> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.imagine.art/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Building an Ad From Scratch
> Full creative control — prompt, format, hook, setting, product, and avatar.
Building from scratch is where you take full creative control. You write the prompt, pick the format, choose the hook, set the scene, and specify the product and avatar. This is the workflow for when URL to Ad isn't enough — or when you want to test very specific creative ideas.
The workflow has six stages, and we'll walk through each in order.
## 6.1 — The control panel and the @ shortcut
The workspace is built around a set of structured cards — **Template**, **Product**, **Avatar**, **Hook**, **Background** — plus an optional **Describe your advertisement** text field below them. You don't need to write a full brief in prose; picking the right combination of cards does most of the work, and the text field is for anything the cards don't cover.
At the top, **Medium** switches the whole panel between **Image** and **Video** output.
### The @ shortcut
Typing **@** in the **Describe your advertisement** field opens a dropdown of your saved avatars and products to mention by name — the system then uses your actual uploaded assets instead of guessing from a text description. This matters more than it sounds: it's the difference between a generic ad and an ad that actually shows your product.
**Try this** — Add one product and one avatar first, then type **@** in the description field and pick them by name. You'll see how much more specific the output becomes when the system has actual assets to work with.
## 6.2 — Choosing the right format
**Template** is the format decision — it determines the entire visual and structural language of the ad. Click **Change** on the Template card to open **Choose a format**. Ad Studio currently offers **8 formats**:
| Format | What it is | Best for |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Football TVC** | A top-tier TVC-director style football/soccer commercial. | Sports brands, World Cup and football-season campaigns. |
| **UGC** | Hyper-realistic Instagram/TikTok talking-head content. | Mass-market consumer products, social-first brands, anywhere trust matters more than polish. |
| **Unboxing** | Premium product unboxing and showcase videos. | Physical products with strong packaging, gifts, gadgets, premium goods. |
| **Tutorial** | Instagram-style talking-head tutorial ads, a real person walking through the product. | Complex products, tech, beauty regimens — anything that needs explaining. |
| **Virtual Try ON** | Instagram Reels-style fashion try-on hauls, talking-head UGC. | Fashion, eyewear, accessories, makeup — anything you wear or apply. |
| **Pro Virtual Try ON** | Higher-fidelity try-on with a pre-generation setup pass. | Premium fashion, luxury accessories, jewelry, high-end beauty. |
| **Asmr** | Senior-UGC-director-style sensory, sound-focused content. | Beauty, skincare, food, candles, sensory goods. |
| **Hyper-Motion** | Fast-cut, motion-heavy hyper-motion product ad. | Tech, sports, automotive, athletic wear — anything dynamic. |
Don't pick a format because it looks cool — pick it because it matches your product and audience. A luxury watch in UGC will feel cheap; a \$9.99 hair clip in Pro Virtual Try On will feel like you're trying too hard. **Match the format to the product's price point and emotional category.**
## 6.3 — Picking a hook
Click the **Hook** card to open **Pick your hook**. Rather than a set of psychological "archetypes," Ad Studio's hooks are literal, named moments you can drop into the first few seconds of your ad — filterable by **All**, **Stunt**, **Subtle**, and a seasonal **World Cup** tab.
A sample of what's in there:
| Hook | What it does |
| --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Product Hit** | An object flies into frame and hits the subject. |
| **Slap** | A hand swings in and slaps the subject's cheek. |
| **Random Object Mic** | During a casual vlog, a random object becomes an absurd microphone. |
| **Product Drop** | A slow-mo product drop from above. |
| **Interview** | The avatar holds the product, an interviewer off-camera asks questions. |
| **Blizzard** | A cozy scene is suddenly hit by a blizzard. |
| **Car Hit** | A person walking on the road, a fast car passes close by. |
| **Bird Hit** | The avatar opens their mouth to start talking — interrupted by a bird. |
There are roughly 30 hooks in total, split across the Stunt and Subtle tabs — browse the picker itself for the full set, since new ones (like the World Cup tab) get added over time.
Test hooks aggressively. The same ad with a different hook can swing performance by **3–5×**. Generate the same ad with a few different hooks, run all of them for a small budget, and double down on the winner. Cycle every 7–10 days as fatigue sets in.
## 6.4 — Setting the scene
Click the **Background** card to open **Set the scene**. Settings are filterable by **All**, **Unrealistic**, **Realistic**, and a seasonal **World Cup** tab, with dozens of named, literal locations rather than broad categories:
| Setting | Description shown in the picker |
| ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Airplane** | Person sits on an airplane wing mid-flight. |
| **Volcano** | Person sits on an active volcano rim. |
| **Glacier** | Person stands on calving glacier ice. |
| **Temple** | Person sits on a rain-slicked temple step. |
| **Gym** | Gym floor, locker room, or post-workout setting. |
| **City** | Walking on a sidewalk or standing in a city street. |
| **Disco Club** | A disco club with music and other dancers. |
| **Abandoned Car Park** | An indoor, spooky abandoned car park. |
| **Pandora** | Person stands at the edge of a fantastical alien landscape. |
| **Tribal People** | A tropical beach with tribal-styled figures. |
Settings carry hidden assumptions about your customer. A kitchen assumes the viewer cooks at home; a co-working space assumes flexible work. Pick a setting that flatters **the way your customer wants to see themselves** — not just one that fits the product.
## 6.5 — Output settings (aspect ratio, quality, duration)
Below the description field, three pills control aspect ratio, quality, and duration.
### Aspect ratio
**16:9, 9:16, 3:4, 4:3, 1:1, 21:9.** 9:16 is the default and the dominant ratio for social-first paid media (TikTok, Reels, Shorts); 1:1 is the safest bet when you don't know exactly where an ad will run; 16:9 and 21:9 suit wide-screen placements.
### Quality
Four tiers: **Max, High, Medium, Low.** Use **Low** or **Medium** while you're iterating on several variations; switch to **High** or **Max** for the version you're actually shipping.
### Duration
An exact per-second dropdown from **5s to 15s** (default 10s) — not a set of preset ranges. Shorter durations suit attention-only hooks; use the full 15s when the ad needs a small narrative arc (problem → product → payoff).
## 6.6 — Adding products and avatars
The **Product** and **Avatar** cards are where you load in the two assets that make an ad recognizably yours.
### Adding a product
Click **Product** to open a picker with a real preset library — roughly 55 items across 10 categories (Streetwear, Fashion, Wellness, Skincare, Accessories, Home, Sports, Beverages, Tech, Menswear) — plus a **Saved** tab for anything you've added yourself.
Beyond the presets, you have two ways to add your own:
* **Paste a product URL** to scrape a live product page.
* **Create Manually** — upload up to 9 images (JPG/PNG/WEBP, ≤25MB), give it a **Name** (used for @-mentions), and optionally add **Additional Instructions**. A single image is enough; multiple angles aren't required, though they help.
URL scraping isn't always reliable. Sites that block bots (Amazon is a known example) can silently return the wrong product — a blank thumbnail or a garbled, unrelated title — with no warning that the pull is wrong. Always check the pulled result before generating; don't assume a "successful" pull actually got your product.
### Adding an avatar
Click **Avatar** to open a similar picker — roughly 50 named preset avatars across 8 categories (including a seasonal **World Cup** category), plus **Saved**.
Two ways to add your own:
* **Generate Avatar** — a single free-text description field (no gender/ethnicity/age filters), which generates 4 options to choose from.
* **Create Manually** — upload up to 10 photos (JPG/PNG/WEBP, ≤25MB) or select from your past creations, give it a **Name**, pick **Male** or **Female**, and optionally add **Additional Instructions**.
### Attaching a voiceover or music reference
Below the Product/Avatar/Hook/Background cards, an optional **Upload media** row (images, videos, or audio) opens **Add References** — filterable by **All**, **Image**, **Video**, and **Audio**, accepting JPG/PNG/WEBP/MP4/WEBM/MP3/WAV/OGG up to 30MB. This is how you attach a real voiceover or music track as a reference for the generation, separate from the Product and Avatar cards.
There's no built-in captions or subtitles toggle — several format templates explicitly instruct the model to avoid on-screen text overlays. If your platform needs captions, add them afterward with another tool rather than expecting Ad Studio to burn them in.
### Casting your avatar
Pick the avatar that matches your target customer — **not** the one that looks the most attractive. A 35-year-old skincare brand doesn't sell better with a 20-year-old face; it sells better with a 35-year-old face. Your audience needs to see themselves in the ad, not aspire to be someone else.
Once you find an avatar that performs, reuse it across the entire campaign. Consistency builds recognition; recognition builds trust; trust drives clicks. The same avatar across 10 ads is far more powerful than 10 different avatars across 10 ads.