Video ad terms, explained plainly

An A/B test runs two or more versions of an ad against the same audience at the same time to find out which one performs better on a chosen metric.

For video ads the variable is usually the creative: a different hook, angle or creator, with everything else held still. Change one thing per test, or you won't know what made the difference. Read the result on the metric that matches the question, hook rate for openings and cost per acquisition for the whole ad. AdVideoLab's 3 angles button writes three different briefs from one photo, which gives you a ready set of variants to test.

A simple creative testing system for Meta adsMaking and testing Meta video creativeWriting a good brief

Ad creative is the content people actually see in an ad: the video or image, the words on screen, the voice-over and the copy that runs with it.

With broad targeting, platforms lean on the ad itself to work out who is likely to respond, so creative has become the lever advertisers control most directly. Volume and variety matter: several genuinely different ads give the delivery system more to work with than one polished one. A product photo, a brief and a few angles are enough to produce several distinct creatives without a shoot.

Product video generatorExample ads and the briefs behind themA simple creative testing system for Meta ads

Ad fatigue is the drop in results that happens when the same people have seen an ad too many times and stop paying attention to it.

The usual signs are rising frequency, the average number of times each person has seen the ad, together with a falling click-through rate and a creeping cost per acquisition. A new audience rarely fixes it. A creative refresh does, often as a new version of the concept that was already working, with a different hook, creator or setting. Keeping variants ready turns fatigue into routine maintenance rather than a crisis.

A simple creative testing system for Meta ads7 video ad hooks that stop the scrollMaking and testing Meta video creative

An AI disclosure label is a visible note on a post or ad telling viewers that its images, video or audio were made or substantially changed with AI.

Platforms such as Meta and TikTok label content they identify as AI-generated and ask people to disclose realistic synthetic media themselves; the exact rules differ by platform and ad category, so check the current policy wherever you run ads. In the EU, the transparency rules in Article 50 of the AI Act also require disclosure of deepfakes, meaning AI content that resembles real people, places or events and could pass as authentic. AdVideoLab marks its outputs as AI-generated where it can, but adding a visible label where one is required is the publisher's job.

Commercial rights and labellingAcceptable use policy

AI marking is information embedded in a media file, usually as metadata or an invisible watermark, that lets software detect the content was generated by AI.

Unlike a visible label, the marking travels inside the file, so platforms and detection tools can read it after upload. Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires providers of generative AI systems to mark their outputs in a machine-readable, detectable way, and standards such as C2PA Content Credentials and the IPTC digital source type field are common ways to do it. AdVideoLab marks its outputs as AI-generated where it can. Re-encoding or heavy editing elsewhere can strip some metadata, so keep the original file.

Commercial rights and labellingAcceptable use policy

An angle is the core argument an ad makes for a product, such as the problem it solves, what other buyers say about it, or the change it brings.

The same product can be sold from several angles, and they rarely perform the same with the same audience, so testing angles usually teaches you more than testing small edits. Three dependable ones are problem and solution, social proof, and transformation. AdVideoLab's 3 angles button writes one brief for each from a single photo, using three of that photo's ten daily briefs.

Writing a good briefTikTok ad script templatesAd script generator

Aspect ratio is the shape of a video frame written as width to height, such as 9:16 for vertical, 1:1 for square and 16:9 for widescreen video.

Short-form feeds like TikTok, Reels and Shorts are built around 9:16, so vertical video fills the screen while horizontal video shows up small. In AdVideoLab, Seedance 2.0 lets you choose the aspect ratio. On Seedance 2.5 the video follows the shape of your photo, so crop the photo to the shape you want before uploading.

TikTok ad specs and safe zonesTikTok ad generatorQuality tiers compared

B-roll is supporting footage cut in around the main shot, such as close-ups of the product, hands using it or the setting, to show what the words describe.

In a talking-head ad, B-roll keeps the eye moving and proves claims visually instead of only stating them. It also hides cuts and gives a static video more pace. Product-only videos with camera movement work well as B-roll that you cut between creator shots in an editor.

Product videos (single image)One product, three modesProduct video generator

A before and after video shows a product's result by moving from a starting state to a finished one, such as untreated to treated or empty to styled.

It is one of the clearest formats for products with a visible result, like skincare, cleaning or home decor. In AdVideoLab, transition mode takes two photos, one for the start and one for the end, and creates the movement between them; matching the angle and framing of both photos makes the change smoother. Before and after claims are regulated for some categories and platforms, so only show results the product really delivers.

Before and after video adsBefore and after videos (transition)

Brand voice is the consistent personality in how a brand writes and speaks: the words it uses, the words it avoids and how formal or playful it sounds.

It matters more with AI-written scripts, because without it every ad drifts toward the same generic tone. In AdVideoLab you can paste your website to get a drafted brand profile, correct it and save it, and every Write with AI brief then reads from it, including the words you never use. Brand voice describes the brand, while a persona describes who appears on camera.

Setting up brand voiceKeeping AI ads on brand

A call to action is the line, button or on-screen text that tells viewers the next step to take, such as shop now, try it or see the colours.

In video ads it usually works on two levels: the platform's button below the video, and a spoken or on-screen line inside the video itself. One clear action beats a list of options, and it should match what the landing page offers. Keep any on-screen call to action inside the safe zone so the app interface does not cover it.

TikTok ad script templatesTikTok ad specs and safe zones

CPA, or cost per acquisition, is ad spend divided by the number of conversions, such as purchases or sign-ups, that the ads produced.

It is the metric closest to whether an ad pays for itself, so it is the usual final judge in creative tests. A good CPA depends entirely on your margins and how much a customer is worth to you, which is why there is no universal benchmark. Read it alongside hook rate and click-through rate, which show where in the funnel a weak ad is losing people.

A simple creative testing system for Meta adsMaking and testing Meta video creative

CPM is the cost of showing an ad one thousand times, calculated as total spend divided by impressions and then multiplied by 1,000.

CPM reflects how much competition there is for the audience you are reaching, so it moves with season, placement and targeting. Creative plays a part too, since ad auctions weigh how likely people are to engage with an ad. A low CPM is not success on its own; it only matters if the people reached go on to click and buy.

Making and testing Meta video creativeA simple creative testing system for Meta ads

A creative brief is the written plan for an ad: the idea, the shots in order, the look, the sound and the words, plus anything that must not change.

For AI video the brief does the job of a director, so it decides most of the quality. A strong one describes what happens on screen, not just what the product looks like. AdVideoLab's Write with AI drafts a full brief from your photo and brand voice. Seedance 2.0 reads up to 2,000 characters of brief and Seedance 2.5 up to 5,000.

Writing a good briefHow to write video prompts that sell

A creator, or UGC creator, is a person paid to make videos in the style of everyday social posts, usually holding, using or talking about a product.

Brands hire creators because their videos look native to the feed and feel more like a recommendation than an advert. Fees, briefing, shipping product and reshoots add cost and time, which is the gap AI-generated creator videos fill. The people in AdVideoLab videos are AI-generated, not real creators, and should never be presented as real customers giving a testimonial.

AI UGC vs hiring creators: the real costsUGC ad generatorCreator videos (UGC)

CTR, or click-through rate, is the share of people who clicked an ad after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.

For video ads it shows whether the message and call to action earned the click after the hook earned the view. On Meta, link click-through rate is usually more telling than the all-clicks version, which also counts taps that never leave the platform. A falling CTR alongside rising frequency is a classic sign of ad fatigue.

A simple creative testing system for Meta adsMaking and testing Meta video creative

Dynamic creative is an ad setup where you upload several videos, headlines and texts, and the platform combines them and serves the mixes that perform best.

It saves building every combination by hand and lets the delivery system find what works for different people. The trade-off is less control and less clear learning, because results are spread across combinations instead of set up as a strict test. Names and settings vary by platform and change often, so check the current options in your ads manager. Either way it needs genuinely different creatives to choose from.

Making and testing Meta video creativeFacebook video ad generatorA simple creative testing system for Meta ads

Hold rate measures how many viewers keep watching a video ad after the opening, usually a later view count divided by 3-second views.

Teams calculate it in different ways, for example ThruPlays or 50% views divided by 3-second video plays, so agree on one definition before comparing ads. Hook rate tells you whether the opening stopped the scroll; hold rate tells you whether the middle kept people watching. A high hook rate with a low hold rate usually means the opening makes a promise the next seconds do not pay off.

A simple creative testing system for Meta ads7 video ad hooks that stop the scroll

A hook is what a video ad shows and says in its first one to three seconds to stop people scrolling and make them watch the rest.

The hook decides whether anyone sees the product at all, so it is usually the highest-impact thing to test. Common patterns include a bold claim, a problem shown in action, an unexpected visual and a direct question to the viewer. In creator videos, putting the product in the person's hands within the first two or three seconds helps.

7 video ad hooks that stop the scrollTikTok ad script templates

Hook rate, also called thumbstop ratio, is the share of impressions that became a view of at least 3 seconds, showing how well an ad's opening stops the scroll.

It is usually calculated from Meta reporting as 3-second video plays divided by impressions; advertisers compute it themselves rather than reading it from a standard column. Because it isolates the opening, it is the quickest way to compare hooks on the same concept. Read it with hold rate, since an opening that grabs attention but misleads loses viewers straight after.

7 video ad hooks that stop the scrollA simple creative testing system for Meta ads

Image to video is AI generation that starts from a still image and adds motion to it, such as camera movement, a person using the item or changing light.

For product ads it is more dependable than generating from text alone, because the model sees the actual product instead of guessing its shape, colour and label. The photo sets the ceiling: a sharp, well-lit picture with the product clearly in frame gives the model the most to keep. Every AdVideoLab mode is image to video, starting from one or more of your product photos.

Image to video adsChoosing an image to video model for product adsImage uploads

The learning phase is the period after a Meta ad set launches or is significantly edited, while the delivery system is still exploring how best to show its ads.

Results are usually less stable during learning, so judging an ad on its first day or two can mislead you. Significant edits, such as changing targeting, the optimisation event or the bid strategy, or adding new ads, can send an ad set back into learning. That is one reason many advertisers add new creatives in planned batches rather than one at a time.

A simple creative testing system for Meta adsMaking and testing Meta video creative

Lip-sync is matching a speaker's mouth movements to the words in the audio, so an on-camera person looks as if they are really saying the script.

Poor lip-sync is one of the quickest giveaways that a video is synthetic, and it undercuts the trust a talking-head ad depends on. AdVideoLab has tuned lip-sync for nine languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indonesian. Other languages are still spoken, just without that tuning.

Languages and lip-syncCreator videos (UGC)

Localisation is adapting an ad for a specific market, including language, phrasing, prices, references and the people on screen, not only translating it.

A straight translation can be accurate and still sound foreign, while a localised ad sounds as if it was made in that country. For video that means natural-sounding speech, on-screen text in the local language and a creator buyers can relate to. In AdVideoLab you pick the spoken language for each video, and a persona per market can set a fitting speaking style.

Native-language video ads in nine languagesLanguages and lip-sync

A packshot is a clean, well-lit photo or short shot of a product, usually on a plain background, showing the product and its packaging clearly.

In video ads the packshot is often the closing shot that fixes the product in memory next to the call to action. It is also the ideal input for AI video, since a plain background and even light let the model see the product's edges, label and colours. A good phone photo works too, as long as the product is sharp and clearly in frame.

Image uploadsProduct video generator

In AdVideoLab, a persona is a saved on-camera creator type that keeps the same kind of person appearing across your creator videos.

A persona sets gender, age range and vibe, and optionally speaking style, appearance notes and setting. It gives you a consistent kind of creator, not an identical face from one video to the next. Use one persona per audience or per market, and mark your go-to persona as a favourite so it is selected automatically.

PersonasUGC ad generator

Product lock means keeping a product identical in every frame of an AI video, with the same shape, colours, label and details as in the source photo.

It is the main quality bar for product ads: a bottle that changes shape or a logo that warps makes the ad unusable. It depends most on the input photo and the brief. A sharp photo, a brief that names the details that must not change and an instruction not to show sides the photo does not show all help, and Write with AI adds that last instruction automatically. For longer videos, reference mode with several angles of the product helps keep it consistent.

Writing a good briefMulti-photo videos (reference)How to write video prompts that sell

Reference mode is an AdVideoLab video type that builds one video from several photos, such as product angles, packaging, textures or a setting.

It suits products that one photo cannot show properly: sets, items with several parts or several colours, or a product in a particular place. Seedance 2.0 takes up to 9 photos and Seedance 2.5 up to 30, but 2.5 refuses photos that contain real human faces in this mode. Put the main product photo first and say in the brief what each photo is for.

Multi-photo videos (reference)Quality tiers compared

ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the revenue attributed to ads divided by what was spent on them, so spending 100 to bring in 300 is a ROAS of 3.

It is the standard efficiency measure for e-commerce ads, but it reflects revenue rather than profit, so your break-even ROAS depends on your margins. Attributed revenue also depends on each platform's attribution settings, so only compare ROAS figures measured the same way. For creative decisions, ROAS settles which concept wins once a test has enough spend behind it.

Video ads for e-commerce brandsMaking and testing Meta video creative

A safe zone is the part of a video frame that the platform's buttons, captions and profile details do not cover, where key visuals and text should sit.

On TikTok, Reels and Shorts the right edge and the bottom of the screen are covered by the app interface, so a product shot or price placed there can be hidden. Each platform publishes its own guides and they change over time, so check the current ones before you lay out on-screen text. Keep the product, the face and any on-screen call to action towards the centre of the frame.

TikTok ad specs and safe zonesTikTok ad generatorInstagram Reels ad maker

Seedance is ByteDance's family of AI video generation models, which create video clips from text prompts and from one or more images.

AdVideoLab offers two Seedance tiers. Seedance 2.0 makes videos of 4 to 15 seconds at up to 1080p and lets you choose the aspect ratio, while Seedance 2.5 makes videos of 4 to 30 seconds at 480p or 720p, reads longer briefs and follows the shape of your photo. Seedance 2.5 costs about 30% more per second.

Quality tiers comparedChoosing an image to video model for product adsPricing

A shoppable video is a video ad or post with product links or tags that let viewers see the price and buy without searching for the item.

It shortens the path from interest to checkout, which matters most on mobile, where every extra step loses buyers. Most large platforms offer a version tied to a product catalogue, such as catalogue-based ads on Meta or TikTok Shop on TikTok. The video still has to earn the tap, so the usual rules on hooks and clear product shots still apply.

Video ads for e-commerce brandsTikTok ad generator

Social proof is evidence that other people already buy, use or like a product, such as reviews, ratings, sales numbers or customers' reactions.

People take cues from each other, so an ad that shows a product is already popular makes it feel less risky to try. It is one of the three standard angles, alongside problem and solution and transformation. Use real numbers and real reviews only, and never present an AI-generated person as a real customer giving a testimonial.

Writing a good briefTikTok ad script templates

Spark Ads is a TikTok ad format that runs organic TikTok posts as ads, either from your own account or from a creator's account with their permission.

Because the ad is the original post, the views, likes, comments, shares and follows it earns while promoted all count toward that post. Using a creator's post needs their authorisation, which TikTok handles with an authorisation code that lasts for a set period. It suits videos that already do well organically and keeps the native look of the feed.

TikTok ad generatorTikTok ad specs and safe zones

A talking head is a video in which one person speaks straight to the camera, usually framed from the chest up, with little else on screen.

It is the backbone of most UGC ads, because eye contact and direct speech feel like a recommendation from someone you know. It needs a strong first line and believable delivery, and it often benefits from cutaways to the product. AdVideoLab's creator mode makes this format from a product photo, with the person holding or using the product as they talk.

AI spokesperson videoUGC ad generatorCreator videos (UGC)

ThruPlay is a Meta video metric that counts each time a video is played to completion or for at least 15 seconds, whichever comes first.

It is also an optimisation and billing option in Meta video views campaigns, so you can choose to pay only when someone actually watches. For short ads it effectively measures completion, which makes it a common input for hold rate. A video that earns many ThruPlays but few clicks is entertaining people without moving them toward the product.

Making and testing Meta video creativeA simple creative testing system for Meta ads

UGC, or user-generated content, is content made by customers and everyday people rather than by a brand, such as reviews, unboxings and how-to clips.

It earns trust because it looks and sounds like the posts people already watch, not like advertising. In marketing the term has stretched to cover anything filmed in that style, including videos by paid creators and AI-generated ones. Real customer content can only be used in ads with the permission of the person who made it.

How to make UGC ads with AIUGC ad generator

A UGC ad is a paid ad made to look like a native social post, usually a person filming themselves with a product on a phone and talking to camera.

UGC ads tend to suit cold audiences on TikTok and Reels because they fit the feed instead of interrupting it. A typical structure is a hook, a quick demonstration, a reason to believe and a call to action. AdVideoLab makes them in creator mode from one product photo, with an AI-generated person who speaks the language you choose.

UGC ad generatorHow to make UGC ads with AICreator videos (UGC)

A voice-over is speech recorded or generated to play over a video, either as narration from off screen or as the words an on-camera person speaks.

Some viewers watch with the sound off, so the key message should also be shown on screen or in captions. Keep scripts short: about two and a half words a second leaves room for the visuals to land. In AdVideoLab the voice-over is written into the brief, and choosing None as the language gives a video with music and no speech.

Writing a good briefLanguages and lip-sync

A watermark is a visible logo or mark placed over an image or video to show where it came from or who owns it, or that it is a sample copy.

Avoid uploading supplier photos with watermarks: AI models may reproduce or animate them, and they often signal that you do not have the rights to the image. A visible watermark is different from AI marking, which is hidden in the file and read by software. AdVideoLab Trial Pass videos carry a small watermark, and plans and top-ups remove it.

Trial PassImage uploadsCommercial rights