Vetting a video editor for paid ads

Updated 4 September 2026 · reading time about 7 minutes

A beautiful edit and a working ad are different products. Narrative editors build tension and pay it off at the end; ad editors put the payoff in the first two seconds because that is when the viewer decides. Hiring the first kind for the second job is how a launch ends up with a film nobody watches to the end.

Write the hook yourself

Do not outsource the claim. You know what the product does, who is annoyed by the alternative, and which objection kills the sale. Write one sentence a stranger would stop for, then hand the edit to someone who can execute it. An editor asked to invent positioning will default to product beauty shots with music, and you will have paid to learn nothing.

Vetting: what to look for in a portfolio

Signals to look for in an ad editor's reel, and why each one matters
Signal	Why it matters
Vertical-first work	Ads run in feeds. An editor whose reel is all 16:9 will crop badly and lose the subject.
Hook in the first two seconds	Watch their samples with sound off. If nothing legible happens immediately, they edit for cinema, not feeds.
On-screen text and captions	Assume the sound is off. Burned-in captions and readable text overlays are table stakes.
Cuts driven by information	Good ad pacing changes shot when a new fact arrives, not on the beat of a music track.
Variation work	Ask whether they have produced multiple hook variants of one edit. Testing needs variants, not one perfect film.
Handles supplied footage	Some editors only work with material they shot. Confirm they will work with phone footage, stock, and product stills.

Ask one question before ordering: "Here is my hook line and my footage — what would you cut in the first two seconds?" A useful answer names a specific frame. A vague answer about "dynamic energy" tells you the rest of the job in advance.

The brief

OFFER
Product, price, and what it replaces:
Audience in one line:
The hook line, verbatim, as it should appear on screen:
The single objection this ad must answer:
Call to action, exact wording:

ASSETS I AM SENDING
Raw clips: count, resolution, orientation:
Product stills:
Logo files and brand colours:
Any music or licensed track I already hold rights to:
Anything that must appear (packaging, certification, disclaimer):

DELIVERABLES
Primary cut: length, aspect ratio (for example 9:16, 15 seconds)
Additional aspect ratios needed:
Number of alternate hooks (first 2 seconds only, same body):
Captions: burned-in, and a separate .srt file
End frame: logo, offer, CTA
Files: final exports plus the project file if I am to reuse it

RULES
No stock footage of a different product model.
No claims beyond the ones I wrote above.
Music must be licensed for paid advertising use — state the source.
Keep the CTA wording exactly as written.

TERMS
Delivery date and rush fee if any:
Revisions included, and what counts as one:
Who pays for stock or music licences, and on whose account:

Check on delivery

Watch it muted on a phone. If the offer is not clear without sound, it is not finished.
Check the safe areas. Platform interface elements overlay the top and bottom of vertical video. Text pushed to the edges gets covered by the caption box or buttons.
Verify the claims. Every on-screen word is your legal exposure, not the editor's. Read each frame of text as if a regulator were reading it.
Confirm music rights. Ask for the licence source in writing. Ad accounts get muted or flagged over audio, and "it came with the template" is not a licence.
Get the alternates. One video is not a test. Confirm the alternate hooks arrived and that only the opening differs, so a test tells you something.
Ask for the project file if you plan to iterate. Re-cutting from scratch each round is the slowest way to test.

What pushes the price up

Length, number of aspect ratios and hook variants, motion graphics, whether footage needs sourcing rather than editing, captioning, and rush turnaround. Scope by variants rather than by minutes — for paid ads, three usable 15-second variants beat one polished 60-second film.

Where to look: video editing listings. Related: the 7-task launch outsourcing checklist, and reading a listing and vetting a seller for the checks that apply in any category.