A vertical ad for Meta or TikTok no longer needs a camera, actors or a shoot day. From product photos, screenshots of your site and a line of offer copy you can build a 15 to 30 second piece with a presenter, voice and subtitles. The useful question is not whether it can be done, but when it pays off and how to make it sell.
What material you need
Less than you think. Photos of the product or property, screenshots of the app or site, the logo and brand colours, and the ad you are running right now, if there is one. That is enough to write the script. If you want a specific person to speak, we need a few minutes of clean video and audio to build their avatar and voice. If not, a synthetic presenter does the job.
How it is produced, step by step
- Short brief. What you sell, to whom, where you advertise and which ad works today.
- Script. The hook inside the first two seconds and one promise per piece.
- Scenes. Generated with AI or built from your own photos and screenshots.
- Voice, subtitles and graphics. In the language of the market. Many people watch ads with the sound off, so the on-screen text has to carry the story on its own.
- Delivery in 9:16 with several openings, so you can test which one holds attention.
Formats that tend to perform
Problem and solution for cold traffic that does not know you yet. Product demo when the proof is on the screen, as with apps and SaaS. Before and after for renovation, cosmetics or cleaning. Comparison when you have one concrete, measurable edge. And hook variants: the same body with ten different openings, the fastest way to extend the life of an ad that already works.
When it pays off and when it does not
It pays off when you need volume: many products, several languages, fresh pieces every week because the old ones burn out. It also pays off when the product cannot be filmed, like B2B software, or when filming every unit makes no sense, like a real-estate development.
It does not pay off if the brand lives on live content and face-to-face contact, or if the message is still unclear. AI speeds up production. It does not fix a weak offer.
Common mistakes
Long scripts nobody finishes. Three promises in fifteen seconds. Word-for-word translation instead of adapting the ad to the market. Fake testimonials with avatars, which mislead buyers and can cost you the ad account. And skipping the label: the EU AI Act requires disclosure when a video imitates a real person, and Meta and TikTok have their own rules for labelling realistic AI content.
You can see examples of each format, demos and client work, in the reel.