Originally published on the ReelFork tutorials page.
Most video ads are a one-way street: the viewer watches (or skips), and that is the whole relationship. Interactive ads flip that. The viewer makes a choice inside the ad — which flavor, which storyline, which ending — and the ad branches accordingly. Engagement and completion rates go up because the viewer is doing something, not just watching something.
The catch used to be production cost: branching video meant custom players and custom code. This walkthrough shows the no-code version. I built a fully clickable beverage ad — one main storyline, two flavor branches — in about 30 minutes using ReelFork Studio. Here is the exact workflow, step by step.
What we're building
A vending-machine scene: the intro video plays, then freezes on two glowing bottles. The viewer taps "Fresh Lemon" or "Sweet Peach", and the ad continues into that flavor's branch.
Step 1: Open the canvas
From the home page, select Free Canvas to enter the canvas page.
Step 2: Create an interactive story tree
Double-click the canvas to open the node list, then click Interactive Story Tree. Double-click the tree to enter node editing. You can switch between Interactive Story Tree and Infinite Canvas from the top navigation at any time.
Step 3: Produce the video content
Ignore the node editor's buttons for now — go back to the canvas and produce your clips there. This example needs three: one intro (the main line) and two branch clips (lemon and peach).
Step 4: Bind the main video
Back in the story tree, open Final Video in the right-hand menu and click Bind Existing Content — you'll see every video on the canvas. Bind the intro to the Start node. A READY badge confirms it.
Step 5: Create the branch choice
Drag the + next to the Start tab and click Choice to create a choice interaction panel. Pick a style that matches your content — mine is comic-styled, so Comic Popup fits.
Step 6: Extract the last frame
In the workbench, click Canvas Video → Select, choose the intro, then Use Video → Extract Last Frame. That frozen frame is what viewers see while deciding.
Step 7: Bind the branches
Close the workbench, create two narrative nodes after the choice, and bind each branch video the same way as Step 4.
Step 8: Create hotspots
Open Hotspot in the workbench. Drag each hotspot region to overlap a bottle's button in the frame, then link each one to its narrative node in the Action section.
Step 9: Label the options
On the Choice node, rename the branch options to match the on-screen choices ("Fresh Lemon", "Sweet Peach").
Step 10: Preview and assemble
Click Preview to play through every path, then Assemble to produce the final interactive video.
Why this structure scales
The pipeline — canvas assets → story tree → bind videos → choice + hotspots → assemble — works for a lot more than one ad:
- Multi-SKU product ads (one branch per variant)
- Story-driven ads where viewers decide for the protagonist
- Chapter selection in interactive short dramas
The full tutorial with all 20 screenshots lives here: Interactive Ads Quickstart. If you want the deep reference on the canvas, AI generation, and story trees, that's the ReelFork Studio Complete Guide.
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