You sell something, and short-form video is supposed to help you sell more of it. The account is yours to run, alongside everything else, and every week the same thing happens: the calendar has empty slots and nobody has a good idea for them.
Good video ideas for a brand rarely come from a blank page. They come from six places, and the skill is knowing which one to go to this week.
It matters more than it used to. Metricool's study of 582,456 accounts found short-form posting up 70% in 2025, with Instagram and YouTube showing more content but drops in reach and views (Metricool). More short videos are competing for the same viewers, so a generic idea has more company than it did a year ago.
Six places to find ideas
1. What customers ask you
Your sales inbox, support tickets, DMs, reviews and the questions your shop or front desk hears every day. Each repeated question is a video: answer it on camera, in the customer's own words.
This is the best source for a brand that sells something, because every idea is tied to a reason to buy. It needs someone to collect the questions, and it won't tell you which format will carry them.
2. Your own posts that did better than usual
Compare each recent post to your usual numbers, not to your best ever. The ones that clearly beat your usual are telling you something: a person, a topic, a first line, a length. Make the next one on purpose.
Free and specific to your audience. With only a few posts, though, one lucky video can mislead you.
3. Accounts your customers also watch
Not only direct competitors. A coffee brand's customers also watch home-barista accounts, kitchen accounts and other brands they buy from. Look for posts that did far better than that account's usual and ask what made them work.
This is where new formats come from. It is also the slowest option, and the easiest to drop when the week gets busy.
4. An AI assistant
HubSpot's 2026 survey of more than 1,100 marketers found 94% use AI, and ideation is its top use (HubSpot). It is quick for turning one idea into ten variations or rewriting a hook.
It works from what you tell it. It hasn't watched your videos or your market, so check its ideas against the first three sources before you film them.
5. Paying someone
Freelancers and agencies sell short-form video at very different levels. One service lists editing at $99 a month for 4 videos (99 Dollar Social); another quotes $300 to $500 per video, with a 10-video minimum, covering strategy through filming (eMarketed).
This buys you time and craft. Ask whether the price includes deciding what to film, or only making what you have already decided.
6. A research tool built for the question: Rankfield
Rankfield works sources 2 and 3 for you. It audits your account, watches your own videos and your competitors' (the hook, the cut, what is on screen), finds the accounts closest to yours on Pro, and ranks what to film next in your brand's own voice, each idea with the evidence that put it at the top and a shot list.
It is a paid plan after a free first audit. It decides what to film; it doesn't film or edit, so you still need the people from option 5 or your own team.
Turn any idea into a brief
An idea is ready to film when it fits on one page. Copy this:
- The idea: one sentence a customer would understand.
- Why we think it works: the post, question or account it came from.
- First line on screen: the hook, word for word.
- Who is on camera, and where: a real person and a real place you have this week.
- Shots: three to five, in order.
- How we'll know: which number we'll compare to our usual, and when.
If a line is empty, the idea isn't ready. That is usually the "why", and it is the line that separates a guess from a plan.
Where Rankfield fits
Rankfield fills in most of that brief for you, every week. You tell it what you sell, who can be on camera and what you can film; it watches your posts and the competitors you name, and you get ranked ideas in your brand's voice, each with the first line, the shots and the evidence behind it, ready to send to whoever films. It remembers what you filmed and how you rated it, so the next brief starts from there. Your first audit is free: a first look at what to film, benchmarks and the to-film list for your own account.