Blog · October 6, 2026

How to make video ads for TikTok, Reels and Shorts

TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts look alike for a reason: a full-screen vertical video, a feed you swipe through, and buttons and text laid over the video. One well-made vertical ad can run on all three. This guide covers what makes it work everywhere: the frame, the parts of the screen to keep clear, the first two seconds, sound and export.

One frame for all three: 9:16

Make the ad vertical, 9:16, at 1080 × 1920 pixels if you can. That fills the screen on all three platforms. Make it vertical from the start rather than cropping a horizontal video: a crop loses the edges of the frame, and with them, often, the product or half a face.

Each platform's ads manager lists its current specs. They change from time to time, so check them before a big launch.

Frame for a phone held in one hand

• Keep the subject in the middle. The person and the product should sit in the centre of the frame, not the edges.
• Get close. A product that looks fine on a laptop is tiny on a phone. Hold it at chest height, nearer the lens than you'd think.
• Keep the background simple. On a small screen, clutter competes with the product.

Stay inside the safe zone

The apps lay their own interface over your video: the caption and account name along the bottom, the like, comment and share buttons down the right edge, and tabs or labels across the top. Anything important under them is hidden. As a rough guide, keep your product, faces and any text out of the bottom fifth of the frame, away from the right edge, and clear of a strip along the top. Captions sit best just above the bottom area, roughly a third of the way up.

In this example the captions sit in the lower third, above where the app's own text goes, and the face stays in the middle of the frame:

Win the first two seconds

People swipe fast, so the opening has to earn the rest. Start with the product already in frame and something already happening: a lid opening, a reaction, a question. No logos, no title card, no slow fade in. 30 UGC ad hooks has openers to try, and 12 AI video ad ideas has formats built around a strong first moment.

Keep it short

All three platforms accept long videos, but a short ad, 6 to 15 seconds, forces one clear idea and is cheap to remake when you want to test a different opening. Start there, and only go longer when a short version has shown you which idea works.

Design for sound on and sound off

Some people watch with sound, some without. Make the ad work both ways: a real voice and room sound for those listening, and captions that carry the words for those who aren't. Music, if any, goes quietly under the voice. Use only music you have the rights to use in ads; the tracks available in an app's own editor aren't always cleared for advertising.

Make it look like it belongs

An ad that looks like a TV commercial reads as an ad and gets swiped. One that looks like the videos around it gets watched. That means a handheld phone camera, natural light, an ordinary place and one person talking normally. It's the reason UGC-style ads are the default format on these platforms.

Export settings

• File: MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio, which all three platforms accept.
• Size: 1080 × 1920. A 720 × 1280 file uploads fine but looks softer on large phones.
• Frame rate: keep the source frame rate; don't convert it.
• Compression: export once from the best version you have. Each re-export of an already compressed file loses detail.

A checklist before you upload

• 9:16, full screen, no black bars.
• Product and faces clear of the app's buttons and text.
• Something happening in the first second.
• Captions, checked word by word.
• One idea, one call to action.
• Labelled as AI-generated if any of it is.

The steps before this one, from idea to finished video, are in how to make an AI ad, and writing the words to fit the seconds is covered in the UGC ad script template.

Vertical ads in fairytale video

fairytale video makes ads in 9:16 by default, or 16:9 if you need horizontal, from 4 to 30 seconds long. Choose 720p or 1080p before generating the paid Seedance 2.5 video; the button shows its credit price. Captions are added to a finished video at no extra credit cost: choose the font and animation and place the text box on a live preview, so you can keep it clear of the buttons. The studio burns them into a new H.264 MP4 for you to review and upload.