# Paid ads

Find your way from connecting an ad account to preparing, approving, measuring and managing a paid campaign.

Canonical: https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/overview/


## Where paid ads live

Paid ads are part of your campaigns, not a separate replacement for posting. A post can supply the text and media for a paid ad. The campaign board shows its paid cards alongside the campaign's content, while **Analytics** → **Paid ads** brings together accounts, results, forms, permissions and settings.

If you do not see **Paid ads**, it is not enabled for your workspace yet. The platforms and actions offered also depend on workspace availability, the connected account, its permissions and the ad's current state. A visible platform or a connected account does not by itself mean an ad is ready to launch.

## Choose the right guide

| What you want to do | Guide |
|---|---|
| Sign in to an ad platform, choose accounts, set tracking, sharing and spending caps | [Connect and configure an ad account](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/connect-ad-account/) |
| Turn a post or campaign idea into an ad, choose its goal, prepare creative and forms, set a budget and publish | [Create and launch a paid ad](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/create-paid-ad/) |
| Select actual locations, city radii, interests, Reddit communities and Meta placements | [Choose locations and targeting](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/targeting/) |
| Read account totals, delivery states and the results of individual posts; pause, resume, change a budget or delete | [Understand results and manage spending](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/results/) |
| Change an eligible running Meta ad, add ads or replace a lead form without confusing drafts with platform changes | [Manage live Meta ads](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/manage-live-ads/) |

## Platforms you may see

The paid-ad editor has platform-specific options for **Facebook & Instagram**, **Google**, **TikTok**, **LinkedIn**, **Pinterest**, **X**, **ChatGPT** and **Reddit**. Only the platforms enabled for your workspace appear as available connection choices. The connection screen calls Facebook and Instagram **Meta**, and calls the ChatGPT connection **OpenAI**.

The same content does not have the same capabilities everywhere. For example, TikTok needs a vertical video, X uses text-only ads, and Pinterest and ChatGPT use a photo. Native lead forms, WhatsApp destinations, calls, tracking, location types and live editing depend on the platform. Always read each platform's destination and missing-details messages in **Review** rather than assuming one platform's settings apply to the others.

## Draft, approval, checking and delivery are different

- **Save draft** saves your setup; it does not approve spending.
- **Publish** opens the publishing flow. Review any operations-fee and privacy confirmations, then the account-specific budget and spending confirmation.
- **Waiting for approval** means an ad-account owner still needs to approve a request. It is not the platform's policy review.
- **Checking & sending** means checking and submission are in progress. The editor tells you that the ads were sent for checking; it does not promise that they are delivering.
- **In review**, **Rejected** and **Not delivering** describe platform-side conditions that need separate attention from a saved or approved draft.

## Understand who pays

Ad spend is charged directly by the advertising platform to the connected ad account. Managing paid campaigns through LeadKnight also has an operations-fee agreement. The confirmation describes a fee of 10% of actual platform-reported spend, plus VAT, charged on the third of the following month. Read the displayed terms before agreeing; a workspace sponsor may need to authorize your paid campaigns separately.

Budgets, account spending limits, weekly protection and monthly caps are not interchangeable. Reporting is delayed, so a daily amount or a cap is not a guarantee of an exact final charge. [Results and spending management](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/paid-ads/results/) explains the warnings and pause reasons.

## Related areas

- [Campaigns](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/campaigns/overview/) for the content and campaign board that paid ads build on.
- [Connections and destinations](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/channels/overview/) for other kinds of connected accounts.
- [Analytics](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/analytics/overview/) for reporting outside the paid-ad area.
- [Contacts and CRM](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/contacts/overview/) for following up on leads.
- [Plans and billing](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/billing/overview/) for billing setup and payment-card issues.