How do you decide which video ad gets budget before testing it live? - AdFlame.ai

Curious how other founders and marketers handle this.

When we make new video ads, we usually end up with 4–6 versions of the same idea: different hooks, a different first line, captions in different places. Then the only way to find out which one works is to spend money on all of them and wait.

A few things I've noticed while working on this problem:

• The first 2–3 seconds decide most of it. Opening on a logo or a scenic shot almost always loses people.

• Captions placed low in a vertical video often end up hidden under TikTok's or Reels' buttons, and nobody notices until after launch.

• The offer often comes so late that most viewers never see it.

So I'm curious:

1. Do you pre-test creative at all before launch (team review, a small budget split, a panel, an AI tool), or go straight to live A/B tests?

2. What's the one check you always run before an ad goes live?

Full disclosure: I'm building AdFlame, which pre-tests video ads with simulated buyers so you can see where each type of viewer drops off before you spend. We launch on Product Hunt later today.

Interested in how people do this today, whether or not they'd use a tool for it.