Fallback if statement based on the number filtered from it

Got some help from a friend and figured out that I needed to move the post_meta stuff into the query with meta_query then just set a fallback from there.

<?php
$current_date = date('Ymd');
$page_object  = get_queried_object();
$page_id      = get_queried_object_id();

// Match the string "123" to the database value a:1:{i:0;s:3:"123";} (serialized array) for ACF
$page_id      = '"' . $page_id . '"'; 

$args = array(
    'post_type'      => 'ads',
    'posts_per_page' => 3,
    'orderby'        => 'rand',
    'meta_query'     => array(
        array(
            'key'     => 'start_date',
            'value'   => $current_date,
            'compare' => '<=',
        ),
        array(
            'key'     => 'end_date',
            'value'   => $current_date,
            'compare' => '>=',
        ),
        array(
            'key'     => 'display_on_page',
            'value'   => $page_id,
            'compare' => 'LIKE'
        )
   )
);

$ads = new WP_Query( $args );

if ( $ads->have_posts() ) :
    while ( $ads->have_posts() ) : $ads->the_post();
        $link = get_field( 'link' );
        ?>
        <div class="col-1-3">
            <div class="advertisement footer-ad">
                <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/115841/<?php echo $link; ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail( 'ads' ); ?></a>
            </div>
        </div>
        <?php
   endwhile;
else: ?>
    <div class="col-1-3">
        <div class="advertisement footer-ad">
            <img src="<?php bloginfo( 'template_url' ); ?>/images/ad-listing.jpg" alt="Advertisement">
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-1-3">
        <div class="advertisement footer-ad">
            <img src="<?php bloginfo( 'template_url' ); ?>/images/ad-listing.jpg" alt="Advertisement">
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-1-3">
        <div class="advertisement footer-ad">
            <img src="<?php bloginfo( 'template_url' ); ?>/images/ad-listing.jpg" alt="Advertisement">
        </div>
    </div>
    <?php
endif;
?>

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