An ad a competitor has run for months is an ad that works. Cloning keeps its structure and swaps in your product, your brand and copy written for you; the specific words and visuals are always new. This guide follows Cloud Linen, an online bedding brand, from research to a creative in the library.
Two rules the tools enforce: competitor footage, images and copy are never reused, and a finished video is never rendered until you approve its script.
Save your brand and product
The clone needs to know what it is selling. Give your website or a sentence, and for a physical product, the product page: its name, copy, price and every photo are saved, and video ads about it show your real product instead of a stand-in.
My site is https://cloudlinen.com. Save it as my brand, and add my product https://cloudlinen.com/products/linen-duvet-cover.
Saved Cloud Linen (bedding, direct to consumer, calm and practical tone) and the product "Linen Duvet Cover" with 7 photos. Want me to find who is advertising in your space right now?
If a product page's photos show people, or you have no product page, upload product-only photos under My Brand, then Products, in the dashboard. A photo you upload goes to the front of the list, so it is the first one the video works from. If you add or remove photos after a script has been written, approving the script picks up the photos as they are now and the approval says so, so you never need to start the script over. Software and service businesses skip the product step; their ads are brand-level.
Find the winner
Ask who is advertising in your space and you get advertisers verified to be running ads right now, ranked by active ads. Pull a brand's active ads sorted by days running; the ones that have run longest are the ones paying for themselves. Filter to images or videos, or to a style such as "UGC" or "before and after".
Who are my competitors running ads right now?
Verified advertising today: Brooklinen (84 active ads), Parachute (61), Buffy (37), Quince (29), Boll & Branch (22). Want the longest-running ads from Brooklinen?
Yes, images and videos.
Brooklinen's longest-running: a 212-day image ad ("The sheets 1 million sleepers swear by"), a 148-day UGC video ("I finally stopped waking up sweaty"), and 18 more. Want me to clone one for Cloud Linen?
Days running is the performance signal. The ad library does not expose click rates or spend, and the chat never invents them.
Clone an image ad
Say which ad to clone. A new image is generated with your product, logo, colors and copy swapped in, in 30 to 60 seconds, and the chat returns a link to view it. The layout is kept, the picture is not: a person in the competitor's ad becomes a different person in yours, and a photo or drawing their ad is built around is made new in the same style. Copy is written in your brand's language; ask for another ("clone it in Spanish") if you want one.
Clone the 212-day image ad for Cloud Linen.
Done. View your cloned ad: (link). The layout and hook structure are kept; the headline, product shot and colors are yours. Want me to launch it on Meta with fresh copy, or make another variant?
Use your own product photo
The product in the picture comes from a photo of yours: the photos on a saved product under My Brand, or the one taken from your site when you saved your brand. With no photo on file the chat says so, and the product in the image is a stand-in. Software and service brands work differently: there is no product photo, so the image is built from your business description and your logo. Two ways to hand it the real thing:
- Paste a direct link to the photo in the chat ("clone it with this photo: (link to the image)"). Artwork, lettering and packaging on the image are reproduced as they are, so a book cover or a printed design comes through intact.
- Add photos to the product under My Brand, then name the product ("clone it for the Baja hydration tub"). With several saved products, say which one; otherwise the newest is used.
Redo that clone with my real bottle: (link to the photo)
Done, with your bottle in it this time. View your cloned ad: (link). Want it in another layout, or launched on Meta?
Tweak a clone
Once you have a clone, say what to change and only that changes; the rest of the picture stays as it was. You can change the headline or price, the model or person, the setting, your brand colours, the logo, or remove anything the AI added. You can also swap in your real product: if the clone shows the wrong thing, send a photo of the actual product ("that's not my product, use this one") and it is replaced in place, without re-cloning. To go back, ask for an earlier version by name; every version is saved. Tweaks are free on Pro, up to three per clone.
On that clone, change the model to an older man but keep the kitchen, and that's not my product, it's the one in this photo: (link).
Done, new model, same kitchen, and your real product swapped in. View your tweaked clone: (link). Two more tweaks on this one before it counts as a new clone.
Image clones use your plan's monthly clone allowance; one clone is free. When you are out, the clone is still made and saved, shown blurred with an unlock link.
Make a finished video
Three ways in, all ending at the same approval gate:
- Clone a competitor's video ad. The script matches the source's length (10 to 30 seconds) and visual style: live-action stays live-action, a cartoon stays a cartoon.
- From your own script. Paste a hook, a line or two and a call to action; the length follows your words at a natural speaking pace.
- From nothing. Ask for "a video ad" and the chat finds the verified winners in your niche and writes an original concept from what they share.
Each returns a scene-by-scene script with a native AI voice line per scene, plus the on-screen text: every caption drawn over the video, word for word, with when it appears. Nothing is charged at this point.
If you sell physical products, the chat settles which product the video shows before it writes anything. With several saved products it asks which one, or whether you want a brand-level video. With no product photo on file at all it asks for your product page or for photos under My Brand, then Products. On your first video, if the only photo we have was taken from your website, it shows that photo and checks it is right. The question is free. The product photos are what the footage is built from; your logo is never used in place of the product. Software and service businesses are not asked about products.
Make me a finished video version of the 148-day Brooklinen UGC ad.
Script ready (22 seconds, 3 scenes, live-action UGC style). Scene 1: a woman kicks off a duvet, "I finally stopped waking up sweaty." Scene 2: your Linen Duvet Cover on a bed, "Stonewashed European flax breathes all night." Scene 3: the duvet in morning light, "Sleep cooler tonight." On-screen text: top box at 0 to 4 seconds, "Sleeping hot?"; bottom box at 16 to 22 seconds, "Sleep cooler tonight at cloudlinen.com". Rendering this is 11 credits. Want changes, or shall I render it?
Make the last caption "20% off this week" and shorten the second line to "European flax that breathes."
Updated, free. Ready to render for 11 credits?
Yes, render it.
Rendering. It takes about 5 to 8 minutes and lands in your Creative Library as "Brooklinen UGC clone". Ask "is my video ready?" any time.
Revisions before approval are free and unlimited: the hook, any scene, the voice lines, the on-screen captions, the music, or the entire language. Read the on-screen text before you approve: it is exactly what will be written on the video. Approval is the only step that uses video credits, priced per second of the approved script. Once rendering starts it cannot be cancelled. A short automated quality check runs on every finished video.
Every finished video lands in the Creative Library twice: the finished ad with its captions, and the raw take, the engine footage with its native voice and nothing drawn on it, under a name that starts with "raw". Both launch by name. Videos end on their own footage and spoken call to action; we do not add a logo card at the end.
Change the words on a finished video
The captions on a finished video are drawn by us on top of the footage, so you can change them at any time, for free, without a new render. Just ask in the chat: reword a caption, remove one, add one, or change when it shows. For a call to action on screen, add it as a bottom caption. The new version is ready in about a minute and saved next to the original as a new version ("v2", "v3"), so the original is never overwritten. You can make up to 20 caption edits a day, and rename any video too ("name it Summer promo final").
Take the "limited time" line off my video and make the last caption say "Free shipping over $50".
Redrawing the captions now, free, and no new footage is made. "Linen UGC clone v2" will be in your Creative Library in about a minute; the original stays as it was.
Two things a caption edit cannot change: what the voice says, and any words that are part of the footage itself, like the text on a package or a sign. Those need a new render at the normal price. If the video is already running as an ad, that ad keeps playing the original; launch the new version when you are ready.
If you only want a script to shoot yourself, say so ("give me the script, I will film it") and you get the shot list without a render. For a competitor's TikTok ad, the shoot-ready script is the default and it is free.
How the clone reads the source
Before the script is written, the source video is watched in full, picture and sound: every scene and cut, who talks and what they say, the music and where it drops, and what makes the ad work. The script follows that timeline. A source with a spoken message gets a spoken clone in the language that was actually spoken; a source with no talking, such as a reveal cut on a beat, is choreographed to the beat with captions carrying the message and no voiceover added.
If the source has music, the clone gets a generated instrumental in the same style and tempo, timed to the cuts: the whole soundtrack on a beat-driven clone, or mixed quietly under the voice on a spoken one. The source's own audio is never reused.
When two people talk in the source, a street interview for example, the script comes back as a conversation with a label on every line ("MAN: ..." then "WOMAN: ...") and a short description of each voice. The finished video gives each person their own voice and their own lines. Edit a line and keep its label so it stays with the right speaker.
Script ready (30 seconds, 4 scenes, two voices: MAN, a casual curious interviewer; WOMAN, enthusiastic and friendly). Scene 1: a sidewalk interview. MAN: "Real question, what is the best Halloween find this year?" WOMAN: "The wooden lamps from Haunted Haven, no question." MAN: "What are those?" ...
Clone an Instagram reel
A reel does not have to be an ad. Paste its link and the chat pulls it, shows it back to you as a playable card and asks whether it is the one. Say yes and the same clone flow runs: script for approval, then the render.
Clone this reel for Cloud Linen: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV7JxTvDZK_/
Pulled it: @extend.it, 15 seconds, 1,498 views. Sound: original audio. Is this the one?
Yes.
Script ready (15 seconds, 3 scenes, no voiceover). It keeps the reel's structure: a build-up, a hard cut on the beat, a reveal, then the back view, with your duvet as the reveal. Music is a generated instrumental in the same style and tempo, timed to the cuts. Rendering this is 8 credits. Want changes, or shall I render it?
Two things to know: the reel's own audio is never reused, so the clone is safe to run as an ad even when the reel used a licensed song; the sound name is shown on the card so you know what it was. And a reel longer than 30 seconds is still read in full, but the clone is written to fit 30.
Clone a TikTok or your own video
A TikTok works exactly like a reel: paste the video link (the long tiktok.com/@name/video link or a short vm.tiktok.com share link), confirm the card, approve the script. The clone gets a generated instrumental in the style of the original sound; the sound itself is never reused.
Your own footage works too. Upload a video on the Creatives page, then name it in chat, or paste a direct link to a video file (.mp4, .mov or .webm). It is watched and rewritten for your brand the same way, with your product and your words; the original clip is never placed in the result. No music is added to a clone of your own video unless you ask for it.
Clone my video "Summer promo v2" but make it about the linen duvet.
Using your own video "Summer promo v2" as the source. Script ready (24 seconds, 4 scenes, one presenter). It keeps your structure: the problem, the reveal on the bed, the close-up on the weave, then the offer. Rendering this is 12 credits. Want changes, or shall I render it?
Launch the result
Finished images and videos sit in the Creative Library, ready to launch on Meta by name. Videos also launch on TikTok. For an image clone, the chat writes primary text for your product and points the ad at your page; the competitor's copy and link are never used. Everything is created paused. See launching your first campaign.
Frequently asked questions
Is cloning copying?
The structure of a proven ad is kept: its hook type, pacing and layout. The words, visuals, people and product are new and yours. Competitor footage, images and copy are never reused.
When am I charged for a video?
Only when you approve the script. Writing and revising it is free. The render is priced per second of the approved script.
Can I change the text on a video after it is made?
Yes, for free. The captions and the closing call to action are drawn over the footage, so the chat can reword, remove or add them in about a minute as a new version. Changing what the voice says or the footage itself needs a new render. See Change the words on a finished video.
Why does the chat ask which product?
If you have saved several products, the ad needs to know which one to feature, for a video or an image clone alike. With exactly one saved product it is used automatically. If you sell products, an image clone also asks once when it has no photo of your product at all (send a product page link, a photo link, or say "just the brand"), and before your very first clone it shows the photo it found on your site and checks it is the right one. Software and service brands are not asked; their image is built from the business description and the logo. Nothing is made or charged until that is settled.
What if generation is temporarily unavailable?
That is on AdWhispr's side, not yours. Try again in a little while; nothing is charged for a failed generation.