Generate New Ad Creative

End-to-end workflow for generating new Clarido ad creatives. Invoked by the user with /generate-ad-creative.

This skill covers the full pipeline: analyzing existing ad performance, generating two creative concepts (explore vs exploit), producing multiple asset variants, composing in Remotion, rendering final outputs, and documenting everything for auditability.

Workflow Overview

Phase 1: Performance Analysis & Concept Generation

Phase 2: User Selection

Phase 3: Asset Generation (multiple variants)

Phase 4: Remotion Composition & Rendering

Phase 5: Output Packaging & Documentation

Phase 1: Performance Analysis & Concept Generation

Step 1.1 — Pull Current Ad Performance

Use the Meta Marketing API to pull performance data for all active and recent campaigns.

# Key metrics to pull per ad:
# - CTR (click-through rate)
# - CPL (cost per lead) or CPA (cost per action)
# - ROAS (if applicable)
# - Video metrics: ThruPlay rate, video_p25/p50/p75/p100 (retention curve)
# - Spend, impressions, reach, frequency
# - Creative type (video, image, carousel)
# - Ad copy / headline
# - Audience targeting summary
# - Date range active

Use the Meta Marketing API credentials from .env:

• META_ACCESS_TOKEN, META_AD_ACCOUNT_ID (act_217614761779242)
• API version: v21.0
• Currency: CAD

Pull data at the ad level (not campaign or ad set) to evaluate individual creatives.

Step 1.2 — Analyze & Identify Patterns

Analyze the data to identify:

• Top performers: Which creatives have the best CTR, lowest CPL, highest retention?
• Creative patterns: What emotional hooks, visual styles, lengths, and formats work?
• Audience patterns: Which targeting is working best?
• Drop-off patterns: Where do viewers stop watching? (use video percentile metrics)
• Gaps: What emotional angles or formats haven't been tested yet?

Step 1.3 — Generate Two Creative Concepts

Present two concepts to the user:

Concept A: Exploration (new territory)

• A creative that tests a new emotional angle, visual style, or format not yet represented in the account
• Should be informed by what's working but deliberately different
• Higher risk, higher potential upside
• Include:
  • Creative brief (hook, narrative arc, CTA)
  • Visual style description
  • Recommended duration (justify with retention data)
  • Audience targeting recommendation
  • Test plan: what metric will determine success, what's the minimum spend to validate, what's the kill criteria

Concept B: Exploitation (iterate on what works)

• A creative that is a close variant of the best-performing existing ad
• Change ONE variable: different hook, different visual treatment, different CTA, different pacing
• Lower risk, reliable baseline
• Include:
  • What existing ad it's based on and what's being changed
  • Creative brief
  • Audience targeting (same as original or slight variation to test)
  • Test plan: A/B framework against the original, success criteria

Present both concepts clearly with a recommendation, then ask the user which to proceed with. Allow the user to modify the concept before proceeding.

Phase 2: User Selection

Ask the user to choose Concept A or B (or provide modifications). Once confirmed, proceed to asset generation.

Phase 3: Asset Generation (Multiple Variants)

Step 3.1 — Generate Video Clips (up to 3 variants)

Use Fal AI to generate video clips. Generate up to 3 variants with different prompts or parameters to give the user options.

• Use Kling V3 Pro for best quality: fal-ai/kling-video/v3/pro/text-to-video
• Use the queue API (submit → poll → download) since video generation takes 2-5 minutes
• Generate all variants in parallel to minimize wait time
• Default: 5 seconds, 1:1 aspect ratio, no audio
• Save to videos/public/ with descriptive names: {concept-name}-clip-v1.mp4, -v2.mp4, -v3.mp4

Cost awareness: Each 5s Kling V3 Pro clip costs ~$1.12 (no audio). 3 clips = ~$3.36.

Step 3.2 — Generate Background Music (3-5 variants)

Use ElevenLabs Music API (POST /v1/music) to generate background music variants.

• Generate 3-5 variants with different prompts exploring different moods/instruments
• Each should match the ad's emotional arc (e.g., tense → calm, energetic → resolved)
• Set force_instrumental: true and music_length_ms to match ad duration
• Save as {concept-name}-music-v1.mp3, -v2.mp3, etc.

If ElevenLabs music fails (402), fall back to Fal AI Beatoven (beatoven/music-generation).

Step 3.3 — Generate Sound Effects

Use ElevenLabs Sound Generation (POST /v1/sound-generation) for any needed SFX:

• Transition sounds, pop-ins, whooshes, etc.
• Keep duration short (0.3-1.0 seconds)
• Save to videos/public/

Phase 4: Remotion Composition & Rendering

Step 4.1 — Name the Composition

Naming is critical. Every ad lives in videos/src/ alongside all others and appears in the Remotion Studio sidebar. Names must be descriptive enough to identify the creative at a glance months later.

Naming convention: {Scenario}{Style} in PascalCase.

• Scenario: The specific situation or emotional hook (not a generic category)
• Style: The visual treatment or format

Good names:

• OverwhelmedInBedRealistic — person in bed, realistic AI video
• FounderAtDinnerClay — founder checking phone at dinner, clay animation style
• MorningJournalWatercolor — morning journaling scene, watercolor illustration
• ThreeAmThoughtSpiral — 3am anxiety thought cascade
• TodoListAvalanche — to-do list growing out of control
• ParkBenchReflection — calm reflection moment on a park bench

Bad names (too vague):

• OverwhelmAd — which overwhelm ad? What style?
• NewAd — meaningless
• VideoV2 — no context
• LeadsCampaign — describes the objective, not the creative

The name flows through everything:

• Directory: videos/src/OverwhelmedInBedRealistic/
• Composition IDs: OverwhelmedInBedRealistic-Square, OverwhelmedInBedRealistic-Vertical
• Folder in Remotion Studio sidebar: OverwhelmedInBedRealistic
• Output directory: videos/out/2026-02-16_10-30-00-000_OverwhelmedInBedRealistic/
• Asset file prefixes: overwhelmed-in-bed-realistic-clip-v1.mp4

Step 4.2 — Build the Composition

Create the directory under videos/src/{AdName}/.

Follow Remotion best practices (see videos/.claude/skills/remotion/ rules):

• All animations via useCurrentFrame() + interpolate() / spring() — NO CSS animations
• Use <Sequence> with premountFor for timing
• Use <Audio> and <Video> from @remotion/media
• Use staticFile() for assets in videos/public/
• Brand style: black/white with yellow (#FFD60A) accent
• Font: system font stack (-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, sans-serif)

Structure:

videos/src/{AdName}/
├── config.ts          # Timing, constants, text content
├── index.tsx          # Main composition (layers video, overlays, audio)
├── [Components].tsx   # Scene-specific components

Register in videos/src/Root.tsx:

• Square format: {AdName}-Square (1080x1080)
• Vertical format: {AdName}-Vertical (1080x1920)
• Group in a <Folder> using the same {AdName}

Step 4.2 — Render All Combinations

For the user-selected video clip and music track, render both formats:

cd videos
npx remotion render {AdName}-Square out/{output-dir}/square.mp4
npx remotion render {AdName}-Vertical out/{output-dir}/vertical.mp4

If the user wants to compare multiple video/music combos, render the preferred combinations.

Phase 5: Output Packaging & Documentation

Output Directory Structure

Every generation run produces a timestamped directory:

videos/out/{YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS-mmm}_{ad-name}/
├── square.mp4                    # 1080x1080 render
├── vertical.mp4                  # 1080x1920 render
├── assets/
│   ├── clip-v1.mp4               # Video variant 1
│   ├── clip-v2.mp4               # Video variant 2
│   ├── clip-v3.mp4               # Video variant 3
│   ├── music-v1.mp3              # Music variant 1
│   ├── music-v2.mp3              # Music variant 2
│   ├── music-v3.mp3              # Music variant 3
│   └── sfx/                      # Sound effects used
│       └── pop.mp3
├── BRIEF.md                      # Creative brief & documentation
└── performance-snapshot.json     # Ad performance data at time of generation

BRIEF.md Contents

The brief must document:

# {Ad Name} — Creative Brief

**Generated**: {timestamp}
**Concept type**: Exploration / Exploitation
**Based on**: {if exploitation, which existing ad and what was changed}

## Performance Context
- Top performing ad at time of generation: {name}, {CTR}%, {CPL}
- Account-wide averages: {CTR}%, {CPL}
- Key insight that informed this creative: {insight}

## Creative Concept
- **Hook** (0-3s): {description}
- **Narrative** (3-Xs): {description}
- **Resolution/CTA** (X-end): {description}
- **Duration**: {X}s (rationale: {why this length})
- **Format**: Video with text overlays, no voiceover / with voiceover

## Visual Style
{Description of the visual approach}

## Audio
- **Background music**: {description of selected track}
- **SFX**: {what sounds are used and when}

## Ad Copy (for Meta)
- **Primary text**: {suggested ad copy}
- **Headline**: {headline}
- **CTA button**: {Learn More / Sign Up / Download / etc.}

## Audience Targeting
- **Interests**: {list}
- **Demographics**: {age, gender, location}
- **Lookalike**: {if applicable}
- **Exclusions**: {existing customers, etc.}

## Test Plan
- **Objective**: {Leads / App Installs / Link Clicks}
- **Budget**: ${X}/day for {Y} days
- **Success metric**: {CTR > X% / CPL < $Y}
- **Kill criteria**: {If CPL > $Z after ${A} spend, pause}
- **What we're testing**: {the specific hypothesis}

## Asset Variants Generated
- Video clips: {count} variants
- Music tracks: {count} variants
- Selected combination: clip-v{X} + music-v{Y}

## Rendering
- Square (1080x1080): square.mp4
- Vertical (1080x1920): vertical.mp4
- Codec: H.264
- FPS: 30

performance-snapshot.json

Save the raw ad performance data pulled in Phase 1 as JSON for future reference.

Important Guidelines

• Always run end-to-end: Don't stop at code — generate assets, render videos, produce the output directory
• Parallel generation: Submit all video clip requests and music requests in parallel to minimize total wait time
• Cost transparency: Before generating, tell the user the estimated cost (video clips + music)
• Brand consistency: Yellow accent (#FFD60A), black/white palette, system fonts
• Duration: Default to 13-15 seconds based on retention data. Justify any different length
• Muted-first design: Ads should work with sound off (text overlays carry the message). Audio enhances but isn't required
• User approval gates: Get user approval at concept selection AND before final render (show asset options first)