How to Set Up an AI Agent to Run Your Ads (Hermes)

You can set up an AI agent to run your ads by installing Hermes Agent on a virtual private server, connecting it to a ChatGPT subscription, adding Meta and Google ads abilities, and linking it to Telegram. Once it is connected, you message it from your phone, it pulls your Meta and Google ads data, recommends changes, and makes them only after you approve. It can also send you a daily ads summary on a schedule.

This is the written version of the video above, recorded in August 2026, so you can follow the setup step by step. Prices and screens are as they were on that date.

What can an AI ads agent actually do?

I built this agent to work for me 24 hours a day. From one Telegram chat I can ask things like:

• "How have my ads been performing over the last seven days?" It pulls in Meta ads and Google ads and tells me exactly what to do on the account.
• "What is the number one landing page on my Shopify store?" It finds the highest converting landing pages for the last 30 days and tells me what to do about them.
• "Based on my overall ad account, what can I do to make my account better?" It reviews every campaign and gives me a profit-first plan.

Then it can carry out the plan. In the video I asked it to pause a weak campaign and cut the budget on another by 10%. It showed a preview of both changes, waited for my approval, then applied them. It never changes your account unless you approve it, and you can approve from your phone anywhere.

Why run the agent on a VPS instead of your laptop?

If you install the agent on your laptop, it shuts off every time you close the lid. A virtual private server (VPS) is a computer that lives on the internet, so the agent is always on and you can reach it from anywhere with an internet connection.

I use Hostinger for three reasons:

1. Price. It cost under $6 a month to run the agent at the time of recording.
2. A 30-day money back guarantee if you don't like it.
3. Hermes Agent is built in. Hostinger has configured it for you, with a visual interface, a command line, AI credits and one-click connections, so there is nothing to maintain.

How do you set up Hermes Agent on Hostinger?

1. Sign up to a Hostinger VPS plan. I chose 24 months, which came to $5.99 a month, and my coupon code (BRENDANGILLEN) brought it to about $5.39 a month.
2. Leave Ready to Use AI switched on (an extra $5.99). It is Hostinger's own AI, called Nexus, which pulls in other models. You need some AI in place before you connect your ChatGPT subscription, and once those credits run out the agent uses your ChatGPT plan.
3. Turn on Instant Web Search. It is free and lets the agent search the web for you. You can skip agentic mail unless you have no email set up.
4. In the dashboard, click Hermes Agent on the left. Make sure you pick Hermes Agent, not OpenClaw, then click Add Hermes Agent. Hostinger installs it on your server from a ready-made configuration file.

Should you use an API key or your ChatGPT subscription?

Next you choose the model that powers Hermes: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic) or Gemini (Google).

The catch with the API key method is that every call Hermes makes costs tokens, there is no ceiling, and Hermes can use a lot of tokens. You can blow your budget quickly. A ChatGPT subscription caps you at your monthly fee, whether that is a $20 or a $40 plan. Unless you are doing something overly sophisticated, the subscription is enough.

1. Click Use ChatGPT Subscription, then Continue.
2. Click Open, sign in to ChatGPT and authorise the account.
3. When you see "Signed into Codex", close the page. Hostinger shows the connection as successful.

How do you connect the agent to Telegram?

Telegram works on your phone and desktop and is encrypted, which makes it a good way to talk to your agent.

1. Open Telegram and search for BotFather. Start a chat and type /newbot.
2. Give the bot a name, then a username that ends in "bot".
3. Copy the token BotFather gives you and paste it into Hostinger.
4. Search Telegram for userinfobot, start a chat, and copy the ID it shows you. This ID is unique to you. Paste it into Hostinger and click Continue.
5. Search Telegram for your new bot's username, open it, then click Finish Setup in Hostinger.

Inside the Hermes dashboard you will find chat, scheduled tasks, a Kanban board for projects, a library of built-in abilities, memory (it gets smarter the more you use it), profiles, to-dos, stats and logs. Profiles are worth knowing about: you can set up separate coworkers for customer service, web development, comment replies or blogs. The one in this guide is your PPC coworker.

How do you give the agent access to Meta ads?

First, teach Hermes how to run ads. Paste these two install commands into the Hermes chat, one at a time, and approve each step as it works out the install itself:

• hermes skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-meta-ads
• hermes skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-google-ads

If it says it needs the CLI (the command line tool that lets one computer talk to another), copy its suggested command and run that too.

Then connect your account with Meta's official MCP connector. An MCP is an easy way for AI agents to talk to other software, with no custom app building. I prefer the official connector because I don't want my AI to get my account banned or spend all my money, and the official route has more support and is likely more secure.

1. Ask Hermes: "Install this Meta ads MCP for me to use the PPC skills" and paste the MCP URL.
2. It will ask for a Meta access token. If you don't know where to find it, ask Hermes.
3. In Meta, create a free app. Choose the use case Create ads with marketing API, select your ad account and create the app.
4. In Business Settings, go to System users, click Add, name the user and keep the role as Employee.
5. Click Assign assets. Choose your ad account with view performance access only, so it only sees analytics, and give the app view insights.
6. Click Generate token, pick your app, tick ads_management, ads_read and business_management, and copy the token.
7. Don't paste the token into the Hermes chat, because that isn't secure. In Hostinger, open Hermes Agent, click Manage, open the Environment tab and add a variable called META_TOKEN with your token as the value.
8. Restart the Hermes session so it loads the new variable, then test it: "Can you give me a summary of my Meta ads for the last seven days?"

When it asks for permission to run commands in Telegram, choose always allow in this session, and it will turn the raw data into an answer you can read. Google ads works the same way: install the ability, then ask Hermes to help you install the Google connector.

How do you schedule a daily ads report?

Chatting with your agent is useful, but the real value is work it does without you. Because it lives on a VPS, it can run jobs while you sleep.

1. Click Tasks, then New Job, and name it something like "Meta ads summary and tips".
2. Set it to run every 24 hours.
3. Write the prompt in plain English. Mine was: "Give me a summary on how my ads performed over the last 24 hours in Meta. Then look back over the past seven days and give me three tips I can do to improve my ad account right now."
4. Choose where the result goes. I send it to Telegram, but it can go to email, Slack or almost anywhere.
5. Leave the profile and model on the defaults and click Save.

Ads are the most basic use. The same agent can connect to your Shopify store, check emails, respond to comments and help optimise your store. If you would rather work inside Claude, read how I run 80% of my Shopify store with Claude or how to connect Shopify to Claude with the AI Toolkit. Before you hand an agent your budget, run through the Meta ads checklist so you know what a healthy account looks like.

If you want a Growth Advisor to install AI like this across your business with you, that is what the Elite Team does.