Videos

Turn product photos into a video ad

A listing photo set is a good half of a video ad and a bad whole one. The pictures answer what it looks like. An ad also has to answer why now, how much, and what to do next, and none of those three are anywhere in a photograph, so they have to come from you.

Create a video with OneCraftWhat the photos supply, what you must supply, and the scenes that carry the commercial part
A video frame reading £55 until Sunday, with the line Hollow Oak end grain board 40 by 30 cm, £65 after, the code OAK10 and an Order for delivery this week button.
The commercial half of a photo led ad for a fictional chopping board. Why now, how much and what to do next are the three things a photograph cannot say.

The three things a photo cannot carry

Price, urgency and instruction. A photograph of a chopping board will never tell somebody it is 55 pounds until Sunday with a code. Those live in scene roles built for them: offer, which has layouts for a promo code chip, a swinging price tag, a one word deal in a filled circle and a hard colour split; countdown, which sets a date in enormous type or runs an animated three two one; and the closing role, which is where the button and the instruction go.

None of them will be invented

This is a hard rule in the director's instructions and it works in your favour. It will not make up a price, a discount, a deadline or a statistic. Offer scenes are refused unless the brief actually offers something and countdown scenes unless there is a real date. So a brief that is only a product description will come back as a nice product video with no commercial hook, which is usually not what somebody uploading listing photos wanted.

Which photo opens

Not necessarily your hero shot. The director reads what each picture actually shows, and an ad usually opens on the beat that earns attention rather than on the packshot. A lifestyle shot with a person or a context works harder in a first scene than a white background cutout, which is much better placed later, in a gallery beat or beside the price. If you want a specific photo first, say so in the brief.

The specification belongs in a stat, not a paragraph

Dimensions, weight, material and capacity read badly as a sentence and well as a number set huge on screen. Stat scenes carry one headline figure counting up, stat grids carry several at once, and a table holds up to six rows by four columns for a real specification. Give those numbers in the brief and they become the proof section of the ad rather than a line of narration nobody retains.

How it works, in three steps

  1. Step 1

    Write the commercial half of the brief

    Price, any discount and its code, the deadline, and the exact action you want. Everything you leave out simply will not appear.

  2. Step 2

    Attach the photos you would use in a listing

    Hero, two details, one in use, one showing scale. Eight is the cap, and shots the analysis judges weak get dropped.

  3. Step 3

    Name the opener if you care

    Say which picture should open. Otherwise the director picks the one it judges strongest for a first scene, which may not be your packshot.

The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the guide Make a promo video with AI voiceover.

Limits worth knowing

Questions people ask

How many photos does an ad need?

Fewer than a listing. Four is plenty for a short ad of three to six scenes, because two of those scenes are the hook and the ask rather than pictures. Save the full set for a longer product video.

Can it show the price on screen?

Yes, if you write it. Offer layouts include a price tag and a promo code chip, and a stat scene will set a figure in very large type. It will never derive a price from a photograph.

What about a before and after?

There is a role for it, and one of its layouts wipes one full frame image over another, which needs two uploaded pictures. It is only for a genuine before and after of the same thing, not two variants of a product.

Should I make one video or one per product?

One per product for a paid placement, because the offer and the ask have to be specific. A gallery style video covering a range works better as a brand or category piece than as a direct response ad.

Make your own video

The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match yours, generate, then edit anything you like.

Create a video with OneCraft

Related pages

More finished work of this kind is on the video examples hub.