As an affiliate marketer, your success depends on your ability to grab attention, drive clicks, and make sales. In this business, those with the best ad creatives come out on top. However, creating a lot of engaging ad variations has typically been time-consuming and expensive.
This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in to help everyday affiliates. With the latest AI tools, marketers can now produce thousands of eye-catching ads much faster and at a lower cost. From research and brainstorming to design and optimization, AI is changing every part of the ad creation process.
In this article, we’ll explore the latest AI techniques and tools you can start using today to scale your ad creative production to new heights. Whether you're a solo affiliate or part of a growing affiliate team, these strategies will give you a powerful edge.
Steps of creating ads with AI
To create ads that really convert, there are a few steps to follow, whether you're using AI or not. For video ads, there are usually four steps: research, creation, editing, and repurposing. For image ads, the main steps are research, creation, and design.
We’ll go through each step one by one and show you which AI tools you can use to make the process easier and more efficient.
Part 1: Creating static image ads with AI
Step 1: Discovering winning ad angles with AI-assisted research
Great ad creatives start with customer insights. To create ad creatives that actually convert, you need to know your target audience's pain points, desires, objections, and the language they use to express them.
In the past, finding these insights meant spending hours researching, reading product reviews, affiliate forums, blog comments, and social media posts. But now, with AI tools like ChatGPT, you can gather valuable customer insights in just minutes.
By inputting your research material into ChatGPT, you can quickly pull out powerful quotes, catchy phrases, and ideas for your ad copy.
For instance, if you’re promoting an anti-dandruff shampoo, you could gather relevant threads from Reddit and product reviews, then ask ChatGPT to find the strongest phrases that customers use to talk about their dandruff issues and the benefits they want. In seconds, you might discover phrases like "the only shampoo that ended my flaking."
This AI-powered research method can be applied to any source of consumer insights—reviews, forums, social media, and more. What used to take days or weeks can now be accomplished in just minutes.
The process is simple. First, gather all the relevant text-based research you can find for your affiliate offer. This could include:
- Product reviews on Amazon, Trustpilot, etc.
- Discussion threads on Reddit, Quora, and other niche forums
- Comments on affiliate blogs and review sites
- Customer support logs or FAQs
- Social media conversations around your product category
Next, feed this text data into ChatGPT and use prompts to extract the key insights you need. Some powerful prompt ideas:
- Identify the most common pain points or frustrations mentioned
- Highlight the most desired benefits or outcomes customers are seeking
- Pull out the most compelling testimonial quotes or success stories
- Compare the product with key competitors and identify unique selling points
- Describe the typical buyer persona and their key characteristics
In just seconds, ChatGPT will analyze hundreds or even thousands of data points to reveal the most important insights. You’ll find the exact language customers use, the best hooks and angles, and unique ideas to differentiate your affiliate offer.
ChatGPT can also help with competitive analysis. Input reviews of your product and those of your top competitors, and ask them to identify your unique strengths and opportunities. This AI-driven SWOT analysis can highlight what makes you stand out in your ads.
So by using ChatGPT to speed up your research, you can quickly gather a wealth of consumer insights and copy ideas.
Step 2: Generating eye-catching ad creatives with AI
In the race for audience attention, visuals are a powerful tool. Great images can catch the eye of even the fastest scroller and draw them into your ad creative. However, creating professional-quality visuals consistently can be tough for affiliate marketers.
Thanks to tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, you can now create amazing, realistic images just from text descriptions. These AI systems have learned from billions of images to understand how visual ideas relate to each other. Just give them a clear description, and they can produce an image that looks like it was taken by a professional photographer.
To come up with converting visuals for your ad creatives using AI, focus your prompts on the main outcome, benefit, or problem your product addresses. The more specific and vivid your prompt, the better the resulting image will be.
For example, if you’re promoting a weight loss product, instead of a simple prompt like "a person losing weight," try something like "a glowing woman looking proud as she pulls on jeans that are now 4 sizes too big." For a home security system lead gen offer, you might say, "A family sleeping soundly in a peaceful bedroom while an intruder is stopped outside."
With a little prompt experimentation, you can generate lots of eye-catching images for your ads. Plus, you won’t be limited by stock photos or production issues—if you can imagine it, AI can create it.
Creating product visuals with Imagine Create AI
While tools like Midjourney are incredible for generating conceptual ad creatives when you don’t have the original product image, they have a limitation: they can't realistically depict specific products. So if you're promoting physical goods as an affiliate, you'll still need product photos to feature in your ads.
That's where Imagine Create AI comes in. This groundbreaking AI tool lets you upload a product photo, then place that product into any scene you can describe. Want to show your fitness gadget being used by a ripped athlete on the beach? Or feature your gourmet coffee in a chic Parisian cafe? Just upload a plain product shot and let Imagine Create transplant it into any setting.
Here's how to use Imagine Create for coming up with image ads:
- Shoot or source a high-quality product photo on a plain white background. The better the input image, the more realistic the final composite will be.
- Upload the product shot into Imagine Create.
- Use the text prompt field to describe the scene you want the product inserted into. Be as descriptive as possible, specifying details like setting, lighting, camera angle, etc. This is where you can get creative and really make your product stand out.
- Let Imagine Create work its magic, generating a photorealistic image of your product in the specified context. The AI will handle masking, shadows, reflections and other complex details to make the composite look convincing.
- Download the generated image and import it into your preferred ad design tool. Add copy, branding, CTAs and other elements to taste.
With Imagine Create, you can feature your affiliate products in eye-catching, lifestyle settings without expensive photoshoots. Showcase your gadgets in use, your supplements on a lab bench, your fashion items on a model - the possibilities are endless.
By combining ChatGPT hooks, Midjourney background visuals, and Imagine Create product composites, you can create affiliate ads that look like big-budget productions on a shoestring. It's a true game-changer.
Step 3: Assembling high-converting ad creatives at lightning speed
Now that you have all your images ready, it’s time to put them together into eye-catching ads. But starting each design from scratch can take a lot of time, even with easy tools like Canva and Figma. That’s where Creative OS comes in.
Creative OS is a big collection of effective ad design templates made especially for direct response marketers. Instead of starting over or using basic templates, you can use a selection of layouts that are proven to get clicks and conversions.
Here’s how to use Creative OS to simplify your affiliate ad design:
- Browse the library, select a template, and customize it: Look through the Creative OS template library and pick a design that suits your ad format, platform, and style. You’ll find templates made for Facebook, Instagram, native ads, and more across various niches. Creative OS also allows you to import a template from your favorite design tool, like Figma or Sketch.
You can also change the template to match your affiliate offer’s branding, colors, and fonts. Use your ChatGPT-generated headlines and text, keeping each ad focused on one clear message.
- Add visuals and create: Include your AI-generated images from Midjourney and Imagine Create. Resize and crop them to fit the template’s image spaces, making sure the main parts stand out. Don’t forget to add a clear button with action-oriented text. Try out different CTA phrases like "Shop Now," "Get Offer," "Learn More," and "Claim Discount."
- Export and test: Save your finished ad creatives and upload them to your ad testing platform. Aim to create many variations by mixing different headlines, images, and CTAs.
With Creative OS, you can turn your raw AI-generated assets into polished, professional ads in just minutes. You won’t need to design from scratch or guess which layout works best; just adapt proven templates to suit your offer and start testing.
As you run your ads and collect data, keep an eye out for successful elements—like hooks, visuals, and CTAs—that you can remix and reuse. The great thing about AI-driven ad creation is that you can always make more variations to keep your top ads fresh and effective.
By combining Creative OS templates with your ChatGPT copy, Midjourney visuals, and Imagine Create product shots, you can significantly boost your affiliate ad design output and impact. It’s the final piece of the AI-powered ad creation puzzle.
The goal is to generate enough creative variations for quick testing. With this AI design process, you’ll always have plenty of ad options to try. Just keep designing, launching, and optimizing!
Part 2: Generating video ads with AI
Types of high-converting video ads
Step 1: Conduct research and idea generation with ChatGPT
Just like with static ads, great video ads start with deep customer understanding. Before you start scripting or shooting, you need to uncover the key insights, hooks, and language patterns that will make your message resonate.
ChatGPT is the ultimate tool for rapidly extracting these critical insights from mountains of customer data. Feed it your product reviews, affiliate forum threads, support logs, and social media conversations, and use prompts to mine for gold.
Here are some examples of effective ChatGPT prompts for video ad research:
- What are the most common questions or objections customers have about [product category]?
- Identify the top 3 benefits customers rave about most often in reviews for [product].
- Write a compelling 30-second video script hook based on the key pain point of [customer pain point].
- Generate 5 attention-grabbing video titles for an ad targeting [specific audience] and addressing [key problem].
In minutes, ChatGPT will surface the most potent insights and angles you can use to inform your video ad creative. You'll know exactly what messages will stop the scroll and drive action.
Step 2: Create AI UGC ads in Arcads
With your key messaging locked in, it's time to bring your video ad to life with AI-generated user content (UGC). Arcads is a powerful tool that lets you create hyper-realistic videos of people using and reacting to your affiliate products, all from a simple text prompt.
Here's how to create AI UGC clips for your affiliate video ads:
- Write a text prompt describing the specific product usage or reaction shot you want to show. For example: "young woman raving about how well [supplement] cleared up her skin" or "man in his 60s amazed at how much energy he has after taking [vitality product]."
- Feed your text prompt into Arcads and let it generate a realistic UGC-style video clip, pulled from its library of real people and AI aggregation.
- Download the Arcads video clip and import it into your editing timeline.
- Repeat the process to generate a variety of UGC shots showcasing your affiliate product from different angles and perspectives.
With Arcads, you can add that raw, genuine feel of real customer reactions to your affiliate videos, without the hassle or expense of traditional UGC campaigns. Mix and match different clips to find the perfect combination that resonates with your audience.
Step 3: Edit ads in Descript
With your Arcads UGC clips ready to go, it's time to edit them together into a polished, engaging final video. Descript is an AI-powered video editing tool that makes assembling your ads simple.
Here's how to edit your affiliate videos in Descript:
- Import your Arcads UGC clips into a new Descript project.
- Use Descript's simple drag-and-drop tools to arrange your clips on the timeline. Experiment with different sequences and pacing to find the most impactful structure.
- Add text overlays to emphasize key points, like product benefits or limited-time offers. Descript makes it easy to customize fonts, colors, and animations.
- Enhance your video with music, sound effects, and transitions to set the mood and keep viewers engaged. Descript has an extensive library of royalty-free assets to choose from.
- Use Descript's AI-powered tools to automatically remove filler words, smooth jump cuts, and enhance the audio quality of your video.
- Export your final video and run it through a platform like Canva or Veed to add eye-catching thumbnails, captions, and end screens optimized for your ad placement.
With Descript, you can simplify your video editing workflow and pump out high-quality affiliate ads faster than ever. Its AI-powered tools help you achieve professional results without the steep learning curve of traditional editing software.
Step 4: Build a content library in Air
As you scale up your affiliate video ad production, it's always important to keep your assets organized and easily accessible. That's where Air comes in.
Air is a powerful digital asset management (DAM) platform that lets you store, tag, and retrieve your video creative at the click of a button. Instead of digging through cluttered hard drives or chaotic cloud storage, you can keep all your ad collateral neatly sorted and searchable.
Here's how to use Air to build your affiliate video content library:
- Import your finished video ads, Arcads UGC clips, b-roll footage, music tracks, and graphic templates into Air.
- Tag each asset with relevant keywords like ad format, product category, audience targeting, messaging theme, etc. Use a consistent taxonomy so you can quickly filter and find what you need.
- Create collections for each affiliate offer or campaign, so you can see all the associated assets in one place.
- Collaborate with your team by sharing asset links or inviting them to your Air workspace. Everyone can access the latest versions without version control issues.
With Air, you can keep your affiliate video production pipeline running smoothly, even as you scale to hundreds or thousands of ads. No more time wasted hunting for that one perfect clip or graphic - it's always just a search away.
Step 5: Use ElevenLabs for AI voiceovers
While Arcads is great for generating authentic UGC-style footage, there may be times when you want to add a professional voiceover (VO) to your affiliate videos. That's where ElevenLabs comes in.
ElevenLabs is a cutting-edge AI voice generation tool that can create ultra-realistic VO tracks from just a text script. It offers a wide range of natural-sounding AI voices in various languages, accents, and tones, so you can find the perfect voice for your affiliate promos.
Here's how to use ElevenLabs to generate AI voiceovers for your videos:
- Write a compelling VO script based on the messaging hooks and language patterns uncovered in your ChatGPT research. Keep it concise, conversational, and focused on driving action.
- Paste your script into ElevenLabs and select an AI voice that matches your brand and target audience. You can preview each voice to find the right fit.
- Customize your script with SSML tags to add emphasis, pauses, and other nuances that make the VO sound more human. ElevenLabs supports a wide range of SSML commands to fine-tune your delivery.
- Generate your AI voiceover and download the audio file.
- Import the VO track into Descript and lay it over your video edit. Adjust the timing and pacing to sync up with your visuals and text overlays.
With ElevenLabs, you can generate professional-quality VO tracks for your affiliate videos in minutes, without the expense or hassle of hiring voice talent. Simply write your script, pick your AI voice, and let the tool do the rest.
Conclusion
By using these six powerful AI tools, affiliate marketers can now produce high-converting ads at an unprecedented scale and speed. And all of this is at 0 dollars.
A single UGC video ad these days costs $150 on average. And if you want to test multiple ads, (let's say 1o ads) you’ll have to pay $1,500. This is why AI creatives are a better option for affiliates.
Instead of spending days or weeks on a single ad, you can use this AI-powered production workflow to churn out dozens of personalized video variations in a matter of hours.
So don't let video ads intimidate you any longer. With these AI tools at your fingertips, you have everything you need to create scroll-stopping, click-worthy ads that cut through the noise and convert.
