How budget approval works with an AI media buyer

Two numbers and one person

People new to an AI media buyer ask the same question: how do I know it will not overspend? The answer is an arrangement you set up on day one, not a feature.

The monthly limit is your number. It comes from your books and belongs on your onboarding page. The daily budget is the ad's number. It is how ad platforms pace spending, and every draft proposes one. The approver is the person who stands between the two. An ad runs only when that person has compared them and agreed.

From monthly limit to daily budget

The two numbers are in different units, so convert before you approve.

As an illustration, suppose the limit is $300 a month and one ad is already approved at $5 a day for the whole of a 30-day month. That commits about $150. A new draft arrives on the 16th at $8 a day. Fifteen days remain, so it adds about $120 this month. The total, about $270, sits inside the limit. If the new ad keeps running, next month it adds about $240 by itself, and the two ads together would pass the limit. So the approval needs an end date or a note to revisit.

A draft that does this sum for you turns the approver's job into a comparison.

What the approver reads

The approver should be able to answer five questions from the draft alone.

• Is this the offer we named? Product, price and dates match the onboarding page.
• Is the creative true? Nothing shown or claimed that the business cannot stand behind.
• Does the link work? The destination shows the same offer.
• What will this month and the next be charged? Both totals, read against the limit and anything already running.
• When does it stop or get reviewed? A date, so the second month is a decision.

Rules to settle on day one

Write these beside the limit. They take the judgment out of the awkward cases.

• One approver, one backup. Named people. Where the team is big enough, whoever drafts an ad should not approve it.
• Over the limit is a no. A draft that would take the month past the limit goes back, however good it looks. Raising the limit is a separate decision.
• A changed budget is a new approval. Increasing a daily amount later gets the same check as a new ad.
• A running tally. The approver keeps a simple note of what has been approved for the month.

When the answer is no

A no should come with a reason the next draft can act on: 'cut to $5 a day', 'wrong price', 'end on the 30th'. If most drafts are being refused, the offer or the limit on the onboarding page is probably unclear.

Where Link AI fits budget approval

The conversion from daily to monthly is where Link AI by Linkme earns its place as our pick, because the draft does it. Linkme's example shows a budget line of '$20 a day · adds about $280 to October and about $600 to November'. Also on that draft are the name of the team member who prepared it and a 'Needs review' mark; a person approves, and only then is the ad launched on Meta.

Storing your monthly limit, blocking a draft that exceeds it and keeping the tally are not things we state Link AI does. Keep them as your own rules for now. All three are fair questions for the call: book a demo to try Link AI.

Connected entries

Questions & answers