Outbrain Remove User Access

Remove User Access

Follow this process when a user no longer needs Outbrain access. Properly offboarding users protects your account from unauthorized access, maintains compliance with access control policies, and ensures campaign continuity.

Removing a user from Outbrain is permanent. Once deleted, you cannot restore their login credentials or access history. Always transfer ownership of critical assets and document the removal before proceeding.

When to Remove Users

Remove Outbrain access when:

• An employee leaves the organization (resignation, termination, or retirement).
• An agency contract ends or the agency no longer manages specific marketers.
• A user changes roles and no longer requires Outbrain access (e.g., moving from content marketing to a non-digital role).
• Security or compliance teams request removal due to policy violations or audit findings.
• A temporary contractor's project concludes and their access is no longer needed.
• The user has been inactive for 90+ days and your organization enforces periodic access reviews.
• Finance or legal requests removal to reduce liability or enforce least-privilege principles.
• A user is moving off assigned marketers and no longer manages any brands in the account.

Deactivation Triggers

Common triggers that should prompt immediate user removal:

• Employee termination: Revoke access on the same day to prevent unauthorized activity.
• Agency contract termination: Remove agency users within 24 hours of contract end to prevent continued campaign management.
• Role change: If a campaign manager transitions to a non-advertising role, remove their Marketer access but consider offering read-only reporting access if they still need visibility.
• Security incident: If a user's credentials are compromised, immediately remove access and force a password reset if re-provisioning is planned.
• Quarterly access review: During periodic audits, remove users who haven't logged in for 90+ days or whose access is no longer justified.
• Marketer scope reduction: If a user managed multiple marketers but their responsibilities narrow to zero marketers, remove the user entirely.

Pre-Removal Assessment

Before removing a user, complete this assessment to avoid disrupting campaigns or losing critical assets:

Identify owned assets

Check whether the user owns or created any of the following:

• Campaigns: Active or paused campaigns they built. Note the marketer and campaign IDs.
• Conversion pixels: Outbrain pixel configurations or conversion events they deployed.
• Custom audiences: Audience segments or lookalike configurations they created.
• Content sections: Native ad content or headlines they authored that are still in use.
• Saved reports: Dashboard templates or scheduled exports other team members rely on.

Transfer ownership

For each asset identified above:

1. Go to the asset settings (e.g., campaign details, conversion pixel management).
2. Change the Owner field to an active Admin or another appropriate user.
3. Document the transfer in your ticketing system so the new owner is aware of their responsibilities.

Critical: Do not skip asset transfer. If you delete a user who owns active conversion pixels, those pixels may stop reporting correctly, causing data loss.

Confirm approval

Obtain written approval for the removal from:

• The user's manager or the account owner.
• Finance or HR if the removal is due to termination or contract end.
• Security or compliance if the removal is part of an audit or investigation.

Save the approval email or ticket reference for your access log.

Removal Steps

Once you've completed the pre-removal assessment, follow these steps to remove the user:

Step 1: Access user management

1. Sign in to Outbrain as an Admin.
2. Navigate to Account Settings → User Management.
3. Locate the user in the table. You can use the search box to find them by email or name.

Step 2: Review current access

1. Click on the user's name or the Edit icon to open their profile.
2. Review their current role, assigned marketers, and billing permissions.
3. Screenshot this page for your access log before making any changes. This serves as a compliance record of what access they had.

Step 3: Remove marketer scopes (optional partial removal)

If the user should lose access to some marketers but remain active on others:

1. In the Marketers section, uncheck the marketers they should no longer access.
2. Leave the marketers they still need checked.
3. Save the changes and notify the user of the updated scope.

This is useful when an agency's contract narrows but doesn't fully terminate, or when an internal user shifts to managing fewer brands.

Step 4: Disable billing access (optional)

If the user only needs to lose billing visibility but should retain campaign access:

1. Disable the Billing option.
2. Save the change.
3. The user will still be able to manage campaigns but won't see invoices or payment details.

Step 5: Full user deletion

If the user should be completely removed from the account:

1. From the user's profile or the User Management table, click Delete.
2. Outbrain may prompt you to confirm the deletion. Read the warning carefully - this action is irreversible.
3. Confirm the deletion.
4. The user will immediately lose access and will be removed from the User Management table.

Step 6: Verify removal

1. Refresh the User Management page and confirm the user no longer appears.
2. If the user was only partially removed (marketers reduced), verify the updated scope appears correctly.

Post-Removal Tasks

After removing the user, complete these follow-up tasks:

Update documentation

• Access log: Record the removal with the following details:
  • User email and name
  • Date removed
  • Reason for removal (e.g., "Employee termination," "Agency contract ended," "Role change")
  • Approver name
  • Assets transferred and new owners
  • Marketers they had access to (before removal)
• SSO/IAM system: Remove the user from any Outbrain groups in your Single Sign-On or identity management platform.
• Internal roster: Update your team roster, org chart, or vendor contact list to reflect the removal.

Notify stakeholders

• Inform the user (if appropriate) that their access has been revoked. If they were terminated, this notification may come from HR instead of you.
• Alert the new asset owners that they now own campaigns, conversion pixels, or audiences previously managed by the removed user.
• Update any shared documentation (e.g., runbooks, escalation lists, brand guidelines) that referenced the removed user as a point of contact.

Audit remaining users

• While in User Management, scan the rest of the user table for other accounts that may need removal (e.g., contractors who finished projects months ago, agency users whose contracts ended).
• Flag any users with Admin access who no longer require it and schedule a follow-up to downgrade them.
• Check for users with access to marketers they no longer manage and adjust scopes accordingly.

Schedule next review

• Add the removal to your quarterly access review log so you can report on access changes during the next audit.
• Set a calendar reminder to review all Outbrain users in 90 days to catch any other stale accounts.

Troubleshooting

Cannot delete user because they own active campaigns:

• Outbrain may block deletion if the user owns assets that are currently running.
• Transfer ownership of all active campaigns to another user, then retry the deletion.
• If the platform still blocks deletion, contact Outbrain support with the user email and asset list.

User was deleted but can still log in:

• Check if the user has accounts on multiple Outbrain accounts. You may have deleted them from one account but they still have access to another.
• Verify the correct email address was used. Typos can result in deleting the wrong user.
• If the issue persists, contact Outbrain support to verify the deletion was processed.

Need to restore a deleted user:

• Deletion is permanent. You cannot restore a deleted user.
• If the user needs access again, send a new invitation through Invite user and reconfigure their role and marketer scopes.

User lost access to marketer they should still manage:

• This happens when you accidentally deselect the wrong marketer during a scope reduction.
• Edit the user and re-add the correct marketer.
• Notify the user that access has been restored.

Best Practices

• Remove access on the same day as termination or contract end. Delays create security risks.
• Always transfer asset ownership before deleting a user. Don't rely on post-deletion recovery.
• Screenshot before and after every removal for compliance and dispute resolution.
• Run quarterly access reviews to catch stale accounts before they become security liabilities.
• Document every removal with date, reason, and approver for audit trails.
• Separate billing from campaign roles so finance users can be removed without affecting media buyers.
• Verify no orphaned assets after deletion by checking conversion pixels, campaigns, and audiences.

Common Use Cases

Employee termination:

1. Confirm termination date with HR.
2. Transfer all owned campaigns and conversion pixels to the user's manager or another active Marketer.
3. Delete the user from Outbrain on their last day.
4. Document removal and notify the team.
5. Update internal rosters and SSO mappings.

Agency contract ends:

1. Confirm end date with your procurement or legal team.
2. Transfer owned campaigns back to internal team or new agency.
3. Remove agency users within 24 hours of contract end.
4. Screenshot final access state for contract closeout documentation.
5. Update vendor contact list and notify internal stakeholders.

Role change (campaign manager to non-digital role):

1. Confirm the role change with the user's manager.
2. Assess if the user needs read-only reporting access instead of full removal.
3. If reporting access is needed, change role to Read Only and reduce marketer scope. If no access is needed, delete the user.
4. Document the change and update internal roster.

Quarterly access review cleanup:

1. Export the user list from User Management.
2. Cross-reference against HR roster or active employee list.
3. Identify users who left the company, changed roles, or haven't logged in for 90+ days.
4. Remove each user and document the batch cleanup in your access log.
5. Report findings to security or compliance team.

Marketer scope reduction to zero marketers:

1. Confirm the user no longer manages any marketers in the account.
2. Transfer any remaining campaigns or assets they own.
3. Delete the user entirely rather than leaving them with zero marketers (which would be confusing and serve no purpose).
4. Document the removal and notify the user if appropriate.

Security incident requiring immediate revocation:

1. Immediately delete the user from User Management without waiting for asset transfer if the security risk is critical.
2. Document the incident and reason for expedited removal.
3. Transfer asset ownership after the user is removed to restore campaign continuity.
4. Report the incident to your security team and include the access revocation in your incident report.