Check every Meta ad crop for cut-off text with video frames

Pull three stills from every crop of an ad and read them before you launch: the first second, the middle and the last frame. Sume's video frames route returns durable images at the times you name and is unbilled, so checking costs nothing but a minute.

The reason it matters now: the Common Thread summary says Meta removed ad-set placement exclusions on 2026-08-21 (read 2026-10-02). When you cannot opt out of a placement, a crop that hides the price is a live risk.

How does video frames work?

POST /v1/video-frames takes one workspace media.sume.com clip and either at[] (1 to 24 times in seconds) or fps, and returns image artifacts. The source must be 300 seconds or shorter. Import an off-host file first with POST /v1/media-imports.

Submit is always 202; poll GET /v1/video-frames/{id} until resource_status is ready, then read frames[{t,url,width,height}]. If one instant fails, that frame's url is null and the job does not fail.

Which frames should I look at?

Three per cut is enough for a first pass. Use the first second because that is where the hook text appears, a middle frame for the product, and a time near the end for the price or call to action.

What do I set for the image size?

max_edge accepts 16 to 2160 and clamps the long edge. Omit it to keep the source size. Use format: "png" when you need lossless stills for a close read of small type.

What if a crop fails the check?

Re-render that crop rather than the whole set. A Timeline 1.0 render can set output size and fit per cut, and it costs $0.10 per output minute rounded up, per the docs; confirm the live rate in GET /v1/catalog.