Create video commercials from a text prompt using InVideo AI

Not every business can afford a professional video production company to make a commercial. However, AI that creates videos in a minute or two, edited with human intervention, is changing the game.

For $350, Great Deals Magazine‘s digital agency uses AI to produce an initial compelling sales video with music from a prompt, then edit the elements into a commercial.

The cost starts at $350. Since the process can take 1 minute or two to generate and 10 minutes or so to add edits, it’s profitable for the agency, too.

We discovered Tory Buchan, Business Development Manager and Sales Manager of GDM, during an AI Exchange for publishers roundtable when he shared that while at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, he created a commercial for a prospect on the spot.

At a recent NichePublisher.biz roundtable, Buch gave a demonstration of the tools he uses and how he does it.

The main tool he uses for AI creation from a prompt is InVideo, although he shows what other tools he uses if he wants to add certain elements to the video.

Here’s a clip from his presentation from the roundtable:

Tools involved

InVideo – This tool is mainly used for generating the video, script, audio, and music from a prompt, using their own archive of images and music. Any of these elements can be pre-selected or replaced with your own. The script is editable. Monthly cost: Free, $20, and  $48.

Visla – This tool has more detailed editing tools. Upload to Visla to add logos to the Invideo. Monthly Cost: $9, $39, and “let’s talk.”

“It’s better at editing video that I’ve already generated, to clip and put together into a commercial setting. But I don’t like the voice generation that it does or the scripting that it does, so I’m not as happy with that one as I am with Invideo,” Buchan said

Vimeo – Upload to add a QR code, formfill, or a caption, such as “Sample,” so the client can’t take the video and use it without payment. or other interactive elements. Monthly Cost: Free = Create, record, share/embed. $12=add a user, custom-player, captioning, $25, $65, and Enterprise.

Using InVideo: Creating the prompt

Buchan asked the roundtable which business issues and products, tone, length, and type of voice they wanted to include in the prompt, so he could demonstrate how the tool could create a commercial in real time.

Ultimately, the group chose to “Create a 30-second video for a digital agency called c that offers digital services such as SEO, web dev, and programmatic, in an Australian voice, aimed at a 28-year-old marketer.”

Here’s just part of the script: “Our blend of cutting-edge tech with human expertise delivers really measurable results ready to transform your marketing. Visit Valuerop.com for a free consultation today. Your digital Success starts here.”

Speed

“Sometimes, depending on internet speed, I can get it done in about a minute. Sometimes it takes a little longer,” Buchan said. “Just depends on internet speed,  but good. Looks like it’s moving pretty decently this time,” he noted. We timed it about a minute.”

About Cost

“They have a very basic free package that does, you know, like one or two videos, that take a lot longer because you’re pushed down in the queue,” he said. “That’s just one of their selling points, is that they make it seem like you’re going to take a lot longer if you don’t buy a paid one.”

At the $29 level, the stock and storage limits equate to something “like 15 or 20 videos a month.”

Eventually, he moved up to the $49 package, which includes video and music with no trademark restrictions.

“I think I get 80 videos a month, plus free licensing for all of the assets that I use from their stock,” he said.

How do they price commercial videos produced?

Buchan said the basic charge is $350, which he has “been steadily increasing”  from $100 for the first video he sold that took him  15 minutes. The customer gets a certain number of revisions, but everything else for clients that, say, want endless revisions or on-site photo shoots, is $100 an hour.

“I have seen, you know, regular media companies that’ll do it for, you know, $1,000 to start, plus two or 300 bucks an hour,” he said. “That’s, that’s obviously high-end quality camera work and scripting, you know, the whole nine yards.” But not every business that needs a video can pay those amounts.

Options to replace elements in the video

In the video (above) Buchan shows he can change pieces in the video itself, by replacing and inserting other media, whether his own or selected from their library, select new music, and edit the script.

“If we pulled up the script, it gives you a frame-by-frame of what’s written for the script, and you can go through and just change it using the prompts,” he said.

“They put parentheses around things that are giving it commands to do. So it’s not going to say pause, but it’s going to actually give a brief pause.”

“I’ve uploaded all these video assets or pictures from either the customer or other media that he has had AI generate (AI-generated media has no copyright protections).

He replaced the music with jazz.

“Usually it’s pretty quick. Marketers find digital tasks overwhelming.”   Once created, he downloads it directly to another device.

“Usually, from there, I take it to another editing tool to put logos or trademarks.

If the company wants to put their logo into the entire thing,  I pop it into Vimeo or  Visla.”

Using your own voice?

“There is one other feature that I don’t like, and most people don’t like,” he said. “You can put your own voice into the AI, and then it uses your voice for the narration, and it sounds like you.

“But most of us don’t really like the sound of our own voice. It’s kind of weird when you do that, but I tried it out and didn’t like it at all, so I eliminated it from my brand.

“So if you have somebody that’s a really good voice that you want to use, you can throw that into the AI voice generation, and then all the script will be read by that person’s voice.”

The process to voice train InVideo was short. “I think it took me two minutes. It gives you some scripting, it wants you to read, and then you have to give it permission to use your voice. So it’s like a licensing thing, so that you’re not using, you know, a celebrity’s voice or something like that.”

Downsides where you need one more tool

“It doesn’t put the logos in the way that I liked them. They kind of get either changed, or they’re not exactly where I want them to be, so it’s not nearly as clean. That’s why I take them from this video format into another one that has a lot better, you know, cut and paste and an overlay kind of stuff to use, as Vimeo does. It just takes me, you know, a couple of minutes in the other editor to add that logo into the corner.

Sometimes, if I’m sending a sample to sell to somebody, I want to have the word “sample” embedded in it, so that they can’t just take it, and I use Vimeo for that.”

For lead capture, he also needs one more tool. ” I have added QR codes or phone numbers, or other things so that it becomes more interactive for them to use.

“If they’re putting it on their social media or whatever, to use the video on their website. They can take it to a landing page or something like that, too.”

Many thanks to Tory Buchan for sharing this AI example.