Creating Creatives with AI: A Complete Guide

A solo affiliate is a true jack-of-all-trades. You need to know not just campaign setup, but also account warming, finding rental accounts, sourcing profitable offers, payment solutions, A/B testing, and a whole lot more. That's why today we decided to help you simplify at least one process from your ongoing task list — specifically, to show you how to quickly and easily create creatives for your campaigns using AI tools. 

What follows is a highly detailed guide from the creative department on producing creatives for your ad campaigns. So if you don't have an in-house designer and don't want to pay a freelance designer every time — this material will come in handy.

 

Note: Freepik has a free plan that allows you to make 20 generations per day. For working with creatives for campaigns, this is more than enough — so our creatives guide requires no investment from you whatsoever; everything can be done for free.

Your GEO Specifics

Start by identifying the national characteristics of the country your creative is targeting. For example, Turks love red and gold colors, green is popular in Brazil, and in Italy players are particularly fond of chicken-themed slots, and so on. Also, where possible, use the national currency of the target country in your creative.

And of course, review the rules and restrictions before developing your ad. What works in Europe may get rejected in LatAm.

A successful gambling campaign is a combination of local symbolism, cultural preferences, and an overall sense of excitement.

1. Theme

If the game you're advertising has characters, the image can be generated based on that character. For example, ads for slots like Chicken Choice use AI-generated chickens, eggs, slot machines, and other elements to create simple, universally relatable storylines.

If your slot's character isn't suitable for use in advertising (unappealing look), you can generate a similar image so the slot remains recognizable, while still giving you a completely different yet engaging storyline.

You can build a storyline around the slot's name or its overall visual style. For example, the Sun Crown slot has no characters of its own, while for Book of Zeus you can use the image of the god Zeus: 

More examples:

If your slot has no character and you have no ideas for what to generate, use images of slot machines, phones, or players.

Keep in mind, however, that the slot must remain recognizable! Where possible, use the slot's colors and incorporate its logo.

If a lottery is popular in the country where you're running ads, you can leverage a lottery win to draw attention to your campaign. (We recommend using AI-generated people to avoid issues with real individuals.)

Also worth reading: Traffic Sources That Were Once Popular — and What Happened to Them?

2. Generation

Once you've settled on a concept, you can start gathering assets for your creative. We'll begin with Midjourney — but since this article is aimed at beginners (and you likely don't have a subscription), we won't be working with prompts or learning to generate everything from scratch. 

Instead, we'll use the free library at midjourney.com/explore, where you can always find ready-made images and save both time and money. In the library, enter your search query — for example, "cat slot" — and you'll get plenty of ready-to-use templates for your creatives.

Pick a character you like.

Next, head over to freepik.com/pikaso/explore. If you're happy with the image as-is and simply want to extend its canvas or improve its quality, use the tools in the Edit tab. There you'll find all the editing tools you need to refine your image. 

For example, you can remove certain details from an image using the Retouch tool, or extend the image boundaries with Expand. To enhance quality, use Upscale, and to remove the background — the Background tool.

We'll use the generation feature in the Explore tab to show you how it works and what results you can achieve with this neural network.

By clicking on Structure, you can upload the image you found in the library and select three parameters at once — Prompt, Style, and Structure. The neural network will then automatically generate a prompt it can work with, so you don't need to write one manually.

Now we need to use a prompt to generate our own image (you can customize the prompt by adding more details — for example, specifying that you need a kitten specifically). Generate and pick the character you like best.

The next section dives deeper into AI-assisted image editing. If you're satisfied with the generated image, you can skip the following steps.

3. Image Editing with AI

Once we've selected a character, we can move on to editing:

Here we need to change the direction of the gaze and remove the inscription on the rifle. Using the Brush tool and entering prompts, you can modify any part of the image.

Choose the option from the suggested variants that you think fits best, but be prepared for AI surprises.

Next, using the Expand tool, we can add some background so that the text sits harmoniously within the image. Also, if you need a landscape-oriented image, you can select the appropriate format in the left panel.

Now we expand the image and move on to quality enhancement.

We download the finished image and head over to the stock photo site freepik.com

4. Working with Text

On the stock site, type "text effect" in the search bar and select the PSD filter.

Now download the text effects you like and open them in Photoshop. Then disable the background and any unnecessary layers.

Now open the layer that is typically named "double click to change text". To do this, double-click on the layer thumbnail in the Layers panel. Replace the text with what you need, save the document using Ctrl+S, and close it.

(For Turkish, Polish, and other languages with special characters: if the font doesn't support those characters, you can find a similar font on Google Fonts or another site and install one that includes the required language.)

Convert the text to a smart object, edit the "double click" layer, and drag it onto the image.

Now you can add plain text, buttons, and decorative elements. Choose fonts that complement the overall design, add buttons to draw attention to key actions or offers (e.g., "Download" or "Play Now"). Decorative elements will make the ad more visually appealing and memorable, but shouldn't overwhelm the design.

Keep in mind that everything must remain readable, and the key message should stand out clearly against the background.

You might also find this interesting: Growth in media buying: how a solo affiliate can scale into a team

You can change the text color by double-clicking on the Color Overlay effect in the Layers panel.

And the result is an image like this. The more compelling the visual story, the more attention it will grab.

To sum up:

• Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for creative production. Using neural networks significantly simplifies the process of creating ad creatives. By automating many stages of the workflow, you can quickly generate high-quality visuals and focus on the concept without spending excessive time on manual work.
• It's essential to understand the cultural nuances of your target audience and adapt your creatives accordingly. The choice of colors, symbols, and imagery matters, as every element influences how an ad is perceived. For example, gold tones are popular in Turkey, while green dominates in Brazil.
• For a creative to be effective, the visual must not only be eye-catching and appealing, but also reflect the essence of the product or service. Characters, logos, colors, and other elements should be recognizable and interact logically with the ad message.
• By leveraging image editing tools, you can make adjustments that take your creative to the next level and align it more precisely with your goals. Neural networks, like other tools, can assist not only with creation but also with editing, adding text overlays, and enhancing image quality.
• Thanks to generative technologies and ready-made asset libraries, you can significantly cut down the time spent searching for or producing visuals. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your marketing strategy, such as targeting, performance analysis, or optimization.

And most importantly: creative production is not a one-time task. Leveraging artificial intelligence makes it possible to test different visual variations and iterate quickly, enabling you to continuously refine your ads for the best possible results.

We hope this material helps you save time and money, and makes your workflow faster and more efficient. Good luck!