How Do You Make a Video Ad With AI? The 7-Step Workflow

A video ad made with AI follows seven steps: pick the objective and platform, write the offer and hook, generate scripts or variants, make the footage, add voice and captions, resize for each placement, then test and iterate. Doing them in that order matters, because each step fixes a constraint the next one depends on. The first two steps cost no credits at all, and you can finish a 9:16 draft for a single product before deciding whether the ad deserves a bigger budget.

Updated October 2026.

Pick the objective and the platform

Decide what the ad is for before you decide what it looks like. A click to a product page, a sign-up, a store visit and a direct purchase need different lengths, different calls to action and different proof. The platform follows from the objective: a discovery feed rewards a fast hook and vertical framing, while a search placement rewards a clear product and a plain offer.

Write the answer down as one sentence: who sees this, where, and what should they do next. That sentence becomes the test every later choice has to pass. If a scene does not serve it, cut the scene. If the call to action does not match it, rewrite the call to action.

Write the offer and hook

The offer is what the viewer gets and what it costs them. The hook is the first three seconds that make them care. Write the offer first, in plain words, then write the hook as the shortest true sentence that makes the offer interesting. A hook that needs a paragraph of setup is not a hook.

• Name the audience. "If your phone case goes yellow in two months" beats "premium protection".
• Put a number in when you have a real one. A price, a duration, a count of items. If you do not have a real number, do not invent one.
• Keep the claim checkable. A promise you cannot stand behind is a refund request with a delay.

This is also the step where most weak ads are saved: a strong offer with a plain hook beats a beautiful ad for a vague product. The UGC ad workflow walks through the same offer-first logic for photo-led ads.

Generate scripts or variants

You have two routes. If you have one clear idea, write the script yourself and use a text-to-video or image-to-video tab to render it. If you are not sure which angle will land, use Ad Variants, which writes five scripts from one product, one per hook angle: curiosity, problem-solution, social proof, urgency and humor.

Five scripts are a menu, not a batch to render blind. Read them, keep the two or three that sound like something a person would say, and adjust the offer wording to match your actual terms. The tool writes the structure; you still own the claim. That division of labour is what keeps AI-assisted ads honest.

Make the footage

Match the footage route to what you have. A real product photo is the strongest starting point for a product ad: the UGC Ad Wizard takes one photo and turns it into short vertical ads for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, with hooks and a 15-second voice-over script written from your own facts. The product stays exact in stills, which matters when the viewer is comparing a colour or a label.

For a scene with a person, the UGC Ad Creator generates an AI influencer, places your product in their hands and turns the scene into a talking video ad. For a straight product spot, the advertisement tab is the direct route, and static creative can come from the Ad Pack.

Seedance 2 is the default workhorse for these clips: 4 to 15 seconds, six aspect ratios including 9:16 and 16:9, and native audio included. Kling 3.0 is the alternative when you want its motion and face handling. Whatever model you choose, set the duration first, because it caps how much script the ad can carry. Draft at a low resolution and re-render the keeper later. The price is shown before every generation, and failed renders are refunded.

Voice and captions

Most feed viewers watch with the sound off for the first few seconds, so the ad has to work as text before it works as audio. Burn in captions and make the first line readable at a glance. If you use a voice-over, generate it on the text to speech tab, where you can pick from ElevenLabs, Gemini and xAI voices, then lay it under the clip.

Write for the ear: short sentences, one idea each, no numbers stacked three deep. If the voice-over and the on-screen text say exactly the same thing, one of them is redundant, but that redundancy is often what makes a muted feed ad understandable. Keep the voice-over and the captions in sync, and check that the captions do not sit under the platform interface.

Resize for each platform

One ad rarely fits everywhere. A 9:16 master is right for Reels, Shorts and TikTok, a 1:1 or 4:5 crop suits a feed, and 16:9 suits an in-stream or site placement. The Ad Resize Pack produces the set from one master, which is faster and more consistent than rebuilding the same ad three times.

Placement	Export	What to check
Reels, Shorts, TikTok	9:16 vertical	Hook in the top third, captions clear of the interface
Feed placements	1:1 or 4:5	Product readable at thumbnail size
In-stream and site	16:9	Offer and call to action on screen long enough to read

The platform-by-platform numbers are in our video ad specs guide. Resize after the creative is settled, not before: cropping a draft that later changes wastes the export work.

Test and iterate

Run the ad, then change one thing at a time. If the hook underperforms, keep the body and swap the opening. If the clicks arrive but the purchases do not, the offer or the landing page is the variable, not the footage. Give each version enough time and budget to separate before you call it.

Keep a simple record: which hook, which offer, which format, what happened. Three rounds of that beats a folder of unlabelled exports. When a variant wins, re-render it at delivery resolution and let the draft stay a draft. If you want a deeper testing method, our guide to testing AI video ads sets out a 3x3 plan that fits a small credit budget, and the best AI video generators for ads compares the footage routes by job.

Credits work in your favour here. One-time packs never expire, so a test you do not finish this week is still there next month, and there is no subscription needed to keep access. The Lite pack is 300 credits for $19.50 one time, or $15 monthly, and India has smaller packs from ₹299 for 75 credits. Prices for every option are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to film anything to make an AI video ad?

No. You can start from a product photo, a text prompt or a generated actor. A real product photo gives the most accurate result when the product itself has to be recognisable.

How long should an AI video ad be?

Long enough to deliver the hook, the proof and one call to action. On Seedance 2 that is 4 to 15 seconds, which is usually enough for a feed ad. Longer placements can use a longer cut, but the first three seconds still do the work.

Which tool writes the ad script?

Ad Variants writes five scripts from one product, one per hook angle. You can also write the script yourself and render it directly on the text-to-video or image-to-video tab.

Can I make one ad and use it on every platform?

You can make one master and export several aspect ratios from it. The 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9 versions are usually needed, and the Ad Resize Pack produces them from a single master.

How much does an AI video ad cost to make?

It depends on the model, length and resolution, and the price is shown before every generation. You can keep the cost down by drafting at 480p and re-rendering only the winner. New accounts get 10 free credits with no card.

Start with Ad Variants to get five angles from one product, then render the strongest at draft quality before you finish it. There is no subscription needed, credits never expire, and new accounts get 10 free credits with no card, so the first test costs nothing to try.