People expect an AI ad to take five minutes. Type a prompt, get a video, done. The ones that actually stop a thumb take about three days, and almost none of that time is spent typing prompts.
Here is the whole workflow, start to finish, exactly as I run it for every starter ad.
Day 0: the brief
Everything starts with four answers: what the product is, who it's for, what the offer is, and where it will run. If any one of those is fuzzy, the ad will be fuzzy too.
I also ask for references: ads you love, ads you hate, colours, a competitor you want to beat. "Make it cinematic" tells me nothing. "Make it feel like the first bite of a doner at 2am" tells me everything.
Day 1: the beat sheet and the script
Before I generate a single frame, I write the ad as a story in beats. A 15-second spot usually has four or five:
- Hook (0–2s): the image that stops the scroll
- Problem or desire (2–5s): why you should care
- The product moment (5–11s): the hero shot, the texture, the reveal
- Payoff (11–13s): how it feels
- Call to action (13–15s): the offer, on screen and readable
You approve the script before production starts. That one sign-off saves more time than any tool.
The prompt is the last thing I write, not the first.
Day 2: generation
Now the machines come in. I generate each beat as its own shot, often a dozen versions per shot, and keep the one that matches the script. The product has to stay the same product in every frame, so that consistency is where most of the craft goes.
Day 3: edit, sound and delivery
The edit is where an AI clip becomes an ad: pacing to the beat, captions that read on a phone with the sound off, and a sound mix that hits when the sound is on. Then one consolidated round of your feedback, and the final 9:16 MP4 goes out.
Why it takes three days, not three minutes
Because the tools are fast but the decisions aren't. Choosing the right hook, the right shot and the right cut is the job. The AI just makes it possible for one person to do the whole thing.
If you want this workflow pointed at your product, build a brief. It takes about two minutes.