A coffee shop can get a brand video and a set of short ads from one well-planned shoot. The brand video, usually 60 to 90 seconds, lives on the website, YouTube and the Google Business Profile. The ads are short vertical cuts of the same footage, captioned for sound-off viewing, scored with music licensed for advertising and targeted to people who live or spend time near the shop. The shot list, the releases and the music decide most of what goes right or wrong.
This guide is written for cafe and coffee shop owners planning their first real video, or replacing phone clips with something built to run as ads.
One shoot, two jobs
The brand video and the ads have different jobs, and planning both before the camera rolls saves a second shoot day.
The brand video tells people who you are. It shows the room, the drinks, the craft and the people, and it gives a first-time visitor a reason to choose your counter over the chain on the next block. It is horizontal, runs about a minute or a little more and plays on your site and YouTube.
The ads have one job each: stop a thumb and get a visit. They are vertical, usually only a few seconds to half a minute long and built around a single idea, such as a new seasonal drink, a weekend pastry or a morning offer. Most of them come from the same footage as the brand video, cut differently.
Our video production and short-form video pages describe how we handle each. If you want monthly content instead of a single shoot, our restaurant and hospitality marketing work covers that.
The shot list
Cafes are made for video. The trick is getting the right shots without stopping service. Plan the list with the person who runs the bar, and decide what has to happen before opening and what can happen during a slow hour.
| Shot | Why it matters | Where it gets used |
|---|---|---|
| Espresso pull, close and slow | The signature motion of a coffee shop | Ad openers, brand video, social |
| Milk steaming and latte art pour | The shot people stop for | Ad openers, Reels and TikTok |
| Roaster, beans and the cooling tray | Shows craft, if you roast in house | Brand video, wholesale and bag sales |
| Pastry case and food | Average ticket and the morning crowd | Ads for food and seasonal items |
| The room at open, then busy | Shows the space and that people come | Brand video, Google Business Profile |
| Owner or head barista talking | The human reason to pick your shop | Brand video, a talking ad cut |
| Regulars at the counter and tables | Proof that the place has a following | Brand video, social, ads with releases |
| The storefront and the street | Helps people find you | Google Business Profile, ads, website |
A few notes that make the shoot easier:
- Shoot the pours before opening. The bar is clean, the light is controlled and the barista can repeat a pour five times without a line.
- Stage the drinks you sell most, plus the one you want to sell more. A seasonal drink is the natural subject for a short ad.
- Get the sound of the bar. Grinder, tamp, steam wand and a cup on a saucer give the edit texture, even if most ad views start muted.
- Capture the regulars during a normal morning. Real customers look like real customers. Actors in a cafe often do not.
For tips on lighting and plating food at the counter, see our restaurant photography guide.
Releases for regulars and staff
Anyone who is recognizable and featured in a video that runs as an ad should sign a release, including your own staff. Regulars are often happy to be in it, but ask them before the shoot day, not with a camera pointed at them.
On the day, post a sign at the door saying that filming is taking place, and give people an easy way to stay out of frame. Seat customers who have not agreed away from the camera, and shoot over shoulders or hands when you need the room to look busy. Keep signed releases with your marketing files so you can find them when an ad is reused next year.
Vertical, horizontal or both
Shoot for both, on purpose.
Meta’s ad specs for Instagram Reels call for a 9:16 ratio at 1440 x 2560 pixels in MP4 or MOV. The same page recommends leaving at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text, logos and other key elements, so the profile icon and call-to-action button do not cover them. TikTok’s video ad specifications list vertical 9:16 as the recommended ratio for In-Feed ads, with horizontal and square also accepted.
The brand video for your website and YouTube is horizontal. The practical approach is to film key moments twice, once framed wide and once framed tall, or to shoot wide with enough room around the subject to reframe a vertical version. An espresso pour framed tight for a phone screen will not reframe into a good horizontal shot, and the reverse is just as true.
Built for sound off
Plan for viewers who scroll with the sound off. Every ad needs to make sense without audio. Meta’s Reels ad specs list captions as “optional, but recommended.” Treat that as required.
In practice:
- Burn in captions for anyone speaking, in a type size that reads on a phone.
- Put a short line of text on screen that states the offer or the reason to visit, inside the safe zones.
- Open on motion. A pour, a pull or a hand reaching for a cup works better than a logo.
- Show the shop’s name or the street early, so a viewer knows where it is.
Sound still matters for people who turn it on. The bar sounds and a well-chosen track make the cut feel like the place.
Music you can use in ads
This is where many small businesses get into trouble. A song that works in a personal Reel is not automatically cleared for an ad.
Meta’s Reels ad specs say Reels ads should not contain licensed music and recommend original audio or royalty-free music from the Meta Sound Collection. Meta’s developer documentation for its Instagram audio tools describes Sound Collection tracks as royalty-free options for replacing copyrighted music in a Reel before it runs as an ad.
TikTok runs a Commercial Music Library, which it describes as a pre-cleared library of 1 million songs for business use in organic posts, video ads and branded content. TikTok also says businesses should not use its general music library for commercial purposes.
For the brand video on your website or YouTube, neither platform library covers you. Use a stock music service with a license that covers commercial web use, or commissioned music, and keep the license on file.
Local reach on Meta and TikTok
A cafe does not need to reach a whole metro area. It needs the people who live, work or pass through within a short drive or walk.
Meta. Meta’s location targeting help says advertisers can reach people who live in, have recently spent time in or often go to countries, regions, cities and postal codes. In its step-by-step instructions, Meta says you can enter a location or drop a pin and adjust the radius with a slider, and that the minimum and maximum radius vary by location type. It also notes that locations are an audience control and Meta will not target beyond them unless the option to reach more people likely to respond is selected. Leave that box unchecked if you only want local delivery. Meta says complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed, so a few impressions will land outside your area.
Meta also offers store location features with “Get directions” buttons and nearest-store addresses, but its help page says Store Pages are available only to managed Facebook clients. For a single independent cafe, a pin on the shop with a tight radius does the same basic job.
TikTok. TikTok’s location targeting article lists cities, counties, DMAs and zip codes among the options, noting that some are not available in every country. TikTok warns that targeting small areas or a set of zip codes “can significantly reduce the number of impressions and clicks delivered, and may result in a higher CPA,” the cost per action. A cafe in a dense neighborhood may be fine with a few zip codes. A shop in a suburb may need a wider area to get enough delivery.
Ad spend is billed by Meta or TikTok directly to your account, separate from any production or management fee. How much to spend depends on how long the ads run, how many people you want to reach and what a new regular is worth to you. Set a test budget before launch and a target cost per visit or redemption, then adjust.
Boost what already works. A short clip that does well organically is often the best ad candidate. Promoting a proven post costs less guesswork than launching an untested cut.
How many ad versions to run
Start small and test the opening. A good first round is a handful of short cuts that differ mainly in their first few seconds:
- One that opens on the espresso pull
- One that opens on the latte art pour
- One that opens on a person, the barista or a regular
- One that opens on the offer in text over the room
Keep the rest of each cut similar so the test tells you something. After the platforms have had time to deliver, keep the versions that hold attention and drive visits, retire the rest and cut new openings from the same footage. A single shoot can feed months of new versions this way, especially if you planned seasonal drinks into the shot list.
Our short-form video guide covers hooks and pacing in more detail.
Google Business Profile video
Your Google Business Profile is often the first place a nearby customer sees your shop. Google’s photo and video guidelines accept videos up to 30 seconds long and 75 MB, at 720p or higher, and say clips can show your storefront, products or services.
Cut a short clip of the counter in action and one of the storefront so people can recognize it from the street. Refresh them when the menu or the space changes. Our Google Business Profile photos and video guide covers the full setup.
Measuring foot traffic
Likes are not visits. Decide how you will count visits before the first ad goes live.
- A channel-specific offer. Give each channel its own offer or code (“show this ad for a free extra shot,” or a word to say at the counter), and add a button for it on the register. That gives a clean count of redemptions by channel.
- Google Business Profile metrics. Google’s Business Profile performance page reports calls from the profile, direction requests, website clicks, profile views and the search terms people used. A rise in direction requests during an ad flight is a useful signal.
- Point-of-sale trends. Compare transactions on the days and dayparts the ads ran against the same weeks before, and watch the item you advertised.
- Ask. A quick “how did you hear about us?” from the barista for a few weeks adds context no dashboard provides.
Run the ads long enough to compare like with like. Weather, school calendars and holidays also move cafe traffic, so compare the same days of the week and note anything unusual.
Planning a cafe shoot with RAW Digital Group
We shoot cafe content around service, with the pours and product handled before opening and the room filmed once it fills. Our cafe content for Moka and Co covers the drinks, the counter and the space. To plan a brand video and ad cuts, request our current rates on the video production, short-form video or paid social advertising pages, or tell us about your shop through our contact page.