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Use Knock for Paid Ad Campaigns

Use Knock for Paid Ad Campaigns

Use Knock for Paid Ad Campaigns

Paid ads create a short moment of buyer interest. Knock AI lets you turn that moment into the start of a relationship instead of only creating another lead record for someone to follow up with later.

With Knock AI, you can let buyers start a conversation directly from an ad, continue to a landing page with chat and scheduling options, or open a personalized ABM experience. You can then route, personalize, attribute, and optimize the full funnel for every campaign.

Why use Knock with paid campaigns?

The traditional paid campaign flow is usually:

Ad → landing page → form → CRM record → SDR follow-up

The problem is that the buyer’s strongest moment of intent happens when they click the ad. On average, traditional funnels result in 96% of paid clicks never becoming meaningful conversations.

Knock changes the flow to:

Ad → conversation or meeting → relationship starts immediately

The goal is not only to generate more records.

It is to turn paid demand into active buyer relationships.

How can I use Knock in ads?

There are three primary ways to connect Knock to paid campaigns.

1. Send the buyer to a landing page with chat and meeting CTAs

Best for awareness campaigns

You can keep your existing campaign landing page and use Knock AI as the conversion layer.

Add prominent Knock chat and meeting CTAs so the visitor can choose the next action that fits their intent.

For example:

  • Talk to sales
  • Ask a question
  • Chat with an expert
  • Book a demo

This approach works well when the landing page provides useful context before the buyer is ready to engage.

Keep the conversion path simple. Do not force every buyer through the same form when some visitors are already ready to talk or book.

This approach works well for awareness campaigns where the buyer still needs to learn about you.

2. Start a chat directly from the ad

Best for retargeting campaigns

Use a Knock Link as the destination of the ad.

A Knock Link is a shareable URL that starts a conversation with your team from any touchpoint. When the buyer clicks the ad, they can start chatting instead of landing on a traditional form.

This works especially well for campaigns where the next natural action is a conversation, such as:

  • Talk to an expert
  • Ask about pricing
  • Get a recommendation
  • Discuss a specific use case
  • Dm us to get this report

The lead chats through the available Knock experience and your rep can continue the conversation from your Slack workspace.

Top-performing messaging apps by ad platform:

  • LinkedIn Ads — LinkedIn Chat
  • Instagram and Facebook Ads — WhatsApp
  • X (Twitter) Ads — Telegram or Slack
  • TikTok Ads — Slack or WhatsApp

3. Send the buyer to a personalized Marketing or ABM Card

ABM campaigns

For account-based or highly personalized campaigns, send the ad to a Knock Marketing Card configured for the campaign or target account.

A Marketing Card can replace a traditional landing page with a simpler, mobile-first experience containing the content and conversion actions that matter for that audience.

For ABM campaigns, personalize the card for the target account.

For example, you can include:

  • Account-specific messaging
  • Relevant content
  • A personalized offer
  • A direct chat CTA
  • A meeting CTA
  • The rep or team associated with the account

This lets the ad, destination, conversation, and sales experience feel like one continuous journey instead of separate campaign systems.

Learn more about how to create a Marketing Card

Personalize the experience for each campaign

Do not send every ad campaign into the same generic Knock experience.

Knock lets you create campaign-specific experiences so the conversation continues the promise made in the ad.

Set a different welcome message

Configure the opening message based on the campaign.

For example, if the ad is about website conversion, the first message can immediately continue that topic instead of saying a generic “How can we help?”

Set routing for each campaign

You can also configure routing based on the Knock Link or campaign experience.

Use Knock routing rules so the buyer reaches the team that can continue the conversation with the right context.

Add UTMs to every Knock campaign link

Add UTM parameters to your Knock Links and campaign destinations before launching your ads.

Knock captures attribution context so you can connect the original campaign to the buyer relationship and its downstream outcome.

Use a consistent UTM structure across campaigns so you can compare performance accurately.

What can I measure with Knock attribution?

Traditional ad reporting often stops at the click or lead.

Knock lets you analyze what happens further down the funnel.

Use Knock Attribution Analysis to understand how individual campaigns contribute to buyer engagement and commercial outcomes.

This gives marketing a fuller view of paid campaign performance beyond form submissions.

Send Knock conversion events back to your ad platforms

Knock can also send downstream conversion signals back to advertising platforms.

Depending on your ad platform and setup, you can send Knock events for actions that happen after the ad click.

LinkedIn Ads

Use Connect Knock AI Events to LinkedIn Ads to send relevant Knock conversion events to LinkedIn.

This can give LinkedIn more information about what happens after someone enters the Knock experience.

Google Ads

Use Connect Knock AI Events to Google Ads to connect Knock conversion activity with your Google Ads campaigns.

Knock data layer

For more flexible event tracking, use Knock AI Data Layer Events for Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

The Knock data layer lets your website and advertising stack react to Knock events and use them as conversion signals.

Choose the events that represent meaningful progress in your funnel rather than optimizing only toward the earliest interaction.

Build the full paid campaign flow

A strong Knock paid campaign setup connects every stage of the buyer experience.

Example flow

  1. Create the campaign. Define the audience, offer, and intent behind the ad.
  2. Choose the Knock destination. Send the buyer directly to a Knock Link, a landing page with Knock CTAs, or a personalized Marketing Card.
  3. Add campaign UTMs. Add consistent utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and utm_content values.
  4. Configure the welcome message. Continue the message and context from the ad.
  5. Configure routing rules. Assign the campaign to the right rep, team, or routing flow.
  6. Track attribution in Knock AI. Use Knock Attribution Analysis to measure the complete journey.
  7. Map Knock enrichment and attribution data to your CRM
  8. Send conversion events back to the ad platform. Connect LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, or use Knock data layer events.