Want to Run Your Own Google, Facebook or LinkedIn Ads? AI Just Made It Much Easier

Running your own online advertising sounds simple.

You want more customers, so you advertise your business on Google, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Then you actually open the advertising platform.

Campaign objectives. Audiences. Ad groups. Keywords. Placements. Conversion tracking. Pixels. Bidding strategies.

It can quickly become complicated.

That’s one reason so many small businesses hand their advertising over to an agency.

But things are changing.

HighLevel already has an Ad Manager that lets you create and manage Google, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn advertising from one place.

Now AI is being built into it too.

And that could make running your own advertising considerably easier.

What Is HighLevel Ad Manager?

HighLevel is primarily a CRM and marketing automation platform.

But built into the system is an Ad Manager that connects to:

• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads
• Instagram Ads
• LinkedIn Ads

Rather than continually jumping between different advertising platforms, you can create campaigns and monitor results from inside HighLevel.

Your adverts still run through Google, Meta or LinkedIn and you still pay those platforms for the advertising.

HighLevel simply gives you an easier place to manage everything.

Now You Can Ask AI to Help Build the Campaign

This is the latest development that makes Ad Manager particularly interesting.

HighLevel’s Ask AI can now help you build and manage advertising campaigns.

Instead of starting with dozens of settings, you can describe what you are trying to achieve.

For example:

“Create a Google Search campaign promoting our emergency plumbing service within 20 miles of Manchester.”

Or:

“Create a Facebook lead generation campaign for our free home energy survey.”

AI can then help put the campaign together.

You review it before it goes live.

At the moment this AI campaign-building capability is focused on Google and Meta advertising.

HighLevel Ad Manager already supports LinkedIn advertising too. As of August 2026, the equivalent AI support for LinkedIn is still on the way.

Does That Mean Anyone Can Run Their Own Ads?

Potentially.

It certainly removes a lot of the technical barriers.

You don’t necessarily need to understand every button and setting inside Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager just to get started.

But AI doesn’t make advertising foolproof.

You still need a good offer, the right audience, a sensible budget and effective follow-up.

The AI can help you build the campaign.

It can’t make people buy something they don’t want.

And this brings us to what I think is actually the most interesting part of HighLevel Ad Manager.

A Real Example: A UK Cleaning Company

I recently worked with a cleaning company here in the UK.

We wanted to try some Facebook advertising.

Within about an hour we had their first Facebook ads live.

That was impressive in itself.

But it wasn’t the thing that struck me most.

What really impressed me was how everything connected together.

Someone responded to the Facebook advert.

HighLevel automatically created the contact.

A new Sales Opportunity appeared in the pipeline.

Emails went out automatically.

Text messages went out automatically.

WhatsApp follow-up started automatically.

The enquiry wasn’t simply sitting inside Facebook waiting for somebody to notice it.

The whole follow-up process was already happening.

And then there was another important part.

We could follow what happened to the lead after Facebook had generated it.

A Lead Isn’t a Sale

Most advertising reports concentrate heavily on leads.

You spend £500.

You generate 25 enquiries.

Therefore your Cost Per Lead is £20.

Useful information.

But an enquiry isn’t a sale.

For many advertising agencies, generating the enquiry is effectively where their responsibility ends.

From a business owner’s perspective, that’s only half the story.

I want to know:

How many of those enquiries actually became customers?

Because one campaign might generate lots of cheap leads that never buy anything.

Another might generate fewer, more expensive leads that turn into excellent customers.

If we’re only measuring Cost Per Lead, we could easily make the wrong decision.

What If the Customer Buys Offline?

This is particularly important for service businesses.

Imagine someone clicks your Facebook advert and makes an enquiry.

Your team calls them.

Perhaps they visit your showroom, shop or office.

Or perhaps you visit them at their home.

Eventually they buy.

That’s an offline sale, but the journey started with an online advert.

HighLevel lets us connect the advertising activity with what subsequently happens inside the CRM.

When that Sales Opportunity eventually becomes a sale, we can go much further than:

“Facebook generated a lead.”

We can start saying:

“Facebook generated a customer.”

That’s much more useful information.

What If the Customer Buys Online?

The same principle applies if you’re selling online.

HighLevel has its own built-in ecommerce functionality for selling products and services online.

And because the ecommerce functionality and Ad Manager sit within HighLevel, ecommerce sales can be connected directly with your advertising reporting.

So the journey could be:

Facebook Ad → HighLevel Store → Purchase

or:

Google Ad → HighLevel Store → Purchase

Now we’re not simply looking at how many people clicked an advert.

We can connect advertising spend with the sales and revenue being generated.

Online or Offline. The Number I Really Want Is Cost Per Sale

Whether the customer buys through an online store, over the phone or face-to-face, the important question is:

How much did it cost us to acquire that customer?

Imagine two Facebook campaigns.

Campaign A

Ad spend: £1,000
Leads: 50
Cost per lead: £20
Sales: 2

Cost per sale: £500

Campaign B

Ad spend: £1,000
Leads: 25
Cost per lead: £40
Sales: 5

Cost per sale: £200

If we only looked at Cost Per Lead, Campaign A looks twice as good.

But it isn’t.

Campaign B is producing customers for less than half the cost.

That’s why I want to see:

• Total Ad Spend
• Cost Per Click
• Cost Per Lead / Enquiry
• Number of Sales
• Revenue Generated
• Cost Per Sale / Customer Acquisition Cost

That’s when advertising reporting becomes genuinely useful.

And We Can Feed Conversion Information Back to Facebook

There’s another clever part to this.

With the appropriate conversion tracking configured, HighLevel can send conversion events back to Meta.

So rather than Facebook simply knowing:

“This person filled in a form.”

we can feed information further through the customer journey.

Facebook can potentially learn which leads actually progress and convert.

That matters because the more useful information we can give the advertising platform about the results we actually want, the better information its algorithms have to work with.

We don’t just want Facebook to find us people who fill in forms.

We want it to help us find customers.

Google Advertising Can Work the Same Way

The same principle applies to Google Ads.

Someone searches for the product or service you offer.

They click your advert.

They make an enquiry.

HighLevel captures the lead and starts the follow-up.

HighLevel also supports Google offline conversions, including events further down the sales process.

Again, we’re going beyond simply measuring clicks and enquiries.

We’re connecting advertising to what actually happens inside the business.

What About LinkedIn?

HighLevel Ad Manager also supports LinkedIn.

This can be particularly useful for B2B companies because LinkedIn allows you to target people using professional criteria such as industry, job role, seniority and company size.

For example:

Managing Directors of UK manufacturing businesses

or:

HR Directors working for companies with more than 100 employees.

HighLevel lets you manage LinkedIn alongside Google and Meta from the same advertising dashboard.

As of August 2026, the Ask AI campaign-building functionality hasn’t yet caught up with LinkedIn.

But it is coming.

Do You Still Need an Advertising Agency?

Sometimes.

If you’re spending tens of thousands of pounds every month on PPC, you may still want a specialist managing it.

But plenty of businesses aren’t doing anything like that.

Perhaps you want to spend £500 promoting a local service.

Run a Facebook campaign for an event.

Advertise a webinar.

Promote a new product.

Test an offer.

Historically your options were often:

Learn Google or Facebook Ads yourself.

Or:

Pay someone else to do it.

AI is creating another option.

Get AI to help you do it yourself.

For many smaller businesses, that could be very attractive.

Advertising Is Only the Start

This is why I think HighLevel Ad Manager is more interesting than simply finding an easier piece of software for creating ads.

The advert is only the start of the process.

Think about the complete journey:

Advert
↓
Lead
↓
CRM
↓
Email + SMS + WhatsApp Follow-Up
↓
Sales Opportunity
↓
Online or Offline Sale
↓
Revenue
↓
Conversion Data

That’s the bigger picture.

Advertising + CRM + Automation + Ecommerce + Sales

all connected together.

For the cleaning company, that was what really struck me.

It wasn’t simply:

“Great, we’ve created a Facebook advert.”

It was:

“We’ve created an entire lead generation, follow-up and sales tracking system.”

And we had the first ads running in about an hour.

The Bit I Think Matters Most

AI helping you create an advert is useful.

But I don’t think that’s the biggest story here.

The real benefit is being able to connect the advertising with what happens next.

Generate the lead.

Follow it up automatically.

Track it through the pipeline.

Record when it becomes a sale.

Or, if you’re selling online, connect the advertising directly with your ecommerce sales.

Then you can start answering the question that really matters:

How much did it cost me to acquire a customer?

That’s a much more useful question than:

How many clicks did my advert get?

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use AI to create Google Ads?

Yes. HighLevel Ask AI can help create and manage Google advertising campaigns from within HighLevel Ad Manager.

Can AI create Facebook and Instagram ads?

Yes. Ask AI can also help with Meta campaigns covering Facebook and Instagram.

Does HighLevel Ad Manager work with LinkedIn?

Yes. HighLevel Ad Manager supports LinkedIn Ads.

As of August 2026, AI campaign creation for LinkedIn is still on the way.

Can I manage Google, Facebook and LinkedIn Ads in one place?

Yes. HighLevel Ad Manager brings Google, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn advertising together into one dashboard.

Do I Still Need Google Ads, Meta and LinkedIn Advertising Accounts?

Yes.

HighLevel Ad Manager doesn’t replace the underlying advertising platforms.

You still need to set up the appropriate advertising accounts with Google, Meta for Facebook and Instagram, or LinkedIn.

You then connect those accounts to HighLevel Ad Manager.

Your adverts still run on the respective advertising platforms and Google, Meta or LinkedIn will charge your credit or debit card directly for your advertising spend.

HighLevel simply gives you one place to create, manage and monitor those advertising campaigns.

So, for example, if you decide to spend £500 on Facebook advertising, that advertising spend is paid to Meta. You can then use HighLevel to help create the campaign, manage it, capture and follow up the leads and track what happens through to the eventual sale.

Can HighLevel Track Whether an Advertising Lead Becomes a Sale?

Yes, with the appropriate tracking configured.

That sale might happen online through HighLevel’s ecommerce functionality or offline after the lead has progressed through your sales pipeline.

This means you can go beyond Cost Per Lead and start looking at Cost Per Sale.

Can HighLevel Track Ecommerce Sales From Advertising?

HighLevel has ecommerce functionality built into the same platform as its CRM and Ad Manager, allowing online sales and advertising performance to be connected rather than treated as completely separate systems.

Can Conversions Be Sent Back to Facebook?

Yes. HighLevel supports Meta Conversion API workflow actions that can send conversion events back to Meta.

This means advertising platforms can receive information about events further through the customer journey rather than only the initial enquiry.

Can I Run Google or Facebook Ads Myself?

Yes.

You don’t have to employ an advertising agency.

There is still a learning curve and you still need a sensible marketing strategy, but AI and tools such as HighLevel Ad Manager are making the technical side considerably easier.

Want to See HighLevel Ad Manager in Action?

If you’ve wanted to try Google, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn advertising but have been put off by the complexity, HighLevel Ad Manager is worth a look.

AI is now making campaign creation easier.

But for me, the real advantage is what happens after someone responds.

The lead enters your CRM.

The follow-up starts.

The opportunity enters your sales pipeline.

The customer buys online or offline.

And ultimately you can measure the number that really matters:

How much did it cost to win the customer?

We cover this in Workshop #11: Ecommerce & Ad Manager, part of our regular series of live HighLevel workshops at MarketerM8.

We’ll look at how HighLevel’s ecommerce and advertising tools work, how they connect with the rest of HighLevel and how you can start putting them to use in your own business.

Join our next E-commerce and Ad Manager Workshop.

 

Would you like to discuss your requirements in detail and explore your options with HighLevel and the Ad Manager?  –Book a Discovery Call with Julian

Would you like to learn more about HighLevel – check out the HighLevel Agency – MarketerM8