How to Create Ads in Agency AI

Overview

Agency AI makes it easy to create Meta (Facebook & Instagram) and Google ads directly from your Shopify admin. This guide walks you through every step of the ad creation process, covering all available paths and ad types on both platforms so you can get your campaigns live quickly.

Before You Start

For all ads:

Agency AI is installed on your Shopify store
Your Brand page is filled in. Agency AI uses it to generate your ad copy and creative, so keep it accurate and up to date. See Setting Up Your Brand Page.

For Meta ads:

Your Meta account is connected. See Connecting Your Meta Business Account to Agency AI.
Your Ad Account, Facebook Page, Meta Pixel, and Instagram account are all selected under Settings → Meta account
Your Meta Pixel is actively tracking events on your store
If you plan to use Dynamic ads, your product catalog must be synced through the Facebook & Instagram Shopify app

For Google ads:

Your Google Ads account is connected under Settings → Google account
Your Google Merchant Center account is already linked to your Google Ads account, with your products approved in the feed

Agency AI does not set up Merchant Center for you. If you haven't done it yet, we recommend the Google & YouTube Shopify app. See Setting up Google Merchant Center + product feed and linking Google Ads.

How Much Should You Budget?

If you're launching with Agency AI and want to run both Meta and Google, we recommend a total daily budget of at least $75.

Below $75 a day, don't split it. Pick one channel and put your full budget behind it.

Both Meta and Google need a certain volume of conversions before their algorithms can optimize delivery. Splitting a small budget across two platforms means neither one reaches that volume, and you end up paying for two campaigns that are both still learning. One well-funded channel finds your customers faster and starts producing results sooner.

You can always add the second channel later, once your budget has room for it.

Step 1: Select Your Ad Platform

From the Agency AI Create Ad screen, you'll see the Ad Platform section at the top. Choose one:

Meta Ads — Facebook & Instagram
Google Ads — Google Network

Each card shows a green checkmark reading "Integration is setup" when that platform is connected and ready. If you don't see the checkmark, head to Settings and connect the account before continuing.

The rest of the Create Ad screen changes depending on which platform you pick. The two paths have different steps, so they're labeled separately below: Meta Step 1–4 for Meta ads, and Google Step 1–6 for Google ads. Follow the path for the platform you selected.

Creating a Meta Ad

Meta Step 1: Choose Your Target Audience

Select who you want your ads to reach:

New Customers — Reach people who haven't purchased from you before. This is the best choice for growing your customer base and driving first-time sales.

Remarketing — Target previous visitors and customers. This is ideal for re-engaging people who have already interacted with your store, such as those who viewed products, added items to their cart, or made a previous purchase.

Remarketing tip: When creating remarketing ads, Agency AI will display a performance tip recommending no more than 2 remarketing ads live at a time. Keeping your remarketing ads focused prevents audience overlap and ensures optimal delivery.

Meta Step 2: Choose Your Ad Creation Option

Agency AI offers three ways to create Meta ads, depending on whether you want to work within an existing campaign structure or start fresh.

Option A: Create New Ad

Use this when you already have a campaign and ad set running and want to add another ad to it. This is the most common option for merchants who are testing new creative within an existing campaign.

Select Create New Ad ("Create new ad in existing adset")
Choose your campaign from the Select Campaign dropdown
Choose your ad set from the Select Ad Set dropdown

If your campaigns aren't appearing, click the Refresh button next to "Missing Campaigns?" to resync your data.

Option B: Create New Ad Set

Use this when you want to create a new ad set within an existing campaign. This is useful when you want to test a different audience segment, placement, or strategy while keeping everything organized under the same campaign.

Select Create New Ad Set ("Create new ad set with ad")
Choose your campaign from the Select Campaign dropdown
Enter a name for your new ad set in the Ad Set Name field

Option C: Create New Campaign

Use this when you're starting completely from scratch. This creates a new campaign, a new ad set within it, and your first ad all at once.

Click the Create New Campaign button in the top right of the Ad Creation Options section
Enter a Campaign Name
Enter an Ad Set Name
Set your Daily Budget (USD). This defaults to $10. We recommend at least $20–$50 per day for meaningful results. If you're running Meta only, put your whole budget here rather than splitting it with Google — see How Much Should You Budget? above.

You'll see a warning: "We recommend avoiding creating new campaigns to ensure optimal performance." This is because Meta's algorithm performs best when it has existing data to optimize from. If you already have a running campaign, consider adding new ads or ad sets to it instead.

Which option should I choose?

If you're brand new to Agency AI and launching your first ad, Create New Campaign is where you'll start, since you won't have an existing campaign yet.

After your first campaign is running, the general best practice is to add new creative and audiences to your existing campaigns using Create New Ad or Create New Ad Set rather than creating new campaigns each time. This gives Meta's algorithm more data to work with and typically results in better performance.

Meta Step 3: Set Your Duration

For all three creation options, you can set an optional End Date for your ad. If you leave this blank, your ad will run continuously until you manually pause or stop it.

Setting an end date is useful for time-limited promotions, seasonal sales, or testing with a fixed window.

Meta Step 4: Choose Your Ad Type

Agency AI supports three Meta ad types, each suited to different creative strategies.

Dynamic Ad

Best for: Product catalog retargeting, showing personalized products to each viewer.

Dynamic ads automatically pull product images, titles, and descriptions from your Meta product catalog and personalize what each person sees based on their browsing behavior on your store. Someone who viewed a specific product on your site might see that exact product in their Facebook feed.

What you'll configure:

Product Catalog — Select the catalog synced from your Shopify store. This dropdown shows catalogs from your business, both owned and shared.
Product Sets — Optionally narrow your ad to a specific subset of products from your catalog, such as a collection or category.
Ad Summary — Describe your ad and how you want to promote it. This helps Agency AI generate more relevant content.
Copywriting Angle — Choose how Agency AI approaches writing your copy. See Copywriting Angles Explained.
Caption (Primary Text) — The main text above your ad in the feed. 500 characters max, minimum 5 words required for Meta's AI optimization. Write your own or click ✨ Generate with AI.
Call to Action — The button text on your ad. "Shop Now" is the default and recommended choice for e-commerce.

For Dynamic ads, the headline and description are automatically populated from your product catalog.

Image Ad

Best for: Promoting a specific product, collection, or offer with a single static image.

Image ads use one creative shown uniformly to all audiences. They're straightforward to create and work well for showcasing a hero product, announcing a sale, or driving traffic to a specific landing page.

What you'll configure:

Ad Summary — Describe your ad and promotion goals.
Copywriting Angle — Set the approach for AI-generated copy.
Headline — A short, punchy line below your image. 40 characters max, minimum 5 words.
Description — Supporting text below the headline. 125 characters max, minimum 5 words.
Caption (Primary Text) — The main body text above your ad. 500 characters max, minimum 5 words.
Landing Page — The URL people go to when they click your ad.
Call to Action — Button text. Default is "Shop Now."
Images — Upload up to 2 images in .jpg or .png format, max 30 MB. Use the checkboxes to select which images to include.

Image best practices:

Upload one Square (1:1) image for Feed placements and one Vertical (9:16) image for Stories and Reels placements
If you only have one image, that's fine. Agency AI will optimize it to fit all placements.
Use the AI Tools tab to generate or enhance images, or the Asset Library tab to reuse images you've saved

Video Ad

Best for: Showcasing products in action, telling your brand story, or grabbing attention with motion in the feed.

Video ads use short-form video with the same targeting controls as image ads. Video tends to stop the scroll more effectively than static images and can be powerful for demonstrating product features or creating emotional connections.

What you'll configure:

Ad Summary — Describe your ad and promotion goals.
Copywriting Angle — Set the approach for AI-generated copy.
Headline — Short text below your video. 40 characters max.
Description — Supporting text below the headline. 125 characters max.
Caption (Primary Text) — Main body text above your video. 500 characters max.
Landing Page — The destination URL for clicks.
Call to Action — Button text. Default is "Shop Now."
Videos — Upload up to 2 videos in .mp4 or .mov format, max 100 MB per video.

Video best practices:

Upload one Square (1:1) video for Feed placements and one Vertical (9:16) video for Stories and Reels
If you only have one video, Agency AI will optimize it for all placements
Keep videos short. 15 to 30 seconds tends to perform best on Meta.
Front-load the most compelling content in the first 3 seconds, before people scroll past

Creating a Google Ad

Google ads in Agency AI are built from your Shopify product catalog, which is why your Merchant Center account needs to be linked to your Google Ads account before you begin.

From the Create Ad screen, you'll build a Performance Max campaign. Performance Max places your products across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and Discover from a single campaign, with Google's AI deciding where each impression goes.

Google Step 1: Choose Your Ad Creation Option

Under Google Performance Max — Ad Creation Options, choose one:

New Campaign

Creates a new campaign along with its first asset group.

Use this for a new product line, a new market, or a promotion that needs its own budget.

You'll see a note: "Creating a new campaign will also create a new asset group. Set a daily budget in the next step."

What you'll configure:

Campaign Name — How it appears in your Google Ads account
Asset Group Name — The first asset group inside the campaign
Target countries — Defaults to United States. Add more as needed.
Merchant Center account — Links your product feed to the campaign. If no account appears in this dropdown, your Merchant Center isn't linked to your connected Google Ads account yet.
Target language
Daily Budget (Local Currency) — Defaults to $50. This is a ceiling, not a spend commitment. If you're running Google only, put your whole budget here rather than splitting it with Meta — see How Much Should You Budget? above.

New Asset Group

Adds a new asset group to a campaign you already have.

Use this to test new creative or messaging inside a campaign that's already gathering data, without disturbing its learning.

What you'll configure:

Campaign — Search for and select the existing campaign
Asset Group Name

Which option should I choose?

If this is your first Google campaign, start with New Campaign.

After that, adding asset groups to an existing campaign is usually better than creating new campaigns. Google's algorithm optimizes best when conversion data is concentrated rather than split across many campaigns. The same principle applies on Meta.

Google Step 2: Set Your Duration

Set an optional End Date. Leave it blank and the campaign runs until you pause it.

Google Step 3: Write Your Ad Content

In this step you write the text and settings for your Google Performance Max ad: the ad summary, copywriting angle, final URL, business name, and an optional custom identifier. This is different from the End Date step — here you're defining what the ad says and where it points.

Ad Summary — Describe your ad and what you're promoting. This is the context Agency AI uses to generate your copy, so be specific about which products, which offer, and which audience.
Copywriting Angle — Choose how Agency AI approaches your copy. "Neutral" uses your brand voice without a specific angle. See Copywriting Angles Explained.
Final URL — The landing page for your ad. Required by Google.
Business name — Shown alongside your ad. 25 characters max.
Add Custom Identifier To Title — Optional. Appends an identifier to the end of the campaign and asset names Agency AI generates in Google Ads, which is useful if you follow a naming convention.

Google Step 4: Add Your Headlines and Descriptions

In this step you provide the headlines, long headlines, and descriptions Google uses to build your ad. Performance Max assembles your ads from a pool of assets. The more variety you give it, the more combinations it can test.

Asset	Limit	Length
Headlines	15 max	30 characters each
Long headlines	5 max	90 characters each
Descriptions	5 max	90 characters each

We recommend at least 10 headlines for optimal performance. Thin asset sets consistently underperform, because Google has fewer combinations to test.

Click ✨ Generate with AI beside any group and Agency AI will write them from your Brand page and your Ad Summary. Edit anything it produces.

Google Step 5: Add Your Images and Videos

In this step you add the visual assets for your Google ad. Minimum: 2 images. One landscape (1.91:1) and one square (1:1). At least 10 images recommended.

Three ways to add them, using the tabs above the upload area:

Upload — Your own files, .jpg or .png
AI Tools — Edit an image you provide, or Generate a new one from a prompt
Asset Library — Reuse images you've already saved

Creative Style (Beta)

Under AI Tools, select a Creative Style to guide how the AI edits and generates images:

Studio product — Clean, controlled product imagery on neutral backgrounds
Lifestyle Scene — Warm, real-world settings that place products in context
UGC / authentic — Casual creator-style visuals with natural lighting and phone-shot realism
Promo / offer — Bold promotional graphics with clear offer messaging
Flat lay / editorial — Top-down styled compositions with curated props

Your Brand Visuals also feed every generated creative. If Auto-apply to creatives is enabled on your Brand page, Agency AI uses your primary and secondary brand colors in all AI-generated ads.

Videos

Videos are optional. Google Ads only supports YouTube videos, so add them by URL in the Videos tab.

Google Step 6: Add Sitelinks (Optional)

You can add up to 4 sitelinks. These are your top landing pages, excluding your home page.

Each sitelink needs:

Link text — 25 characters max
Final URL
Description line 1 — Optional, 35 characters
Description line 2 — Optional, 35 characters

Sitelinks are one of the cheapest ways to lift Performance Max click-through rate. Use them.

Using "Generate with AI"

Throughout the ad creation process, you'll see the ✨ Generate with AI option next to text fields like Headline, Description, Caption, and Long headline. This feature generates ad copy tailored to your brand, product, and audience.

To get the best results:

Fill in the Ad Summary first. This field gives Agency AI context about what you're promoting and how you want to position it. The more detail you provide, the more relevant the generated copy will be.
Choose your Copywriting Angle. This sets the approach of the generated content. "Neutral" works well as a default, but experimenting with different angles helps you discover what resonates with your audience.
Click ✨ Generate with AI on the field you want to populate. Agency AI generates copy based on your Ad Summary, your Copywriting Angle, your Brand page, and your product data.
Review and edit. AI-generated copy is a strong starting point, but you know your brand and customers best.

If the copy doesn't sound like your brand, fix the Brand page, not the ad. Everything Agency AI writes is generated from your Brand Summary, Target Customer Base, Value Propositions, and Tone of Voice. Thin inputs produce generic copy. See Setting Up Your Brand Page.

Review and Submit

Once you've filled in all the required fields, review your selections and click Create Ad.

Your ad is sent to the platform for review. Meta review typically takes a few hours but can take up to 24 hours. Google reviews your Performance Max assets and your Merchant Center products separately.

You can monitor the status of your ads from the Dashboard page. Once approved, your ad will begin delivering.

If your ad is rejected, the reason comes from the platform, not from Agency AI. See Why Your Ad Was Rejected by Meta.

Tips for Getting the Best Results

Keep your Brand page current. It directly shapes every headline, description, and creative Agency AI generates. This is the single highest-leverage thing you control.

Concentrate your budget before you spread it. Under $75 a day, run one channel well rather than two channels thinly. Adding a second platform before the first has enough conversion volume to optimize slows both of them down.

Start with one ad type and test. If you're new to paid advertising, start with a single Image or Dynamic ad before branching into multiple ad types. This gives you a clean baseline to learn from.

Use Dynamic ads for remarketing. Dynamic ads are especially powerful for remarketing because they show people the specific products they already browsed on your store.

Test multiple creatives. Once your first ad is running, use Create New Ad on Meta or New Asset Group on Google to add variations to your existing structure. Testing different images, headlines, and copy is how you find what works.

Don't create unnecessary campaigns. Agency AI's recommendation to avoid new campaigns isn't arbitrary. Both Meta's and Google's algorithms perform better with conversion data concentrated in fewer campaigns. Add new ads and asset groups to existing campaigns whenever you can.

Give your ads time. Avoid making changes in the first 7 days after launch. Both platforms need that window to exit the learning phase and stabilize delivery. Early changes reset the process and can hurt performance.

Be careful with budget changes. On both Meta and Google, a budget change greater than 20% in a single edit restarts the learning phase. Going from $100/day to $125/day is a 25% change. Agency AI's own budget recommendations respect this limit — see Understanding Recommendations.

Let Agency AI tell you when to change something. After launch, Agency AI monitors your campaigns around the clock and posts optimization recommendations on the Dashboard page. Acting on those beats guessing.

Need Help?

If you run into issues during ad creation, or have questions about which ad type or creation option is right for you, email us at support@agencyai.app or browse the rest of the Knowledge Base. We're here to help you get your ads live and performing.