Can AI replace video ad creation? We think it can, WDYT?

In 2006, before I started working in SaaS, I worked at an ad agency. It was an awesome experience, and I learned a lot about business. In many ways, it was the opposite of SaaS; we spent weeks on one ad, charged very high one-time fees, and none of the work was reusable. Unlike SaaS, where you build one scalable product that is the same for all customers. Two different worlds, worlds I never thought would come together. But now I’m working on a proof of concept that can produce complete high-quality and creative video ads in minutes. Let me share my idea, I would love to know if this resonates with you.

Media and advertising are changing

• Short-form video consumption is booming, it's a top trend marketers are leveraging because it is the best-performing content by a long shot.
• Not every ad needs to be Super Bowl material. With an ever scrolling audience, you need to grab attention in seconds. Ads shorter than 15 seconds perform best. And often they are watched with the audio muted.
• Ads can be highly targeted, leveraging user data like demographics, interests, and behaviors to personalize the ad for higher relevance and engagement.
• Advertisers can track how the ads are performing in real-time and use the insights to adjust their campaigns and ads. A/B testing can be used to test different versions. With AI ads can even be personalized to achieve the best outcome.

AI can help create creative

• AI can help brainstorm ad ideas, scripts and is becoming really good at creating copy, with Jasper.ai as one of the leaders in this category.
• Besides copy, AI is improving at creating rich media like Midjourney for photos, Runway for videos, and adcreatives.ai for static ads.
• Video tools like Canva, InVideo, and Descript are using AI and templates to help you easily create videos.

But AI cannot create high-quality video ads yet
Many marketers struggle with creating video content and ads. It still requires a lot of editing, even for one ad, let alone to create multiple concepts and versions for testing. And AI isn't really solving this yet; you have different tools to create scripts, photos, and videos, but you still need a human to edit everything together to achieve a good result.

Rethinking video creation with AI
But then I had a brainstorming session with a friend and old colleague, who's not only a fantastic engineer but also creative. We tackled the challenge by reverse-engineering what makes a video ad stand out. The key ingredients? Perfect synchronization with the music, advanced use of editing techniques for effects, and awesome animations. We had two insights that can change the game of creating video ads: 1. What if we skip the entire video editor? 2. What if we use AI and other technology to offer multiple different concepts to work with? If you combine that together, you might have less customization capabilities, but you have way more concepts to pick from. Can we do for video ads what no-code did for websites? Or what adcreative.ai did for static ads? We believe we can, and this is how it will work:

1. Share your video ad idea and some basic information about your business.
2. We will use AI to generate tens of different high-quality creative video ads in different aspect ratios.
3. You pick the ads you like and change the basics, like colors, text, and media.
   And there you go, saving hours of time in video editing. And you can use different video ads to test what really works for your audience.

We are close to releasing our demo on vanillasky.ai. We think it will be a great product for SMBs that advertise on social media. We would love to get your feedback on our idea and give you access to our beta in a couple of weeks. Reach out on vanillasky.ai or in the comments 🙏