# Work with your ad agency in an agency room

> An agency room lets your ad agency ask Piste about your ad accounts and propose ad changes in a shared Slack channel, while only your own team can approve them.

Source: https://www.usepiste.com/docs/agency-rooms

An agency room is a Slack channel you already share with your ad agency or freelancer through Slack Connect, opened so that both companies can ask Piste about your ad accounts there. The agency can read the ad figures and propose ad changes; only your own team can approve them. Everything else Piste can do stays out of the room.

> **Early access**
> Google Ads and Meta connections are in early access and aren't available to every workspace yet. Everything an agency room can do reads or changes an ad account, so a room is useful only once one is connected.

## What can people in an agency room do?

Two kinds of people can talk to Piste in a room: the agency's people, called partners, and full members of your own Slack workspace. Guests and anyone from a third organisation are ignored.

| In the room | Partners | Your own team |
|---|---|---|
| Ask about the ad accounts and their checks | Yes | Yes |
| Ask about ad spend, sales by channel, MER and CAC | Yes | Yes |
| Propose an [ad change](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/ad-changes) | Yes, at most 5 waiting at once | Yes, within the same 5 |
| Approve or decline a change from its card | No | Yes |
| Undo an applied change | No | Yes |
| See orders, customers' details, product costs or margins | No | No |

Your own team, the owner included, gets the same limited Piste in the room as the agency does. Both companies read everything said there, and anyone can continue anyone's thread, so nothing private to your business is answered in the room. For anything else, talk to Piste outside it.

In a room, Piste has four things it can do: run the ad accounts' checks, query Google Ads, read Measurement's figures, and propose an ad change. It isn't offered anything else, and if it tries, it says "That isn't something I can do in this room." That rules out memory (nothing said in the room is saved), skills, automations, store edits and jobs. A capability added to Piste later stays out of rooms unless it's added to the room's list.

## How do I open an agency room?

Only the workspace owner opens a room, in a conversation with Piste.

### 1. Share a channel with the agency

In Slack, share a channel with your agency through Slack Connect. A room has to be a channel shared with the agency and nobody else.

### 2. Invite @Piste to the channel

Piste has to be in the channel before it can open a room there.

### 3. Ask Piste to open the room

In your DM with Piste, or another conversation outside the channel, say something like "Open an agency room in #northlight-ads for Northlight". The name you give is what Piste calls the agency.

### 4. Read the room's opening message

Piste checks the channel with Slack, then posts in it: "This is now an agency room.", followed by what the agency can see and do, the 5-change limit, the 30-a-day limit, and that only the owner can close the room.

Piste won't open a room in a direct message, an archived channel, a channel Piste isn't in, or a channel that isn't shared with another company. It also refuses a channel shared with more than one other organisation, or across an Enterprise Grid organisation, because then it can't tell which company is the agency.

## How do people use the room?

- **Mention @Piste every time.** In a room, Piste answers only when it's mentioned, even in a thread it's already in, because the two companies talk to each other there too.
- **The agency gets 30 answers a day.** That's per room, shared by all the agency's people. The count resets at midnight UTC, and their questions run on your workspace's [budget](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/usage). Past it, the partner is told privately: "I've answered this room's 30 questions for today, the most it takes in a day. I'll answer again from midnight UTC." Your own team's questions don't count.
- **Proposals name who asked.** A card for a change proposed in the room names the person who proposed it and their company.
- **Old threads stay separate.** A conversation started in the channel before it became a room can't be continued from inside the room, and the other way round.

To see the rooms you've opened, the owner can ask Piste "Who can see what in the agency room?". It lists each room, whether it's open, what the agency can see and do, the partner questions answered today and the changes waiting.

## Who decides changes proposed in the room?

Any full, active member of your own Slack workspace can approve or decline a change proposed in the room. Piste checks with Slack on every click, the owner's included. The agency's people can't decide anything, including changes they proposed; one who presses a button is told no privately and nothing changes.

Approved changes are written to your ad account the same way as any [ad change](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/ad-changes), and an applied one offers `Undo` on its card, unless its write changed nothing. Every decision is recorded in the [decision log](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/decision-log).

## How do I close an agency room?

Ask Piste, outside the room, something like "Close the agency room in #northlight-ads". Only the workspace owner can close one. Piste posts "This agency room is closed." in the channel, says it no longer answers anyone from the agency there, and that changes still waiting can still be decided by your own people.

After that, Piste answers nobody in the channel, including a question already queued. The channel never goes back to being an ordinary channel for Piste, because its threads hold the agency's words. The owner can open the room again by asking Piste the same way: Piste checks the channel with Slack again and posts the opening message again.

The room also closes itself if the channel stops being shared with the agency alone, for example when a third company joins. Piste checks this with Slack each time someone mentions it in the room. If the channel isn't shared with the agency alone any more, Piste posts that the channel is no longer shared with the agency alone, so it has stopped answering, and that the owner can open it again once it is.

## Limits

| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Answers to the agency's people | 30 a day per room, reset at midnight UTC |
| Ad changes waiting from one room | 5 |
| What the room can do | Ad account checks, Google Ads queries, Measurement's figures, proposing ad changes |
| Organisations in the channel | Your own and exactly one other |
| Who opens, shows and closes rooms | The workspace owner, outside the room |
| Who decides the room's changes | Full members of your own Slack workspace |

## Related

- [Google Ads and Meta](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/google-ads-and-meta): connecting the ad accounts a room reads.
- [Ad changes](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/ad-changes): what a proposed change can do, and how Undo works.
- [Team and roles](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/team): who can do what across Piste.

## Questions

### Can the agency see our orders or margins?

No. In an agency room Piste won't show orders, customers' details, product costs or margins. It answers only about the ad accounts and ad spend, sales by channel, MER and CAC.

### Can the agency approve its own proposals?

No. The agency can propose ad changes, but only full members of your own Slack workspace can approve or decline them, from each change's card.

### Does Piste remember what's said in an agency room?

No. Nothing said in an agency room goes into Piste's memory, and the room has no access to your skills or automations.

### How many questions can the agency ask?

Piste answers the agency up to 30 times a day, counted by UTC day, on your workspace's budget. Your own team's questions in the room don't count towards the 30.

### Who can open or close an agency room?

Only the workspace owner, by asking Piste in their own DM or another conversation outside the room.

### What happens if another company joins the channel?

Each time someone mentions Piste in the room, Piste checks with Slack that the channel is shared with your agency alone. If it isn't, the room closes itself and Piste says so in the channel.