Where video content ideas actually come from
Anyone can type a company name into one of those libraries and watch the video ads that company is running today. No login gate, no agency, no relationship with the brand.
When someone asks me where video content ideas come from, that is the first place I point. The usual next step after a question like that is a brainstorm, and I would rather spend the hour looking at what other companies are shipping.
Quick Answer
Video content ideas are the concrete concepts a team commits to filming, editing and publishing. I get more of them from watching what other companies ship than from a blank page: peers in your category, companies in unrelated categories, and competitors running live video ads in the public ad libraries.
Why do video content ideas stall in a brainstorm?
A brainstorm asks people to invent format, message and execution at the same time, from memory, in a room. What comes out arrives half formed, and the creative team gets handed the missing half. A creative lead at a direct to consumer contact lens retailer described what shows up on his desk.
"sometimes there's a little bit of like, we need you to build something to respond to."
An example that already exists in the world answers the format question before the conversation starts. Everyone in the room is looking at the same thing, so the argument is about whether to make it, at what length, for which audience.
Which sources produce the best video content ideas?
Four sources, and they are good at different things.
| Source | What you get | Rough effort | What it is bad for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal brainstorm | Concepts in your own vocabulary, tied to your roadmap | A booked meeting with several people in it | Formats nobody in the room has seen before |
| Peers in your category | Formats that already survive your buyer's attention | One sitting | Differentiation, since your peers are copying each other |
| Companies in unrelated categories | Structures nobody in your category is using yet | One sitting, longer if you wander | Direct relevance, you have to translate every idea |
| Public ad libraries | Competitors' live video ads, viewable for free | One sitting, repeatable every month | Knowing what works, since the library shows what is running |
An ad library shows you what a company is running. It does not tell you what that company is getting for it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
How do public ad libraries turn into video content ideas?
Set aside an hour. Open the Meta ad library, then the LinkedIn one, then TikTok's. Search the companies your buyers evaluate alongside you, and the two or three companies your buyers admire in other categories.
Then take notes on structure rather than subject. How long is the opening before the first claim. Whether a person appears on camera. Whether the words are spoken, on screen, or both. Whether it is one video or eleven versions of one video with a different first line. How the product is shown, if it appears at all.
You come out with a list of formats, each one attached to a company you can point at. That is a different artifact from a list of topics, and it is the one creative teams can act on.
How do you turn video content ideas into videos that exist?
A list of ideas dies without a place to put them. A product marketer at a software supply chain security company explained why his product marketing videos do not exist.
"we've never really had a system to do that. So they just don't exist"
The gap he is describing sits between the idea and the calendar. A marketing and content leader at a pharma biosimulation software company put a target on the other end of it.
"I would love to see like 40 percent of our content be video-based"
Getting from a list to a number like that means committing slots before you have the ideas to fill them, which is the case for an annual video content calendar. For product marketing specifically, the shortlist is narrower than it looks, and the formats are known: the types of product demo video.
FAQ
Where do video content ideas come from?
From observation more than invention. Watch what peers publish, what companies in unrelated categories publish, and what competitors are running as paid video in the public ad libraries, then note the format rather than the topic.
How do I find my competitor's video ads?
Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok all run public ad libraries. Search the company name in each one and you can watch the video ads currently running on that platform.
Are brainstorms a good way to come up with video ideas?
They are good for ideas that use your own vocabulary and your own roadmap. They are weaker on format, because a room can only reference what the people in it have already seen.
What video should a B2B company make first?
Usually the one that already has demand behind it: the explanation sales repeats, the product area nobody understands from the website, or the question that fills your support queue.