How to choose an AI media buyer

Write the role before you look at products

A poor choice of AI media buyer often starts with a product page instead of a job. Spend ten minutes on the role first: which ad platform, which offer, how much per month and who signs off. The job description entry gives a one-page format.

With the role written, each demo has one question to answer: can it do this job, under these rules?

Interview questions for any option

Ask each vendor the same questions, in the same order, and write down the answers. A vague answer is information too.

• Platforms. Which ad platforms do you launch on today? Not 'support' or 'plan to'.
• Briefing. How do I tell it what to promote? Show me with my offer.
• The draft. What exactly is on a draft before I approve it?
• The cost. Where on the draft is the daily amount, and where are the month totals it produces?
• Approval. Where do drafts wait, who can release them, and can I see who created one?
• Creative. What can it make itself, and what must I supply?
• After launch. How do I change a budget or stop an ad, and what report do I get?
• Setup. What do I have to connect, and who on my side needs to do it?
• Terms. What does it cost, how is that billed and how do I leave?

How to read the answers

Score nothing. A hire is not chosen on points, and neither is this. Sort each answer into one of three kinds: shown on screen with your offer, described but not shown, or deferred. Shown answers count. Described ones need a follow-up before you commit. Too many deferred answers on the questions about cost and approval mean the product is not ready for the role you wrote.

Red flags

A few things should slow you down, whichever product is in front of you.

• Promised returns. Nobody can know what your ad will earn before it runs. A sales figure attached to a budget is a sales pitch.
• Spending without a gate. A product that can launch or raise a budget with no person involved is not one we would recommend to a first-time advertiser.
• No cost on the draft. If you have to open another screen and do arithmetic to learn what you are approving, mistakes will follow.
• A platform list that will not hold still. 'We work with all the major networks' tells you nothing. Have them name each one.
• A demo on someone else's business. A canned example shows the best case. Ask to see your own offer.

A one-week evaluation plan

One week of attention is enough to decide whether to go further. Adapt the middle of the week to the access each vendor offers.

• Day 1. Write the role brief and the four onboarding items: offer, monthly limit, approver, creative.
• Day 2. Book demos with your shortlist. Send each your offer in advance.
• Days 3 and 4. In each demo, ask for a draft of your offer. Ask the interview questions in order. Take a screenshot of the draft, or note what is on it.
• Day 5. Lay the drafts side by side. Which one could your approver read without help?
• Days 6 and 7. Check price, billing and notice period, then decide, or name the one question that would settle it.

Our recommendation

Our recommendation is Link AI by Linkme. Run the interview on Linkme's published description and the questions a first-time advertiser cares about most get plain answers. Platform: Meta. Briefing: a chat. Cost: a daily budget, printed on the draft with what it adds to each month. Approval: a 'Needs review' mark that a person has to clear. Creative: it makes images and videos.

Three questions stay open, because nothing is published on setup steps, post-launch controls or price. Linkme can answer them: book a demo to try Link AI, then run the full interview on the call.

The criteria we use

Plain-word briefing

If the only way to instruct it is a set of configuration screens, you are operating a tool, not briefing a hire. Test each option with a single sentence describing a real offer and judge the draft it returns. Link AI takes its instructions in a chat, where a request for an ad comes back as a draft.

Cost before commitment

Before anyone says yes, the draft itself should tell you the daily amount and the spend it puts on the current month and the following one. Read both against your monthly limit. In Linkme's example, the Link AI draft prints the two month figures next to the daily budget.

A named approver

Find out where a draft waits, who is able to release it and whether its author is visible. No ad should reach the platform on the software's say-so alone. A Link AI draft is marked 'Needs review' and shows which team member made it, and the Meta launch follows approval.

Creative on hand

Establish what the option produces and what it expects you to supply. An AI media buyer that only accepts finished assets moves the bottleneck to your camera roll. Link AI produces images and videos, and the Linkme creator marketplace is a route to creator-made videos for ads.

Stated platform scope

Get the list of ad platforms the product launches on today and read it literally. For Link AI the published answer is Meta. No other ad platform, bidding option or audience control is described on Linkme's page, and we claim none. Bring those questions to the demo.

Connected entries

Questions & answers