How to Automate Video Creation with Zapier

Laura van Sinderen | 7 October 2024 (updated) | 10 min read

Laura van Sinderen

In this no-code tutorial, you will learn how to automatically generate any kind of marketing video using Zapier and Creatomate.

Video marketing has become an integral part of modern marketing. As a matter of fact, videos often perform better than texts or images under most circumstances.

There was a time when you would have to manually create these videos, but with the introduction of no-code tools and video generation APIs such as Zapier and Creatomate, most of the process can now be automated.

Automating video can be beneficial in many situations, but most commonly it is used to automate and streamline the creation of marketing videos. Think about posting social media videos to promote new articles, blogs, or products. But also consider sending personalized videos to current and prospective customers, repurposing social media content, adding watermarks to videos, transcribing videos, converting images to videos, etc.

Let's find out how by using the following dynamic video as an example:

This is just a simple video to demonstrate how the process works. Creatomate includes an online template editor that lets you design videos in any format or style you have in mind.

As we wrap up this post, I'll point you to follow-up tutorials that dive into practical applications, such as creating social media posts, personalized content, or sales outreach videos. You can also integrate generative AI to enhance your videos with voiceovers, subtitles, or background images. Stay tuned for more details at the end of this tutorial.

Prerequisites

There are several ways to automate your video creation process, but we'll use a straightforward approach to keep things simple. Zapier supports over 7,000 app integrations, so once you understand the basics, feel free to customize the workflow to suit your specific needs.

If you want to follow along, you'll need:

A Creatomate account: to auto-generate the videos. Create your free account here.
A Zapier account: to set up the automated workflow.

How to create videos using Zapier?

The first step in generating videos is to create a template in Creatomate. This template will serve as the foundation for all your videos.

Next, we'll head over to Zapier to set up an automated workflow that:

Triggers for a new Push in Zapier's Chrome extension;
Creatomate then automatically generates a video;
That will be sent by mail using Email by Zapier.

Here's what the Zap will look like:

Note: This is just an example Zap. Once you get the hang of it, you can use any app as a trigger and any app of your choice to further process the videos.

Let's automate our video creation!

1. Create a video template in Creatomate

Creatomate offers a collection of pre-designed templates that you can use right away. However, you can also customize them to your liking or create your own designs from scratch.

Navigate to the Templates page and click the New button to open the gallery. While you can choose any template, for this tutorial, we'll use the Quick Promo template from the Featured category. Select the desired size, then click Create Template to open it in the editor:

Let's take a look at our video design and how it can be used for automation. In the left side panel, you'll find the elements that make up our template. You should know that elements can be marked as dynamic, like Text-1, Text-2, and Video in this template. These dynamic elements serve as placeholders, allowing us to replace them with different content through our automated Zapier workflow.

You are free to customize the template in any way you wish, but that's beyond the scope of this tutorial. If you'd like to learn more about using the editor, check out this quick guide.

Now that our template is ready, let's move on to the next step: building our Zap.

2. Start your Zap with a trigger

Every Zap starts with a trigger, a specific event that sets the automation in motion. This trigger can be anything, such as adding a new record to your Airtable base, creating a new row in Google Sheets, receiving a new message in a Slack channel, just to name a few. In addition to initiating the automation, the trigger must also contain the content you want to use in your video. This is specifically the data that will replace the template's dynamic elements.

To keep things simple, I'll demonstrate how to use Zapier's Chrome extension. This is just a demo, so feel free to use any other app that works best for you.

From your dashboard, click Create, then choose Zaps:

Once in the Zap editor, click the Trigger block. Search for and select Zapier Chrome extension as the app and New Push as the trigger event:

Then, click Continue.

First, install Zapier's Chrome extension using the provided link. Next, we'll add two input fields: Text-1 and Video:

When done, click Continue.

To make sure the trigger works, click Test trigger to generate some test data. Once the test is successful, click Continue with selected record to proceed to the next step:

3. Generate a video

In this step, we'll set up an action for Creatomate to generate a video using the data provided by the trigger.

Search for and select Creatomate as the app and Create Single Render as the action event. Then, select your account or signing in with your project's API key, which you can find under Project Settings in your Creatomate dashboard:

Then click Continue.

Next, select the Quick Promo template in the Template field:

Zapier will now pull in the dynamic elements and list them under Modifications. We can then map the data from the Chrome extension to the template, as shown below:

Set Video to Zapier Chrome extension -> Fields Video
Set Text-1 to Zapier Chrome extension -> Fields Text 1

Note: Text-2 is also a dynamic element. By leaving a modification empty, it will use the template's default value instead. That's fine for the Text-2 element in this tutorial.

Then, click Continue.

Click Test step to make sure Creatomate can generate a video. Once the test is succesful, let's move on to the next step.

4. Process the video

At this point, Creatomate should have successfully generated a video that you can use however you like. As an example, I'll show you how to send it via email, but feel free to use any app that suits your needs. A common use case is creating video content for social media. If that is of interest to you, here's how to post videos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or as YouTube Shorts.

Click + to add another step to your Zap:

Search for and select the Email by Zapier app with the Send Outbound Email action event:

Then, click Continue.

To set up the email action, first enter the recipient's email address. Then, create a subject line for the email — this can include static text and a value from the trigger. Finally, add Creatomate -> URL into the Body field (this will be the link to the video):

When done, click Continue.

Let's click Test step to make sure Zapier can send the email. Once the test is succesful, all you have to do is hit the Publish button to activate your Zap:

5. Test the automation

You might have noticed that clicking the URL in the test email leads to a "Not Found" page. This happens because Creatomate couldn't generate a video from the Chrome Extension's test data, as the video field didn't link to a real video file. In this step, we'll provide the correct data to the Chrome Extension, allowing Creatomate to create a video that will be emailed to us.

Open the Chrome extension from your list of extensions and navigate to your Zap. Let's add the following data:

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

Once you've inserted the information, click Send:

Sending this data triggers the Zap, which then starts running. Creatomate will automatically generate a video using the provided information. Once the video is ready, we'll receive an email with its link:

Clicking the link will take you to the video:

What's next for video generation with Zapier

You now know how to create videos using Zapier and Creatomate in its simplest form. With these basic principles, you can adapt the process to meet your own needs. Below are some suggestions on what to try next.

Template creation
In this tutorial, we used a simple demo template. For real-world applications, you might choose a more practical template from the gallery, customize it to suit your needs, or even create one from scratch. When designing a template, you can also integrate generative AI in the following ways:

Voiceovers: convert text into speech to create AI-generated voiceovers with ElevenLabs.
Images: generate AI images from text using DALL·E or Stable Diffusion.
Subtitles: use Creatomate's auto-transcription feature to create animated subtitles.

Build your own Zap
Zapier supports thousands of app integrations that you can use to set up your own automations. Here are some apps you might consider using to trigger your Zap: