The shape of an ad that earns the click
The ad goal is written by a performance creative director with one rule above the others: you have three seconds to earn the next three.
- A pattern interrupt, in the first three seconds. A bold visual and a claim with a number or a named pain. Not a logo, not the company name.
- Tension. What the old way costs, fast.
- The turn. The product doing the thing, on real footage of your page.
- A proof flash. One figure or one quote from the page, a few seconds at most.
- One call to action. Said once, shown once, with the offer or the fact that removes the risk.
Scenes run three to six seconds, every one of them captioned for sound-off viewing, and the brand is named after the hook, not in it. Left to itself, the ad goal writes 20 to 30 seconds.
Why the landing page should be the source
An ad that promises what its landing page does not say wastes the click: the viewer arrives, does not find what was promised, and leaves. Built from the page it links to, the ad can only claim what that page claims — every line of narration is traced back to the page or to the brief — and the footage is the page the viewer will land on.
Put what the page does not say in the brief: a promo code, a deadline, a sentence your legal team has approved. A line in quotation marks is placed word for word.
Testing hooks without remaking the ad
The opening decides whether the rest is seen, so it is the part worth testing.
- Rewrite scene one, keep the rest. Each new opening is a re-render at 40 credits, not a new production.
- Buy a picture for the hook only. The first beat often has nothing on the page to film. On a paid plan an AI image (40 credits) or a house clip (311 credits) can carry it, while the rest of the ad stays on real footage.
- Several angles at once. Video packs (Pro plan and up) render up to five angles of one page in one run.
- Preview before paying. Through the MCP connector, a draft render is free — no credits, a third of the resolution, a few an hour — enough to check a hook before rendering it for real.
No AI visual is generated on the free plan: a free ad is built from your page and animated scenes.
Shapes and placements
One storyboard renders in every placement: 9:16 for Reels, TikTok, Shorts and Stories, filmed in your mobile layout; 1:1 and 4:5 for feeds; 16:9 for YouTube. Captions are timed to the voice word by word, in one of 5 styles. Platforms change their specifications often, so check the placement's current limits before you buy media.
For the method, read how to create a video ad from a URL; for the format itself, what is a video ad; for a shop, a salon or a restaurant, video ads for local businesses. Selling a product rather than a service? Start from e-commerce video ads.