Creative & UGC
How do you turn customer reviews into video ads?
The short answer
Find your most emotional reviews, lead with the heaviest line as the hook, and have the founder read it out on a phone with the review on screen behind them. Use a green screen effect, talk through what the customer said, and let an editor tidy it up. It takes about a minute, needs no script or location, and most brands already have 20 or more reviews that would work.
Which reviews make the best ads?
The emotional ones. Go through every review and every customer email you’ve had, and pull out the ones with real weight to them. Then choose the most emotionally heavy part as the hook and read it out loud.
Heavy hooks cut through better than polite ones. A five-star review about fast shipping won’t stop anyone scrolling. A customer who had nearly given up before your product turned things around will. So will the sceptic who bought anyway and has since reordered.
Most brands have 20 or more reviews that would work. They just haven’t looked at them as ads yet.
How do you film one?
It’s the easiest video to pull together, because you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything.
- Screen-record your product page as you scroll down to the reviews, or screenshot the review or email you want to read.
- Open a phone app with a green screen effect. Instagram has one, and so does the Edits app. Put the recording or screenshot behind you, with you in the corner of the frame.
- Read the review out and talk through what the customer said.
- Hand it to an editor to cut the ums, add captions and put an end card on it.
That’s a minute to make an ad for a product that can go on Meta.
Why does something this lo-fi work?
Because green screen is an organic content format. It looks like the stuff people actually choose to watch, so it gets the scroll stop you’re after.
It also means you can fumble over your words, and it doesn’t matter. If you hate talking to camera, this is the gentlest way in, because your customer has already written the lines for you.
Once the basic version is working, you can lift the production quality by cutting in b-roll from a shoot. Get the front end right first.
How do you make more than one?
Stack it onto work you’re already doing. You’ve got to write your emails anyway, right? So write the email, send the test to yourself, screenshot it, and talk through it on green screen. The same goes for any customer email worth sharing.
Get one done. Then sit down and film five in one go, and let your editor batch-cut them later. Run statics alongside them in support, but expect the video to do the heavy lifting.
Does this work for lead magnets and quizzes too?
Yes, and it’s often the quickest way to bring cost per lead down. When a lead magnet or quiz campaign converts but the volume is low or the leads are expensive, the lever is usually video.
As I said to one team whose guide campaign was in exactly that spot, I’m happy with the spend amount, I just want the lead volume higher, and that’s going to come from video.
The video itself is simple. The founder, face to camera or on green screen, explaining what the quiz or guide is, why they built it, and to click the link. A little bit of “hey, this is what we’ve been doing, this is why we did it.” Statics don’t get that kind of cut-through.
A few ways to get more out of one recording:
- Film one script with several different hooks.
- Crop the founder into a circle, like a Loom video, while they walk through the guide or quiz.
- Make around ten simple text-over-footage versions with distinctly different backgrounds.
- Mix in motion graphic or flip-book style ads.
Expect a quiz funnel to carry a higher cost per lead than a simple sign-up, because people have to finish the whole thing. Better video is the lever that brings it down.