AI Video Ads for Shopify: A Workflow From Photo to Sale

Most Shopify stores we talk to already have everything they need for a video ad sitting in the admin. They have product photos, a price, a margin, and a product page that converts at some rate. What they don't have is a video, because filming one per product never made the list.

This is the workflow we'd follow for a Shopify store that wants AI video ads for TikTok, Reels and its own product pages. One thing up front, so nobody goes looking for it: AdVideoLab has no Shopify app and doesn't connect to your store. You upload a product photo, you download an MP4, and you put that file wherever you need it. For a store with a few dozen products that manual step takes a couple of minutes per product, and it means nothing is installed on your theme.

Step 1: Pick products by margin, not by favourites

The first mistake is making videos for the products you like best. Make them for the products that can afford paid traffic.

Work out a rough break-even cost per purchase for each candidate. Here's an example calculation for a made-up product:

That $23 is the most you can pay for a sale and break even on the first order. A product with $23 of room can survive a few weeks of testing. A $15 product with $4 of margin usually can't, no matter how good the video is, unless people reorder it.

Our rule of thumb for picking the first three products to test:

• Gross profit of at least $20 per order, or strong repeat purchase.
• Something visual happens when the product is used. A cleaning product, a gadget, a bag with clever pockets. A plain white T-shirt is harder.
• You already have a good photo. The next step explains what good means.

Step 2: Get the full-resolution image out of Shopify

AI video starts from your photo, and the quality of that photo sets the ceiling for the video. The images your storefront shows are resized and compressed for speed, so right-clicking a product image on your live store often gives you a smaller file than the one you uploaded.

Shopify keeps the original. To get it:

1. In the Shopify admin, go to Content, then Files.
2. Filter or search for the product image you want. Shopify lets you filter files by where they're used, including product media.
3. Open the file to get the Preview and edit window.
4. Use the download button there. Shopify's help center says this downloads "the original, unoptimized file".

For reference, Shopify accepts product images up to 5000 x 5000 px (25 megapixels) and under 20 MB, and its help center says a 2048 x 2048 px square usually displays best. If your original is around that size or bigger, you have plenty of detail for video.

Which photo to pick, if you have several:

• The product alone, clearly lit, with the whole product in frame and not cropped at the edges.
• No text, badges or "SALE" stickers baked into the image. The model will try to animate them.
• A lifestyle shot works for Creator mode if the product is easy to see, but a clean packshot is the safer start.

Our product photo checklist for AI video goes through this in more detail, and the upload formats page lists what AdVideoLab accepts.

Step 3: Make three angles per product

One video per product tells you almost nothing when it flops. Three different angles tell you whether the product or the message was the problem.

In AdVideoLab, upload the photo, and the 3 angles button in Write with AI writes three briefs from it, one per angle: problem and solution, social proof, and transformation. Writing the briefs costs no credits (you need enough credits in the account for one video, and there's a limit of 10 briefs per image per day). Then generate the three you like.

Which mode to use depends on the product:

If you want the reasoning behind each mode on one product, one product, three modes walks through it.

On cost, using the numbers from our pricing page: a 10 second Seedance 2.0 video at 480p is 100 credits, about $5.50 on the Starter plan. At 720p the same 10 seconds is 220 credits. For a first test of three angles we'd use 480p or 720p and save 1080p for the winner.

Step 4: Specs for each placement

AdVideoLab outputs short vertical MP4s, which is what the feed placements want. Here's how we use the same video in three places:

For exact safe zones and pixel sizes on TikTok, see our TikTok ad specs guide. Our TikTok ad generator page covers the TikTok side of the tool.

For the product page, we plan for the video being watched without sound, so the voice-over matters less. We sometimes make a separate version with the language set to "None" (music only).

Step 5: Put the video on your Shopify product page

The product media gallery accepts video, so the same MP4 can go right next to your photos. According to Shopify's help center, product videos can be up to 10 minutes long, up to 1 GB, and up to 4K, in .mp4, .mov or .webm. A short AI ad is well inside all of that.

To add it:

1. In the Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product.
2. In the Media section, click Upload new and choose the MP4, or drag the file into the Media section.
3. Drag the video into the position you want in the gallery.

A few practical points from Shopify's documentation and our own testing:

• Your theme has to support video. Shopify notes that videos in the online store need a theme that supports them, which may mean updating to the newest version of your theme.
• Variants can't have a video. Shopify only lets you assign an image to a variant, so the video lives in the main product gallery.
• YouTube Shorts links aren't supported if you add video by URL instead of uploading. Uploading the MP4 directly avoids the question.
• A product can hold up to 250 media items, so space isn't a concern.

Where to put it in the gallery is a test in itself. Second position (right after the main photo) is our default. First position can work for products where motion is the point, but it replaces the clean photo that collection pages and shopping feeds often pull.

Check the page on your own phone after uploading. A vertical video in a square gallery slot can be cropped or letterboxed depending on the theme, and it's better to see that yourself before a customer does.

Step 6: Measure it properly

AI video makes it cheap to produce creative, which makes it tempting to launch ten ads and read the result from your gut. Don't. Set up the tracking first.

UTM links. Give every ad its own tagged link so you can tell which video sent which session. A pattern we use:

https://yourstore.com/products/linen-apron
  ?utm_source=tiktok
  &utm_medium=paid_social
  &utm_campaign=apron_test_oct
  &utm_content=angle_problem_720p

Keep utm_content descriptive enough that you still know what it means in three weeks: the angle, the mode, the length.

A simple test plan. For each product:

1. Launch the three angles in one ad set or ad group, same budget each, same audience.
2. Decide your stop rule before launch. Ours is to stop an ad once it has spent your break-even cost per purchase (the $23 from Step 1) twice over with no sale.
3. Leave it alone for at least three to four days. Early numbers swing.
4. Read hook rate and click-through first, then purchases. An ad people watch but don't click has a weak offer or a weak ending. An ad people click but don't buy from points at the product page.
5. Take the winner and make three variations of it, changing only the first two seconds.

The product page test. For the on-page video, compare the product's conversion rate for two weeks before and two weeks after adding the video, and note anything else that changed (price, reviews, a sale). It isn't a clean experiment, but on a small store it's honest enough to decide whether to roll video out to more products.

Our Meta ads creative testing guide goes further into structuring tests on Facebook and Instagram.

Where this workflow is weaker

It's manual. If you have 800 SKUs and want a video for each, uploading photos one at a time is slow, and AdVideoLab has no batch mode or API. For large catalogs, tools built around product feeds will do that part better. Where we fit is the shop owner making a handful of strong ads for the products that carry the business, and testing them properly.

FAQ

Is there an AdVideoLab Shopify app?

No. AdVideoLab doesn't install on Shopify or read your catalog. You download your product photo from the Shopify admin, upload it to AdVideoLab, and download the finished MP4, which you can then upload to your product media or your ad accounts.

What size should a Shopify product video be?

Shopify accepts product videos up to 10 minutes, 1 GB and 4K, in .mp4, .mov or .webm, according to its help center. For a product page we'd keep it between 6 and 15 seconds so shoppers see the point before they scroll to the price. Check how your theme crops vertical video on mobile.

Where does the video show on the Shopify product page?

It goes into the product media gallery alongside your photos, in whatever position you drag it to. Your theme has to support video, and variants can only have an image, so the video sits in the main gallery. We usually start with it in second position.

How do I get my original product image from Shopify?

Go to Content, then Files in the Shopify admin, open the image, and use the download button in the Preview and edit window. Shopify says this gives you the original, unoptimized file, which is better input for AI video than an image saved from your storefront.

How much does a Shopify product video cost to make with AI?

On AdVideoLab, a 10 second Seedance 2.0 video at 480p costs 100 credits, about $5.50 on the Starter plan, and a 15 second one at 720p is about $18. You're billed per second of finished video, and failed generations are refunded in credits. If you want to try it once before choosing a plan, the one-time Trial Pass is $3.99 for 170 credits, with a watermark.

Pick the three products with the most margin, pull their original photos from Files, and make three angles for the first one this week.