How to create marketing images with AI
The difference between a marketing image that works and one that sits unused is rarely the model. It is the brief. Here is the process donAI is built around, and the reasoning behind each step.
Write the brief like a creative brief
The single most common failure is describing the tool instead of the image. "Make something premium" is not a brief; "premium serum on wet stone, cold light, morning condensation, space top-right for copy" is.
A brief needs four things: the subject, the setting, the light, and where the image will be used. The last one does the most work, because a feed ad and a hero shot are different design problems.
- Subject — the product, and what makes it identifiable
- Setting — where it is, what is around it, what is in frame
- Light — soft window, hard sun, single source, ambient
- Destination — feed ad, story, listing hero, email header
- Copy space — where text will go, so nothing important sits there
Attach a reference image
A reference image carries accuracy that words cannot: the exact silhouette, colourway, finish and label placement. It is the difference between generating your product and generating a product like it.
Attach one good photo of the real thing, then write the art direction in words. Reference plus brief is the whole method.
Pick the model for the job
Different models are genuinely good at different things, and choosing on instinct wastes renders. donAI exposes the choice per message instead of hiding it.
- ChatGPT Image — widely recognised, safe default for general work
- Google Imagen Pro — crisp realism, an enterprise standard
- Flux 2 Pro — the fast drafter, for testing concepts at half the cost
- Flux 2 Max — the final render, at full fidelity
- Seedance 2.0, Kling AI Turbo, MiniMax H3 — video, chosen by the motion you need
Plan the set, not the single image
One image answers one question. A campaign answers several: what it looks like, what it does, how it feels, and why this one. Ask for the angles by name and each becomes its own prompt.
Keeping them on a single canvas is what makes the set judgeable — you can see at a glance which frame is weak, which two are redundant, and which placement is missing.
Keep the batch consistent
Consistency comes from held inputs rather than repeated luck: a project for palette and framing, a style for the treatment, a reusable character for anyone appearing more than once.
Without those, a set of four looks like four different shoots, and the batch is weaker than any single frame in it.
Publish from where the image already is
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Shopify, Notion and Meta Ads are connected. An @ mention in chat sends the piece where it belongs, so the last mile does not become a download-and-reupload chore.
That last mile is where most marketing images quietly die — made, approved, then lost in a downloads folder.
Check before you ship
Review the frame against what is true. Small printed text on packaging drifts, hands gain fingers they should not have, and a claim in the caption has to be a claim you can defend.
A generated image is a production tool, not a fact-checker. Ten seconds of looking prevents the kind of mistake that costs a customer.
Questions people ask
How long should a marketing image brief be?
Four or five sentences when you are starting out — subject, setting, light, destination, copy space. Anything longer is usually describing a mood twice. The app will ask follow-ups if the plan cannot be built from what you wrote.
Do I need to learn prompting techniques?
No. You need to describe the image you want. Techniques like negative phrasing and weighting exist to work around models that misread intent; donAI asks clarifying questions instead when the brief is too thin to plan from.
Can I regenerate one image in a set without losing the others?
Yes. Every shot on the canvas is a separate render with its own prompt, so you can redo the weak frame and leave the rest of the set untouched.
Write your first brief
Four sentences, one reference photo, and a set of frames you can actually use.