Make a Billboard Ad From Your Website in Seconds
No artwork? Paste your website address and FameCake builds a billboard ad from it, using the rules that work: six words, a big name, strong contrast.
Most small businesses that want a billboard hit the same wall, and it is the artwork. You need a file, the right size, that works from across a road. A national brand has a designer for that.
You probably have one of two things instead:
- A website and a phone. No artwork at all.
- An ad you made for Facebook. It has your logo, three photos, a price list, opening hours, a phone number, a web address and "Call now!!" in a starburst. It does fine in a feed, where people stop and read. On a billboard, people see it for three seconds from across a road, and they read none of it.
So we built a shortcut. Paste your website address into FameCake, and in a few seconds you get a finished billboard ad, ready for any screen we sell.
Got a Facebook ad already?
You can upload it. We fit it to the shape of every screen you pick. But we keep every word exactly as you wrote it. We will never cut or rewrite your ad without asking, so a crowded ad stays crowded.
So look at it honestly. Can someone read it in three seconds? If not, you have two choices:
- Cut it down. Keep your name, six words on what you do, and one way to reach you. Save the price list for your website.
- Start from your website instead. The ad maker below does the cutting for you.
How it works
- Paste your web address. We read your site.
- Check what we found. Your business name, a few words on what you do, your phone number, your logo and your brand colour. Change anything that is wrong.
- See it on your screen. The preview shows your ad in the shape of the screen you picked, from a tall tower to a wide strip above a shop counter.
- Post it. Pick your days and pay.
There is no design step, because the design is already done. That part is on purpose, and the rest of this post explains why.
Where your details come from
We want to be straight about this, because a billboard with the wrong phone number on it is worse than no billboard.
| Detail | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Phone number | Your site's own phone link or text. Copied, never written by AI. |
| Logo | The logo your site names, or its app icon. |
| Brand colour | Your site's theme colour, or the strongest colour in your logo. If we find neither, we use a dark navy. You can change it. |
| Business name | AI suggests it from your site. You confirm it. |
| What you do | AI suggests 2 to 6 words, in your site's own words where it can. You confirm it. |
| QR code | Goes to your website. |
The AI is told: no prices, no "best", no exclamation marks. More on why below. And nothing goes on a screen until you have seen every word.
Why we built it this way: what makes a good billboard
Billboards have rules, and most first ads break them. We wrote a full guide to billboard design, but here are the rules the ad maker follows for you.
Six words or fewer
People see a billboard for about three seconds. In that time, the brain reads roughly eight words. The industry's rule of thumb is seven words at most.
Your business name takes a few of those. That leaves about six for what you do. "Emergency plumber, Leeds and Bradford" works. "We are a family-run plumbing and heating business serving..." does not, because nobody reads past "family-run".
So the ad maker suggests six words at most for what you do, and the box holds 60 characters. It will feel too short. That is how you know it is right.
Your name is the biggest thing on it
A billboard works when someone remembers your name the next time they need you. The name goes biggest, then what you do, then how to reach you. Nothing competes with it.
Make it easy to get in touch
A phone number for the people who ring. A short web address and a QR code for the people who don't. The QR code only matters where people stand still, like a gym or a shopping centre, and there it is the whole call to action.
Strong contrast
A screen across a road in the rain is not a laptop in a quiet office. Pale grey on white disappears. Your brand colour as a solid block, with white or dark text on top, does not.
No prices, no "best", no exclamation marks
Prices change and then your ad is wrong. "Best" is the claim everybody makes, so nobody believes it. An exclamation mark is a shout, and a 30-metre screen is already shouting. Say what you do, plainly.
It fits every screen
Our screens come in about ten shapes, from tall towers to wide strips. A flyer squashed onto the wrong shape looks like a mistake. The ad maker lays out your details again for each shape, so the same ad looks right on every screen you pick.
What it will not do
It will not win a design award. It is a clean, readable ad that tells people who you are and how to reach you, and that is what most small businesses need on day one.
If you already have artwork that passes the three-second test, upload it and skip all this. And if your site is old or unusual, we may get something wrong. You might see a broken character in a name like "Café", or no phone number found at all. You fix it in the box before you post.
Try it
Pick a screen near your customers, choose "No artwork? Make a post from your website", and paste your web address. You will see your ad before you spend a penny.
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