Video ads: real examples for businesses, and what each one tries to do

The video ad examples you find online are often commercials from big brands, shot with budgets no small business has. Here is the opposite: ads I made for businesses and for myself, designed to scroll past on a phone, between two posts.

They all share three things: they are vertical, they make sense without sound, and they play their whole hand in the first three seconds.

AI-generated: the scene you couldn't have filmed

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  Heat pumps
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  Car buying agent
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  Mortgage broking

Heat pump. The video opens on a scene, not a product: someone wrapped in a blanket, and a question about the cold. The machine doesn't appear straight away: the video first recalls a feeling the viewer knows. Filming this scene for real would have taken a set, actors and a full day.

Car broker. The car talks. It is an idea that costs almost nothing with AI and would be prohibitively expensive to film. The effect is simple: make people smile, and make them watch to the end.

Mortgage broker. A generated presenter, edited to the rhythm of the feed. Useful when the owner doesn't want to be on camera.

AI doesn't replace the idea, it makes it possible. Creating a video ad with AI and AI or a real shoot.

Talking to camera: trust first

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  Admin services
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  Trading course

Admin services. The owner talks about a precise problem, "fear of paperwork", in words their customers use themselves. Viewers recognise themselves before they know the company.

Training course. The person selling the course speaks for themselves, phone in hand, with a first-person hook. The simplest format, and often one of the most effective when the person on screen is the one selling.

For a tradesperson, it is often the best place to start: you, on a job, showing what you do. UGC and talking to camera.

Motion design and series: the ad that looks like content

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  SaaS
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  Self-promotion

Agent-Gotchi. A crossed-out price, then the word "free": the hook plays on a single question, "how much would you pay?". Motion design gives each word its own beat.

My own series. To promote my work, I tell stories in episodes, with humour. An ad that looks like an episode gets watched like content, not like an interruption.

What sets these examples apart

The format matters less than the hook, the two or three first seconds that make people stay, and than the structure that follows: a problem, a proof, an action. The structure of a short video ad and six hook mechanics.

I don't publish the results of each of these ads here: they belong to my clients' accounts, and a video taken out of its campaign says nothing about what it brought in. The numbers are in the case studies.

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Further reading: Writing a video ad script and how much a freelance video editor costs.

Want videos like these for your business? Book a 30-minute call, and we'll look at what would work in your trade.