Update Access & Roles
Use this checklist when MediaMath roles or advertiser scopes need to change. Updating access allows you to adjust permissions without removing and re-adding users, which preserves their login history and activity audit trails.
Role and scope changes take effect immediately in MediaMath. Users don't need to log out and back in - permissions update on their next page load or action.
When to Update Access
Update user access when:
- A role changes: A trader is promoted to Admin, or an Admin steps down to a trader role.
- Advertiser scope expands or contracts: An agency wins a new brand or loses a client; an internal team member takes on additional advertisers.
- Billing visibility changes: Finance needs invoice access added, or a user who previously handled billing transitions to a media-only role.
- Temporary elevation: A user needs Admin access for a one-time task (e.g., pixel deployment, API token generation) and should be downgraded afterward.
- Security or compliance requirement: An audit reveals a user has more access than their job requires, necessitating a role downgrade.
- Agency contract amendment: The scope of work changes mid-contract, requiring advertiser list adjustments without full offboarding.
Pre-Update Assessment
Before making any changes, answer these questions to ensure the update is appropriate and won't disrupt operations:
Clarify the change
- Role change or advertiser scope change? Determine if you're adjusting the role (e.g., Trader → Reporting) or the advertiser list (e.g., adding 3 new advertisers to an existing trader).
- Is this permanent or temporary? If temporary (e.g., covering for a colleague), document the planned revert date.
- Does the user still need billing access? Review whether the user's new role requires billing visibility or if it should be toggled off.
Review current state
- Go to Admin → User Management and open the user's profile.
- Note their current role, advertiser assignments, and billing status.
- Screenshot this page for your "before" record in the access log.
Identify owned assets
If you're reducing permissions (e.g., downgrading Admin to Trader, removing advertisers):
- Check if the user owns any campaigns, pixels, audiences, or API tokens that will become inaccessible after the change.
- If reducing advertiser scope, ensure campaigns under removed advertisers are transferred to another user first.
- If downgrading from Admin, audit their API tokens and decide whether to revoke them or transfer ownership.
Obtain approval
For role elevations (e.g., Trader → Admin) or billing additions, obtain approval from:
- The user's manager or the seat owner.
- Finance or security if adding billing access or Admin rights.
- Save the approval email or ticket reference for compliance.
Change Execution
Once you've completed the assessment, follow these steps to update the user:
Step 1: Access user management
- Sign in to MediaMath as an Admin.
- Go to Admin → User Management from the top navigation.
- Locate the user in the table using the search box or by scrolling.
Step 2: Open user profile
- Click the user's name or the Edit icon to open their profile.
- Review their current role, advertiser list, and billing toggle one more time before making changes.
Step 3: Adjust advertiser list (if needed)
If the user needs access to more or fewer advertisers:
- In the Advertisers section, check or uncheck the relevant advertisers.
- Adding advertisers: Check the boxes for the new advertisers they should manage.
- Removing advertisers: Uncheck the boxes for advertisers they should no longer see.
- Avoid granting "All advertisers" unless the user truly needs seat-wide visibility.
Best practice: Always edit the advertiser list before changing the role. This prevents a scenario where you accidentally grant Admin access to too many advertisers.
Step 4: Change role (if needed)
If the user's responsibilities have changed:
- In the Role dropdown, select the new role:
- Admin: Full control over the seat including users, billing, and API tokens.
- Standard/Trader: Campaign management without billing or user administration.
- Reporting: Read-only access to reports and dashboards.
- Billing: Invoice and payment access without campaign editing.
- Consider the impact:
- Upgrading to Admin: The user will immediately gain access to billing settings, user management, and API token generation. Ensure this is intentional.
- Downgrading from Admin: The user will lose the ability to invite users, manage billing, and create API tokens. Revoke any orphaned tokens they created.
- Downgrading to Reporting: The user will lose all editing rights and can only view data. Confirm they don't have active campaigns that need management.
Step 5: Toggle billing access (if needed)
If billing visibility should change independently of the role:
- Toggle the Billing option to "On" or "Off."
- On: The user can view invoices, payment history, and billing contacts.
- Off: The user has no billing visibility.
- Adding billing: Record a second approval if your organization requires finance sign-off for billing access.
- Removing billing: Confirm another Admin or Billing user can handle invoice downloads and payment reconciliation.
Step 6: Save and verify
- Click Save to apply the changes.
- Refresh the User Management page and verify the user's updated role, advertisers, and billing status appear correctly in the table.
- Screenshot the updated state for your "after" record in the access log.
Step 7: Notify the user
- Email or message the user to inform them of the change:
- New role and what it allows or restricts.
- Updated advertiser list (if changed).
- Billing access status (if changed).
- Any updated procedures or guidelines for their new role (e.g., escalation path for traders who can no longer create API tokens).
- Provide a contact for questions or issues.
Post-Update Validation
After saving the changes, complete these validation tasks:
User confirmation
- Ask the user to log in and confirm they can access the expected advertisers and no others.
- If they were downgraded, verify they cannot access features of their old role (e.g., a former Admin should not see User Management in the menu).
- If they were upgraded, verify they can access new features (e.g., a new Admin should see billing and user management options).
Asset review
If the user's advertiser scope was reduced:
- Confirm any campaigns, pixels, or audiences under the removed advertisers were transferred to another user.
- Verify the user can no longer edit those assets.
If the user was downgraded from Admin:
- Review and revoke any API tokens they created if those tokens are no longer needed.
- Confirm they can no longer access Admin → User Management or Admin → API Management.
Documentation
- Update your access log with the following details:
- User email and name
- Date of change
- Role: old → new
- Advertisers: old list → new list
- Billing: old status → new status
- Reason for change (e.g., "Promoted to team lead," "Agency lost client X")
- Approver name
- Update internal rosters or SSO groups to reflect the new role.
- Add a note to your ticketing system or change log for audit purposes.
Monitoring
- Set a follow-up reminder for 1-2 weeks to check if the user is experiencing any issues with their new permissions.
- If the change was temporary (e.g., elevated for a one-time task), set a calendar alert to revert the change on the planned date.
- Include this user in your next quarterly access review to ensure the updated permissions are still appropriate.
Troubleshooting
User can't see new advertisers after update:
- Verify the advertisers were checked and saved in the User Management page.
- Ask the user to log out and back in, or clear their browser cache.
- Check if the user is logging in to the correct seat (if your organization has multiple seats).
User still has old role permissions after downgrade:
- Refresh the User Management page to confirm the role change was saved.
- Have the user log out and back in to force a session refresh.
- If the issue persists, contact MediaMath support.
User lost access to campaigns they were managing:
- This happens when you remove an advertiser from their scope and forget to transfer campaign ownership.
- Edit the user and re-add the advertiser temporarily.
- Transfer campaign ownership to another user, then remove the advertiser again.
User was downgraded from Admin but their API tokens still work:
- API tokens are independent of user roles and remain active after role changes.
- Go to Admin → API Management, find the token(s), and manually revoke them.
- Inform any integrations relying on those tokens that credentials have changed.
User was upgraded to Admin but can't see billing:
- Some MediaMath seats have granular permissions that separate Admin from billing visibility.
- Verify the Billing toggle is set to "On" for the user.
- If still blocked, contact MediaMath support to review seat-level permission settings.
Best Practices
- Edit advertiser list before changing role to avoid accidentally granting a new Admin access to too many advertisers.
- Always revoke API tokens when downgrading a user from Admin. Orphaned tokens are a security risk.
- Screenshot before and after every change for compliance and audit trails.
- Document the reason for each change in your access log. This is critical during security audits.
- Set revert reminders for temporary elevations (e.g., a trader who needs Admin for one day to deploy a pixel).
- Notify the user immediately after making changes so they aren't surprised by permission shifts.
- Run a quarterly review of all users to catch roles that should have been downgraded but weren't.
Common Use Cases
Promoting a trader to Admin (permanent):
- Obtain approval from the seat owner or finance team.
- Edit the user and change role from Standard/Trader to Admin.
- Verify they can now access Admin → User Management and billing.
- Document the promotion in your access log with approver name.
- Notify the user of their new responsibilities (e.g., onboarding new users, managing API tokens).
Downgrading an Admin to Trader (permanent):
- Confirm the user no longer needs billing or user management access.
- Review and revoke any API tokens they created.
- Edit the user and change role from Admin to Standard/Trader.
- Toggle Billing to "Off" if they no longer need invoice visibility.
- Save and verify they cannot access Admin menu options.
- Document the downgrade and notify the user.
Temporarily elevating a trader to Admin (for pixel deployment):
- Obtain approval with a planned revert date (e.g., "Admin for 24 hours to deploy pixel").
- Edit the user and change role to Admin.
- Notify the user and ask them to complete the task within the time window.
- Set a calendar reminder to downgrade them back to Standard/Trader on the revert date.
- After reverting, revoke any API tokens they created during the elevation.
Expanding advertiser scope (agency wins new client):
- Confirm the new client is covered by the agency's contract.
- Edit the agency user(s) and check the box for the new advertiser.
- Leave their role unchanged (likely Standard/Trader).
- Save and notify the agency that they now have access to the new advertiser.
- Document the change in your access log.
Reducing advertiser scope (agency loses client):
- Confirm the client is leaving or the contract is ending.
- Transfer any campaigns under that advertiser to an internal user or new agency.
- Edit the agency user(s) and uncheck the box for the advertiser.
- Save and notify the agency of the access reduction.
- Document the change and update your vendor contact list.
Adding billing access to finance team member:
- Confirm the finance team member needs invoice visibility.
- Edit the user and toggle Billing to "On."
- Leave their role as Billing or Reporting (do not upgrade to Admin unless they need user management rights).
- Save and notify the finance user they can now access invoices.
- Document the change with finance approval reference.
Removing billing access after role change:
- Confirm the user no longer handles billing tasks.
- Edit the user and toggle Billing to "Off."
- Verify another user can handle invoice downloads and payment reconciliation.
- Save and notify the user they no longer have billing visibility.
- Document the change in your access log.