Two things cost money when running the AI CMO: the ad spend itself and (depending on plan/setup) a platform fee.
Running on your own Meta ad account:
- Ad spend is billed by Meta directly to your ad account's payment method, it never goes through Larven.
- Larven's platform fee on that spend: 12% on Starter plans, 0% (free) on Pro. The fee is charged separately by Larven based on your actual Meta spend. Upgrading to Pro stops the fee from the next cycle.
Running on Larven's managed account:
- Larven charges your card the daily ad budget and spends it on your ads.
- A 12% fee applies on both plans (5.5% payment-provider costs + 6.5% implementation and support). The 0% Pro fee applies to your own ad account only, so a Pro plan does not remove the 12% on the managed account.
Why my balance is lower than the amount charged
This is the most common question about managed campaigns, and it is not a double charge.
Your card is charged the ad budget plus the 12% fee, but only the ad budget is added to your campaign balance. The fee is Larven's platform fee, it is not ad money, so it never appears in the balance.
Example: a 14 day campaign at €50 per day is €700 of ads. You are charged €784 (€700 of ad budget plus €84 fee) and your balance shows €700. Every cent of that €700 goes to your ads.
Two more things worth knowing about the balance:
- It belongs to the brand, not to a single campaign. If you run several managed campaigns for one brand they all draw from the same balance, so it empties at their combined daily rate.
- When it runs low, we charge your card again to top it up so your ads keep delivering. If you stop a campaign, any balance left over stays on your account as credit for future ads, it is not refunded to your card.
- Meta reports each day's final spend with a delay, so the last day(s) of spend can settle after you stop a campaign. If that settlement leaves the balance negative, we charge the difference (plus the 12% fee) as a one-time final settlement.
Your subscription credits are separate, they pay for creative generation, not ad spend. See Understanding your charges if a line on your statement is unclear.