. The lesson recommends a next step: inspect the relevant Skill, then send an installation request or run an installed Skill for the advertising job you choose. The repository supplies a method, while the Meta MCP supplies supported account actions. Follow the Skill's current installation instructions and check the installed files before using the method. The recorded setup does not establish an account read or a completed Skill installation in your own project.