Ad cutdowns that make one good video run everywhere.

Part one of making ad cutdowns is breaking the master into blocks. We watch the full video and log every usable moment: product shots, demonstrations, lines of dialogue, offers, the logo and the ending. Each block gets a time code and a label, and that log becomes the menu for every cutdown, so a 6 second bumper and a 30 second spot are built from the same approved footage.

Part two of ad cutdowns is the lengths of the video cutdowns. A 30 second cutdown keeps the full story in short form: hook, product, proof, offer and call to action. A 15 second version keeps one idea and the offer. A 6 second bumper shows one thing, usually the product and the brand, which is the format YouTube’s bumper ads use. Each length is edited as its own ad rather than trimmed from the end, because a cut that just stops early loses its call to action.

Part three of ad cutdowns is the ratios. Every ad cutdown is reframed, not just cropped, for 9:16 (Reels, Stories, TikTok, Shorts), 4:5 and 1:1 (feeds) and 16:9 (YouTube in-stream and Demand Gen). Reframing means moving the frame shot by shot to keep faces and products in view, and sometimes re-laying out text and graphics for the taller frame. Google’s ad formats page lists which sizes each campaign type uses.

Part four of ad cutdowns is the hooks. From the master and the extra footage, we build 3 to 5 alternative openings for the main cutdowns: start on the product, on the problem, on a line of dialogue, on a bold claim you can support, or on a question in on-screen text. The rest of the ad stays the same, so a test shows which opening works. TikTok’s creative best practices also favour native-looking, sound-on vertical video, so the TikTok versions get platform-style text and pacing.

Part five of ad cutdowns is the finish and the names of your video ad versions. Captions and offers are placed inside each platform’s safe zone, checked on the platform’s preview, and sound is mixed for both muted autoplay and sound-on viewing. Every file is named with a readable pattern (concept, length, ratio, hook) so the ad account’s reports make sense and the winning version can be found in seconds.

Ad versioning extends ads beyond length and ratio when you need it: seasonal end cards, offer changes, language versions with translated captions or narration, and market-specific legal lines. We keep the project open, so next month’s offer is a new end card, not a new edit.

Ad cutdowns are also the cheapest way to fight ad fatigue. When a strong ad starts to wear out, frequency rises and results slide, but the cause is often the opening, not the whole idea. New hooks and a new length from the same master give the audience something that feels fresh, at a fraction of the cost of a new concept, and the footage log means each new set of ad cutdowns takes hours, not days. We keep a simple record of which versions ran where and how they did, so the next set of video cutdowns starts from what already worked.

Because our team also runs Meta, TikTok and Google Ads, ad cutdowns come with a short note on where each version should run and which hooks to test first. If you already have a media buyer, the same note goes to them. For new concepts rather than versions of an existing one, see our video ad production.

Audio needs its own versioning. A cutdown that runs muted in a feed needs every key line on screen, while the same cutdown running sound-on in TikTok or YouTube needs a clean voice and music mix. We mix each version for where it runs, keep the music edit on the beat when a cut shortens it, and check the loudness so a 6 second bumper isn’t suddenly louder than the ads around it.

Who ad cutdowns suit best: brands with one or two strong master videos and steady ad spend. Ad versioning gives those masters a longer life, and video cutdowns let each platform get the length it rewards. If you have no master yet, video ad versions start after our video ad production makes one.