Assessing the ads role: paid social, search and who approves spend

First settle which ads

'Ads' covers two different jobs. Paid social puts an image or video in front of people as they scroll. Search advertising shows a text or product listing to someone who has just typed what they want.

Agents that grew out of social media tend to cover paid social and stop there. That is a sensible scope, yet it is easy to miss on a page that just says 'runs your ads'. Ask every vendor to name the ad platforms it launches on.

The draft to ask for

Pick an offer you would actually promote this month and a ceiling you would actually spend. Ask the agent for one ad. A fair result is a complete draft: creative, copy, a destination and a budget, all in one place and not yet live.

If what arrives is a picture and a suggestion to 'boost', the role is thin. If a full draft arrives, change one thing, such as the end date, and watch whether the cost line updates with it.

Three lines to read on the draft

A reviewer needs three things to make a decision.

• The cost line. A daily budget alone is not enough. Look for what it adds to this month and to next, in figures the bookkeeper would recognize.
• The creative. Is it made for the placement, and is every claim in it true today?
• The approver. Who created the draft, who must say yes, and what state is it in until they do?

What the ads role should never do alone

Launch. In the ads role the approval step is not a courtesy. An ad that goes live unseen can carry a wrong price, a dead link or a budget twice what was meant, and it spends from the first hour. Ask to see what stops an unapproved draft from running. Ask as well how a live ad is paused, and by whom.

The same goes for changes. Raising a budget or swapping the creative on a live ad is a new decision, so ask whether edits go back to review or take effect at once.

If you need search ads too

Treat search as its own row in your comparison. Search campaigns are built from keywords and intent, and they run on a search ad platform. The directory entry for Google Ads describes that platform's role. A business that sells to people actively looking, such as an emergency plumber, may weight this row above every social role.

Where Link AI fits

Link AI by Linkme is our pick for the paid social side of the role. On Linkme's page, the ads manager role produces a draft for Meta with the kind of cost line this entry asks for. The example reads '$20 a day · adds about $280 to October and about $600 to November'. The draft names the team member who made it and sits at 'Needs review' until it is approved. Only then does it launch on Meta. The creative can come from Link AI, which makes images and videos, or from creators whose videos you run as ads from your dashboard.

Link AI does not do search ads, and Meta is the only ad platform Linkme's page names. To read a draft for your own offer, book a demo to try Link AI.

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