Making Arabic video ads with AI: scripts, voices and right-to-left captions

Arabic-speaking markets are among the most active on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, yet many brands still run English creatives there or bolt subtitles onto them. Ads that speak the viewer’s language, with a presenter who sounds natural and captions that read correctly, are an easy edge. AI makes them affordable even when Arabic is your second or third market.

Write natively, do not translate

A translated hook is usually a weaker hook. Idioms, the order of an argument and what sounds persuasive all change between languages. Generate the Arabic script from the same product brief instead of translating the English one, then have a native speaker read it once before you approve it. Keep sentences short: a spoken ad leaves little room for long clauses.

Captions that read right to left

Arabic letters change shape depending on their neighbours, and lines run right to left. Video tools that were built for Latin scripts often show disconnected letters or reverse the words, which viewers notice instantly. Check a finished ad at phone size: letters should join, words should run in order, and numbers and brand names in Latin script should sit correctly inside the line.

Voices and presenters

• Pick a voice that sounds natural in Arabic rather than an English voice reading Arabic text.
• Modern Standard Arabic is understood across the region; if your audience expects a local dialect, test whether the standard voice still converts.
• Choose presenters who fit the audience you are targeting, and keep a different presenter per language so each ad looks native.

Claims and rules

Advertising rules differ across Arabic-speaking countries, especially for health, beauty, finance and anything regulated. Keep claims to what you can substantiate in each market, label AI-generated presenters where the platform asks, and never present a synthetic presenter as a customer or professional.

Doing it with AdFace

AdFace writes Arabic scripts from your product brief rather than translating, voices them with Arabic voices, and renders captions shaped and laid out right to left in all three caption styles. The same brief can produce English and French versions in the same batch, and the AdFace interface itself is available in Arabic.