B-roll

In film, A-roll is the main footage (usually a person talking) and B-roll is everything you cut to while that audio keeps going. On TikTok and Reels the idea is the same, just faster: a close-up of the product, a screen recording, hands opening a box, a shot of the problem you are describing.

B-roll does two jobs. It proves the claim you are making, and it gives the eye something new every couple of seconds so viewers keep watching. It is a big part of what makes a talking-head video feel produced rather than static.

Say a skincare brand films a creator saying, 'My skin was dry by noon every day.' Instead of holding on her face, the edit cuts to a shot of flaky skin under a ring light, then to the moisturizer being pumped onto a fingertip, then back to her face for the next line.

The script did not change. The B-roll made it believable and kept the pace up. The same move works for apps: cut from the speaker to a two-second screen recording of the feature they just named. You can see more of this structure in our UGC examples.

• Shoot it on purpose. List the five or six shots your script mentions and film each for a few seconds.
• Match the cut to the words. Show the thing at the moment it is named, not two lines later.
• Keep clips short. One to three seconds is usually enough on a phone screen.
• Use it to hide jump cuts when you trim a long take.

If you have no footage at all, still images can play the same role. A TikTok slideshow is essentially a post made only of B-roll with text on top.

The most common one is generic stock footage that has nothing to do with the line being spoken. Viewers notice, and it feels like an ad in the worst way. Real shots of your product, even rough ones, usually beat polished but unrelated clips.

The second is overusing it. If the person is telling a story with real emotion, cutting away every second can kill the moment. Use B-roll to show, and stay on the face when the face is the point.