Make a UGC ad with AI in 10 minutes — a walkthrough of Ads mode

UGC-style ads work because they look like a person, not a brand. That is also why they are expensive to make the traditional way: you need a person, a kitchen, a phone, an afternoon and a second afternoon when the first one did not land. Ads mode in the eroq Video tool compresses that into a template, a product and a paragraph. Ten minutes is the budget for your part — writing and picking — not a promise about render queues. Here is the walkthrough.

Minute 0 to 2 — make the product an Element

Ads mode does not want your product described in the prompt. It wants it as an Element: a reusable reference with a name, a description and photos, kept on the Elements page of the studio alongside places and styles (up to 50). Once it exists, it is @mentionable in any prompt, and its photos ride along as references so the bottle in the clip is your bottle, not a generic one.

Give it a clean name you will happily type — @GlowSerum, not @glow_serum_v2_final. Two or three photos on a plain background, label readable, one straight-on and one at an angle. Write the description like packaging copy: what it is, the color, the material, the one visual detail that has to survive ("gold cap, frosted glass").

Minute 2 to 4 — pick a template and a format

Open the Ads tab. The templates are ad recipes — "UGC testimonial" is the one this walkthrough uses — and each is a ready-made prompt you adapt rather than a blank page. The AI ad generator page lists them.

The format is set by platform:

• TikTok / Reels — 9:16 vertical.
• Feed — 1:1 square.
• YouTube / Web — 16:9 wide.

Pick the one you will actually post. A 9:16 render cropped to 1:1 loses the top of the head and the bottom of the bottle; render the aspect ratio you need. On the Director's rack, the UGC look is roughly: Film type Commercial, Camera gear Smartphone, Lighting Window light, Tempo Dynamic, and Handheld as the camera move. Clean sharp lens. Skip the anamorphic — nobody's phone has one.

Minute 4 to 6 — write the ad in one paragraph

One flowing paragraph: the person, what they do with the product, the camera, the light, the mood. Thirty to eighty words. Adults only, and fictional — you are not putting a real creator's face on an endorsement they did not give, and the studio will not render real, identifiable people without consent.

A complete UGC testimonial prompt:

A woman in her thirties films herself in a bright kitchen holding @GlowSerum up to the camera, turns it to show the label, dabs two drops on the back of her hand and grins at the lens; handheld smartphone framing at arm's length, soft window light from the side, warm film palette, dynamic and casual, like a friend recommending something she actually uses.

If the words are not coming, write "kitchen, @GlowSerum, two drops, friend energy" and press Enhance — the free prompt rewrite hands back something close to the paragraph above. Surprise me works too when you want an angle you would not have picked.

Minute 6 to 9 — render takes, pick one

Set takes to 2, 3 or 4. Each take is a separate render of the same prompt, and with UGC the differences between takes — a better grin, a cleaner label turn — are the whole game. Costs are per render:

• Motion One, open to every account: 100 credits for 5 s, 180 for 10 s. A $10 Starter pack is ten 5-second takes.
• Seedance 1.0 Lite on Hobby and up: 60 credits for 5 s.
• Kling 2.5 Turbo, known for fluid motion and faces, on Creator and up: 120 credits for 5 s at 1080p.
• Veo 3 Fast on Creator and up: a fixed 8 s clip for 256 credits, and the only engine that renders native sound — ambience, effects and dialogue with the picture.

A 5-second clip is enough for a hook. Failed renders refund themselves, so a bad take costs you nothing but the wait. Pick the winner. If none wins, edit the prompt — usually one adjective — and run two more takes rather than four identical retries.

Minute 9 to 10 — export and ship

Every render is already saved to your Library with its full recipe, so the "export" is a download. Two things worth adding before you post:

• A voice-over. Write the testimonial line, render it in the Voice tool with Aria or Orion or your own cloned voice — Voice Turbo at 2 credits per 100 characters is plenty for ad copy — and lay the MP3 under the clip in your editor.
• Variants. Remix reloads the recipe; change the kitchen to a bathroom shelf, the grin to a raised eyebrow, and you have a second creative for the same product in another two takes. One Element, many ads.

The UGC ads use case has more prompt scaffolds by product category, and the product videos use case covers the non-testimonial formats.

FAQ

Do I need a product photo, or can I describe the product?

Add the product as an Element with photos. A described product is a generic product; a referenced one is yours, label and all.

Which format should I render first?

The one you will post first. 9:16 for TikTok and Reels, 1:1 for feed placements, 16:9 for YouTube and web. Re-render for a second platform rather than cropping.

Can the ad have sound?

Veo 3 Fast (Creator plan and up) renders native sound with the clip. On every other engine, generate the voice-over in the Voice tool and combine the two in your editor.

Set a timer. Open Ads mode — 50 free credits on a new account.