---
title: Make a stock-footage commercial for your business, in short and long cuts
description: A promo video, or business commercial, from licensed stock footage, a voiceover and your text, cut to 15, 60 and 120 seconds on three branches.
---
You get a commercial for your business, also called a promo video or explainer ad, built from licensed stock footage. It has a voiceover, your business name and offer on screen, music, and a call to action. You get it in three lengths, 15, 60 and 120 seconds, each on its own branch.
Use invideo for this when you have no footage of your own: your agent searches stock video, images and music that are licensed for the video, and you can swap any shot on the timeline after the first cut.
This is ordinary marketing work for your own business. The agent makes the video. You publish it, and you choose where it runs.
## Quickest path
Set up your agent first with [invideo for AI agents](/agents). Then give it this prompt.
```text
Make a commercial for my bakery, Rise and Crumb, in Austin. Fresh bread
every morning, custom cakes, open 7am to 3pm. Use stock footage and
warm music, a friendly voice, and end with my address and site.
Make 15, 60 and 120 second versions. Tell me the stock price first.
```
The chat-app path and the terminal path are the same here. You type the facts, and the agent finds the media. In a terminal it can also read your facts from a file.
## What you need
The agent writes only what you give it. Bring the facts.
- **Your business facts.** The name, what you sell, what makes you different, the offer, and the call to action.
- **The words to show.** The address, the phone number or the site, exactly as they should appear.
- **Your logo, if you have one.** A PNG with a transparent background.
- **The shape.** 16:9 for YouTube or a site, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok, 1:1 for feeds.
- **The mood.** Warm, upbeat, calm or bold, for the shots, the voice and the music.
## Steps
The agent builds the longest version first, then cuts it down on branches.
The agent writes three scripts from your facts: a short one for 15 seconds, a full one for 60 and a longer one for 120 seconds. Each ends with the call to action. It shows you the scripts first. Expected result: three scripts you approve.
The agent runs `search_library` in `stock_video` for each line of the script, and in `stock_image` and `stock_music` where it needs them. It looks closer at a result with `media` `video.frames` and the `stock` id. Searching is free. Expected result: a shot list with a stock id per line, and a music track.
The agent runs `find_models` with the job in words, picks one, and reads its inputs with `get_model`. A good pick is `elevenlabs_text_to_speech.elevenlabs_tts_v4`. A voice id works only with its own model, so the agent picks the voice with `search_library` in `elevenlabs_text_to_speech_voices`. It calls `generate` with `dry_run: true`, the script as `prompt` and the `voice_id`, and tells you the price. Then it calls `generate` with `max_credits` set to that price and an `idempotency_key`. It does this once per script, with one key per script. Expected result: three sequence URLs, one per length, which the agent reads with `read`.
The agent makes a timeline with `new_timeline` and a branch named `120s` with `timeline_history`. It adds each chosen stock result with `add_media` and the `stock` id, which charges its cost. It places shots with `place_media` along the voice and adds your words with `add_text`. Expected result: a full commercial with every shot on the voice line it fits.
The agent makes branches named `60s` and `15s` with `timeline_history` `create_branch`. On each, it puts that length's voice in place with `place_media` in `mode` replace, removes shots with `delete_clip`, and shortens the rest with `trim_clip`. Expected result: three branches whose lengths match their names.
The agent places the music with `place_media` and sets it under the voice with `set_audio_gain`. It fades the music out with `set_audio_fades`. It adds your logo with `insert_media` and the address and site on the last seconds with `add_text`. Expected result: music under the voice, and an end card with your details.
The agent runs `capture` at every text and at the end card of each branch, and `check_timeline`. It checks that your address and phone number read exactly as you gave them. Then it runs `export` on each branch URL with `format` video and a `file_name` such as `rise-and-crumb_60s`. Expected result: three export cards with status `completed`.
The same job from a terminal:
```bash
invideo project new --title "Rise and Crumb commercial"
invideo agent register --name
export INVIDEO_AS=
invideo library search --library stock_video \
--query "baker pulling fresh bread from oven"
invideo library search --library stock_music \
--query "warm acoustic"
invideo media video.frames --stock --at 1,3,5
invideo gen models --query "friendly voiceover from a script"
invideo gen model \
--model elevenlabs_text_to_speech.elevenlabs_tts_v4
invideo gen run \
--model elevenlabs_text_to_speech.elevenlabs_tts_v4 \
--dry-run -i prompt=@script-60.txt -i voice_id=
invideo gen run \
--model elevenlabs_text_to_speech.elevenlabs_tts_v4 \
--max-credits --idempotency-key crumb-voice-60-v1 \
-i prompt=@script-60.txt -i voice_id=
invideo edit new --name "Rise and Crumb 120s"
invideo asset add --stock
invideo edit show --json
invideo branch new --name 60s --token
invideo edit show --json
invideo edit change --timeline T1 --token \
--operations @cut-60.json
invideo edit capture --at 2,20,40,58 --out ./frames/60s
invideo edit export --format video --quality 1080 \
--file-name rise-and-crumb_60s --json
invideo status --wait
invideo notebook show --out ./out/60s
mv ./out/60s/export.mp4 ./out/60s/rise-and-crumb_60s.mp4
```
Where the values come from: `` from `invideo project new`, and `` from `invideo edit new`. `` is the name you choose in `invideo agent register`, and `` is a notebook page from `invideo notebook show `. `` comes from the library search, and `` from `invideo library search` in `elevenlabs_text_to_speech_voices`. `` is the dry run's `estimated_credits`. `` comes from `invideo edit show` on the edit, and on the branch from `invideo edit show `. The main token is stale there. `` is the `branch_url` that `invideo branch new` returns. `` is `.sequences[0]` of what the export returns. `invideo status` does not download, and the saved file is always `export.mp4`. The ops file `cut-60.json` is a bare list: the `operations` list of the MCP call below.
The key MCP call on the `60s` branch removes a shot, shortens another and adds the end card. At 30 frames a second, frame 1800 is the 60 second mark. `` here is the branch's token from `get_timeline`, and the clip ids come from the same read.
```json
{
"url": "",
"timeline_id": "T1",
"expected_state_token": "",
"operations": [
{ "op": "delete_clip", "clip": "c6", "mode": "close_gap",
"linked": true },
{ "op": "trim_clip", "clip": "c7", "edge": "tail", "from_f": 1290,
"to_f": 1200, "mode": "close_gap", "linked": true },
{ "op": "add_text", "track": "V2", "start_f": 1650, "end_f": 1800,
"text": "Rise and Crumb\n214 Oak Street, Austin\nriseandcrumb.com",
"style": { "font_size": 64, "align": "center", "color": "#ffffff" } }
]
}
```
## Cost and time
Edits and exports are free. Generation and transcripts cost credits. Paid stock costs a small credit charge, or one of your workspace's iStock licenses. Your agent runs a dry run first and tells you the price before it spends anything.
- **Free:** searching stock, the edits, the three branches and every export.
- **Looking at stock with `media`:** the dry run shows the price before anything starts.
- **Costs credits:** each stock clip, image or song when the agent adds it, and the voice. iStock results use one of your workspace's iStock licenses.
One commercial in three lengths takes under an hour, most of it on the script and your review of the shots. See [Credits and what they cost](/account/credits) for prices.
## Rights
Stock you add through invideo is licensed for use in your video. The agent looks at low-resolution previews. Your export uses the clean file. For what you may do with stock, music and generated media, read [Licensing and commercial use](/account/commercial-use).
## If something goes wrong
Most problems are a shot that does not fit the line, or a version that runs long.
| Symptom | Fix |
| --- | --- |
| `get_model` or `generate` refuses the model as not found | Models retire. Run `find_models` with the job in words, use the best match, and tell the person which model you used. |
| Exit code 6, or `status` is `held` | A safety review, not a refusal. Wait, then run `invideo status --wait` again. Do not resend. If it ends `failed`, change the input the review flagged. |
| A version runs longer than its name | Read it with `get_timeline` and trim the last clips with `trim_clip`. |
| `trim_clip` refused as stale | `from_f` must be the edge as last read. Read the clip again. |
| A stock shot shows a competitor's logo | Pick another result with `search_library`. |
| The phone number on screen is wrong | The agent types what you gave. Send the right number and it fixes it with `set_text`. |
| CLI exit 3 on the branch | The token is the main timeline's. Run `invideo edit show ` and use its token. |
| The download folder is empty | `invideo status` does not download. Run `invideo notebook show --out ./out/60s`. |
| CLI exit 5 | A credit limit. Use fewer stock clips, or reuse a clip. |
| Avoid: adding every search result to look at it | Instead: look with `media` and the `stock` id, then add the ones you pick. |
## Prompts to try
Each prompt is a real variation of the job.
```text
Make a 30 second vertical promo for my gym's January offer: first month
free. Energetic stock, bold text, no voice, a fast beat.
```
```text
Make a 60 second commercial for my plumbing business with a calm male
voice. Use my logo ./logo.png and my real van photo ./van.jpg at the end.
```
```text
Use my 120 second cafe commercial and make a Spanish version on a new
branch, with a Spanish voice and the same shots.
```
## When to use something else
For a commercial with your own staff, shop and customers, film them on a phone and bring the clips in with `add_media`. Real footage often wins over stock for a local business.
For airtime on TV, the station sets its own delivery rules. invideo exports a 1080p MP4. Ask the station what it needs, and use a desktop editor or a post house for broadcast formats.
## Related
- [Make monthly videos for a dentist, gym, restaurant or home service](/how-to/marketing/local-business-monthly-videos)
- [Make a brand ad film from a brief, with generated shots and your real product](/how-to/marketing/brand-ad-film)
- [Resize one master ad for every placement, with safe zones](/how-to/marketing/every-placement-from-one-master)
- [Licensing and commercial use](/account/commercial-use)
- [Check your video before you say it is done](/how-to/check-your-video)