Learn/New ads
How to remake an ad that works
You have seen an ad that keeps running. How to take what makes it work (its shots, its order, its timing) and make your own ad with it, without taking anything that is theirs.
The short answerFind the ad, then write down its structure: each shot, how long it lasts, what it shows and what the words do. Keep that structure, which is an idea, and make everything else your own: your product, your people, your footage, your words, your music. Never reuse their footage, voice, music, logo or lines, check that every claim is true of your product, and approve it as a new ad.
- Meta’s Ad Library shows every active ad on its apps, within 24 hours of its first impression.1
- A long run means the advertiser kept paying for the ad. It is a reason to study it, not proof that it works.
- Copyright does not protect an idea, a method or a system, only its expression; short phrases and slogans are not protected by copyright, though some are trademarks.2
- Keep their structure; make your own footage, words, people, music and brand.
On this page
Every team keeps a file of ads they admire. Most of it never becomes anything, because “make one like this” is not a brief. A remake turns an admired ad into a brief: its structure, written down, with your product in it. Done properly, the result is plainly your ad, and nobody could say it took anything from the original but an idea.
- The ad you want to remake, saved or linked, with its date.
- Your product, its photos or footage, and its approved claims.
- Your brand’s fonts, colours, logo and voice.
Step 1Find an ad worth remaking
Meta’s Ad Library is the public record of ads running on its apps: it shows active ads, and an ad appears there within 24 hours of its first impression.1 Search your category and your competitors, and look for ads that have been running a long time. An advertiser who keeps paying for an ad for months is telling you something about it, though not how well it performs, which the Library does not show.
Save more than one. When two or three long-running ads in a category share a structure (the same order of problem, product and proof, the same length of opening), that structure is a pattern in the category rather than one brand’s trick, and it is the safest thing to remake. An ad whose whole appeal is one brand’s face or voice is the hardest, because that is exactly what you cannot take.
Step 2Write down its structure, shot by shot
Watch it with the sound off, then with the sound on, and write a row for every shot: when it starts, how long it lasts, what is seen, what the words on screen do, what the voice does. Describe each shot by its job, not its content: “problem shown in one shot”, not “woman frowns at a laptop”.
| Shot | Length | What it does | Words do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 s | Shows the problem in one picture | Name the problem in four words |
| 2 | 3 s | The product appears, in use | Say what it is |
| 3 | 4 s | Proof: the result, close up | One fact about the product |
| 4 | 3 s | A second person, a second use | Nothing; the picture carries it |
| 5 | 3 s | End card | The offer and the button |
Example. The structure of a 15-second ad, written as jobs. Yours comes from the ad you are remaking.
This table is the thing you keep. It holds the pacing, the order of ideas and the moment the product arrives, which are what made the original work, and none of what belongs to the people who made it.
Step 3Keep the idea; make everything else your own
The US Copyright Office puts it plainly: copyright does not protect any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle or discovery, only the original expression of it. Short phrases such as names, titles and slogans are not protected by copyright either, though some may be protected as trademarks.2 A structure is an idea. Their footage, voice-over, music, photos, characters and exact wording are expression.
| From the original | Keep or make your own |
|---|---|
| The order of shots and their timing | Keep: it is the structure |
| The kind of shot (close-up, hands, unboxing) | Keep the kind, shoot or make your own |
| Their footage, photos and music | Never: make or license your own |
| Their words, lines and slogans | Write your own, in your brand’s voice |
| Their logo, product, people and brand look | Never: use yours |
What a remake keeps and what it makes again. The line between an idea and its expression is from the US Copyright Office’s Circular 33.2
Meta’s Advertising Standards include a section on intellectual property infringement, alongside the rules against misleading claims.3 An ad that copies another brand’s material can be rejected for it, quite apart from any dispute with the brand.
Step 4Rebuild it with your product, people and words
Go through your structure table row by row and fill each job with your own material: your product in shot 2, your proof in shot 3, your offer on the end card. Keep the lengths. The timing is often what made the original feel right, and it is the easiest thing to lose when every shot is new.
Step 5Check that nobody could mistake it for theirs
Put the finished remake beside the original and look for anything that is theirs. The test is simple: someone who knows both brands should never think yours is theirs, or that the two are connected. If any shot, line or sound would make them wonder, change it before the approver sees it.
Common mistakes
- Reusing a few seconds of their footage.It is their expression, whatever happens around it.
- Rewording their lines instead of writing your own.The result still sounds like their ad.
- Treating a long-running ad as proof it works.The Library shows how long it ran, not how it performed.
- Changing the timing while replacing every shot.The structure that made it work quietly disappears.
Every ad saved to your moodboard carries Recreate this ad. eonik keeps its shots, its cuts and its timing and swaps in your product, your people or your language, and nothing is generated until you say so.
See remakes →Questions
Is it legal to remake a competitor’s ad?
Remaking the idea is not copying it. The US Copyright Office says copyright does not protect ideas, methods or systems, only their expression; the risk lies in reusing their footage, music, wording or brand, or in a remake close enough to confuse people about whose ad it is.2 For anything you are unsure of, ask your lawyer.
How do I know the original ad works?
You usually do not. The Ad Library shows that an ad is running and since when, not how it performed.1 A long run tells you the advertiser kept paying for it; whether your remake works is something your own results will show.
Should the remake be the same length as the original?
Start with the same length and the same timing per shot, since the pacing is part of what you are keeping. Make shorter or longer cuts afterwards for each placement, by removing or adding whole shots.
Sources
- Meta Ad Library, Meta. Every active ad on Meta, searchable, within 24 hours of its first impression.Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Circular 33: Works Not Protected by Copyright, US Copyright Office, revised March 2021. Ideas, methods and systems, and short phrases such as slogans, are not protected.Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Introduction to the Advertising Standards, Meta Transparency Center. No misleading claims, and the ad must match the product on the landing page.Checked 26 Oct 2026