How to Automate Video Creation with Make.com (Integromat)

Laura van Sinderen | 3 December 2022 | 8 min read

Laura van Sinderen

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to auto-generate marketing videos using Make.com (formerly Integromat) and Creatomate, then automatically post them as Instagram Reels.

Video marketing is a great way to reach your audience on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. But creating a lot of videos by hand can be really laborious, especially when you're trying to do it consistently or in large quantities. There has to be a better way.

Fortunately, there is! Using a no-code automation platform such as Make.com, you can automate almost everything about creating marketing videos. Thanks to the platform's over 1,000 app integrations, you can build automated workflows that fit almost any use case, whether you're creating videos for social media, personalized outreach, or advertising.

To create videos with Make, we'll use Creatomate's API. With its online video editor, you can easily create your own templates, which you can then use within your Make.com scenario. This allows you to automate video creation based on dynamic data or conditions you set up in your no-code workflows. Keeping this tutorial simple, we will only cover the basics, setting up a workflow that creates the following video with a few dynamic placeholders:

Prerequisites

As Make.com offers a wide range of apps, there are many scenarios where video automation may be useful. That's why in this walkthrough, we're sticking to the core concept so you can easily apply it to your own Make.com scenarios.

Here are the apps we'll use:

Creatomate: to create a template and generate videos. Sign up for free.
Make (formerly Integromat): to set up the automated workflow.
Instagram for Business: or any other app to use the videos.

How to create videos using Make.com (Integromat)?

The first step in creating videos with Make.com is to create a video template. Next, you can set up a Make scenario that uses the Creatomate API to generate a video based on that template. Since rendering videos takes time, you'll need the Sleep module to pause the workflow for a bit. As soon as the video is finished, you can use it with any of Make's supported apps, for example, by posting it on Instagram as a Reel:

Note: In order to keep things simple, we'll build a very basic Make scenario. Use any of Make's app integrations to tailor it to your needs!

Let's get started by creating a video template.

1. Create a video template in Creatomate

The videos will be based on a template. You can pick one from the gallery, customize it to fit your needs, or make one yourself. But let's keep it simple for now and use a template as-is.

Log in to your Creatomate account, go to the Templates page, and click the + New button. You can use any template from the gallery you like. For this tutorial, we'll use the Quick Promo template from the Featured category. The 1:1 Square size is fine and click Create Template:

Each template that you create in Creatomate's template editor is composed of elements (also known as "layers"). Any of these elements can be automatically edited in our Make.com scenario. In order to do that, you have to mark them as dynamic. You can do this by selecting the elements, then checking the Dynamic setting in the property panel.

In this example template, there is no need to make any changes, since the elements Text-1, Text-2, and Video are already dynamic. However, this is an important point to keep in mind when creating your own video templates:

Now let's move on to the next step, where we will set up the Make scenario.

2. Set up trigger: Tools - Basic trigger

Feel free to use any other module, such as Airtable or Webhook, as we only use the Basic trigger module for demonstration purposes.

Log in to your Make account and click + Create a new scenario. As a starting point, create a Basic trigger module, which can be found under Tools.

Give this module two dummy input fields:

Name -> Text-1, Value -> Hello World!
Name -> Video, Value -> https://creatomate-static.s3.amazonaws.com/demo/video1.mp4

Then, click OK:

Let's right-click this module and select Run this module only to make sure it works:

Next, we'll use this data in the next step to generate a unique video.

3. Add module: HTTP - Make a request

In this step, we'll create a video using Creatomate's API. To do this, we insert the data from the Basic trigger module into the video template from step 1.

Click + to add another module. Search for and choose HTTP as the app and Make a request as the action.

In the URL field, copy and paste the following: https://api.creatomate.com/v1/renders. Then, make sure that the Method is set to POST:

Next, click on Add a header, then create an item with:

Name: Authorization
Value: Bearer [YOUR API KEY HERE]

Here, you'll need to input your API key. To find it, go back to Creatomate and click the Use Template button in the top-right corner of the template editor. Then, choose the API Integration option. Your API key is displayed here:

Note: It's important that there is a space between Bearer and the API key.

Next, choose Raw for the Body type and JSON (application/json) for the Content type field:

Let's connect the dynamic elements of the video template. Return to the API Integration page in Creatomate. From there, copy the code enclosed between the curly brackets { and }, as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, paste this code into the Request content field. Replace the first modification's value with Tools - Basic trigger -> video, and insert the Text-1 value with Tools - Basic trigger -> text-1. Finally, set Parse response to Yes, and confirm by clicking OK:

Just to make sure it works, click the Run once button located in the bottom left corner:

Once this test runs successfully, you can proceed to the next step.

4. Add module: Tools - Sleep

Next, we'll add the Sleep module. Because it takes a short while for a video to generate, the Sleep module makes the workflow wait a brief period of time to ensure the video is ready when the scenario continues.

Click + to add another module. Search for and choose Tools as the app, followed by Sleep as the action. Set Delay to 60 seconds, then click OK:

5. Add module: Instagram for Business - Create a Reel Post

In this final step, we'll post the video on Instagram.

Note: Certain app integrations in Make, like "Facebook Pages", take a file as input, whereas others, such as "Instagram for Business", expect a URL. If you want to use an app that requires a file, you'll have to add a module to fetch the file first. Check out this tutorial as a reference (step 5).

Click + to add another module. Search for and choose Instagram for Business as the app and Create a Reel Post as the action.

Choose your account or create a connection, then pick your page. In the Video URL field, select HTTP - Make a request -> Data -> url:

If you want, you can add a caption in the Caption field and adjust the other settings to your preference. When you're done, click OK:

Again, click Run once. If everything's set up right, the video is automatically created and posted on Instagram:

What's next for video creation with Make (Integromat)

That's it for the basics! With your new skills, you will be able to automate videos with Make.com. With so many apps and automation features in Make.com, there are many opportunities for video automation. As a source of inspiration, here are a few Make.com triggers for your next video automation scenario: