Video ads or static ads
Test stills first. A still is made in an afternoon, read in a second, and tells you which claim and which product your buyer stops for. Then film the claim that won. Video earns more time and more trust, and costs a shoot day to get wrong. A carousel sits between them and wins when the buyer has to compare. The order matters more than the format.
In detail
A still against a short video
| A static ad | A short video | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to make | An afternoon: a photograph, a line, a layout | A shoot day and an edit; more if it has to be reshot |
| Time to read | A second; the claim is the whole ad | The first second buys the next; the claim lands later |
| What you learn from it | Which claim, which product and which price frame stops the thumb | Whether the claim holds attention once it has stopped the thumb |
| How many you can test | Ten in a week without strain | Two or three in a week, and each one is dearer to lose |
| What it is good at | Price, offer, a product that photographs well, a comparison | Proof: the product in use, a face, a before and after, a demonstration |
| Where it fails | A product that has to move to be understood | A simple offer a still would have said faster |
| Lifespan | Shorter; a still tires quickly in a feed | Longer, if the hook survives repetition |
| Sound off | Irrelevant | Captions, or it does not exist |
When does a still beat a reel?
When the offer is the message. A price, a discount, a product that photographs well against a plain field, two things side by side: these read in a second, where a reel spends ten getting to the point. A still also beats a reel when you do not yet know what to say, because ten stills with ten claims teach you in a week what the buyer cares about, and a reel built on the wrong claim is a shoot day wasted. For Legacy Blinds the whole argument was that two products look alike and price apart, a thing to show, not to film.
When does video beat a still?
When the buyer needs proof rather than a claim. A product that has to be seen in use, a result that has to be watched happening, a founder whose face sells the thing, a demonstration a photograph would flatten: video earns time, and time earns trust. It also wins on repetition, because a good hook survives being seen many times where a still tires in days. The condition is that you already know the claim. Film the still that won, and the shoot day is spent proving a thing the buyer has already told you they care about.
The testing order we run
- 01
Ten stills, ten claims
One product, one claim and one price frame each, built in a week. The point is variety, so that the buyer rather than the brief picks the winner.
- 02
Cut by the week
The weakest stills come out, the budget moves to the ones that produced messages or orders, and the claim that keeps winning is written down.
- 03
Carousel the comparison
If the winning claim is about a choice between two things, build the carousel: a question on the cover, one product per frame, the answer at the end.
- 04
Film the winner
One shoot day on the claim that held, cut for vertical with captions, one idea per beat. The reel is a bet placed with information rather than hope.
- 05
Rebuild the losers, not the format
A still that lost is a claim that lost. Replace the claim before you blame the medium.
The Legacy Blinds carousel
Legacy Blinds sells linen roller shades and faux wood blinds. In a feed they photograph alike and sell to the same room, so a buyer reads them as one product and sorts on price. A reel could have shown both in a room; it would not have made the buyer stop. The carousel opened on a question, which blinds cost more, so the first frame earned a swipe instead of asking for a click. Then one product per frame, the material close enough to judge, the two side by side, and a last frame that moved the question from price to craft. Six frames, no footage, and the buyer arrives at the link having argued themselves out of sorting on price. A still can be a sequence; it does not have to be one picture.
The Gallery ran a tight set of creatives, each built to start a message rather than win a view, and the winners were decided by orders in the inbox, not by which looked best in the review. Every campaign to July 2026 returned $5.20–$6 for every $1 of ads. The lesson from both accounts is the same: the format is a container for a claim, and the claim is what gets tested.
What production costs, in words
- A still: an afternoon of a designer’s time and a product photograph you already have or we take.
- A carousel: a day, because each frame has to carry one claim and the sequence has to read at thumb speed.
- A studio reel: a shoot day, an edit and the captions, checked frame by frame before it leaves.
- A reel on your premises: the same plus travel and a day of your time, priced on its own under Tailored.
- Customer-made video: the cheapest to source and the hardest to control; it needs a brief and an edit to look like your brand.
The questions that follow.
Should I start with video because the platforms favour it?
Start with what teaches you fastest, which is stills. The platforms favour video that holds attention, and a reel built on a claim nobody cares about holds none.
How many creatives do you test at once?
Ten in rotation for a campaign, with four new ones a month under Starter’s ads option and the losers cut each week. Enough variety that one dud does not sink the month.
Do stills still work on Instagram?
Yes, in ads. In the organic feed reels travel further; in a paid placement a still with the right claim can beat a reel on the cost of an order. We test rather than assume.
Can you make the video from my phone footage?
Yes, if it is steady and lit. We cut it, caption it and check it before it goes out, and we tell you honestly when the footage is not good enough.
What does a reel cost?
A shoot day and an edit. Four short videos a month sit inside Starter’s content option and eight inside Standard; filming on your premises is priced on its own.
The price is published.
Where this leads.
No deck. No discovery theatre. One metric, one date, in the contract.