Take this into the demo

AI Ad Manager: questions to ask

From The AI Agents Report by Iterategy · iterategy.com/research/ai-agents/jobs/ai-ad-manager/

The nine questions

Does an AI do this, or does a rule? If the answer is “when X happens it sends Y”, you are buying automation, and it should not cost AI prices.
Does it send, or does it draft? Ask for the sentence on their page that says it acts on its own.
Does it do it on its own on this plan, or on the one above? The setting that lets it act without you is often a tier up from the entry price.
What does it do with the hard cases? Ask what it holds back for you, and what happens to what it cannot resolve.
What is the cap, and what happens past it? Work out the bill at the volume you actually do, not at the included allowance.
What is the unit? Per month, per user, per location, per minute, per credit or per resolved ticket.
Who does the setup, and is it in the price?
What happens to the changes it made when I stop paying? Some tools make changes that stay only while you subscribe.
Who carries the legal side? For calling and texting customers, ask who handles consent and opt-outs.

The ad platforms’ own automated campaigns, from Google, Meta and Microsoft, set bids, placements and creative themselves and cost nothing beyond your ad spend. Try those before paying for a separate tool.
Most independent ad tools you will be shown only recommend changes for you to make. Of the 8 an owner is most likely to see, 7 work that way and are not listed here. Ask whether it changes the account itself.
Set a hard budget cap and check where the money went every week. An agent can spend across more searches than you can check by hand, and one setting sent 72 percent of a week’s spend to searches unrelated to the product.
Price the plan you actually need, not the entry plan. One vendor lists $66 a month billed yearly and recommends its $335 plan.
In reviews, the serious complaints are spending past the budget cap, ads shown outside the chosen area and billing after cancellation. Ask how the cap is enforced and how you cancel.