Quickstart

This guide takes you from an API key to finished photos in about five minutes.

Prerequisites

A LocalAds workspace on the Pro or Enterprise plan.
An API key with Generate access, created by a workspace owner or admin under Settings > API keys. See Authentication.
curl and jq in your shell.

Call the API from your server only. Never put a key in browser or mobile code, and never commit it to source control.

1. Configure the key

Store the key in an environment variable. The full key is shown only once, when it is created.

export LOCALADS_API_KEY="lads_your_key"

Check the key, the plan and the credits available. GET /account is free:

curl https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/account \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY"

{
  "organization": { "name": "Quenzy" },
  "plan": { "slug": "pro", "label": "Pro" },
  "credits": { "available": 240 },
  "limits": { "brands": null, "products": null },
  "api_key": {
    "id": "3f7a1c9e-5b2d-4e8f-9c1a-7d4e8f2a6b5c",
    "name": "Nightly sync",
    "monthly_credit_cap": null,
    "credits_used_this_month": 0,
    "credits_remaining_this_month": null
  }
}

2. Pick or create a brand

List the brands available to your organization and copy the brand id:

curl https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/brands \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
      "name": "Quenzy",
      "slug": "quenzy",
      "website_url": "https://thequenzy.com",
      "created_at": "2026-07-24T14:00:00.000Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-07-24T14:00:00.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

No brands yet? Create one. There is one brand per website; a second brand for the same domain is refused with 409:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/brands \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "name": "Quenzy",
    "website_url": "https://thequenzy.com",
    "selling_countries": ["IN"]
  }'

3. Create a product

The simplest product is a product page URL. LocalAds reads the page for the name, description and images. Have the images yourself instead? Send image_urls, or upload local files first with Image uploads.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/products \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "brand_id": "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
    "source_url": "https://shop.example.com/products/first-flush-darjeeling-tea"
  }'

const response = await fetch("https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/products", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.LOCALADS_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    brand_id: "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
    source_url: "https://shop.example.com/products/first-flush-darjeeling-tea",
  }),
});

const product = await response.json();
console.log(product.id);

import os
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/products",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['LOCALADS_API_KEY']}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "brand_id": "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
        "source_url": "https://shop.example.com/products/first-flush-darjeeling-tea",
    },
)

product = response.json()
print(product["id"])

The request returns 202 Accepted. Poll the product until its status is ready. Your product’s audiences are generated at the same time and saved automatically; audiences.generation_status goes generating to ready too:

curl https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/products/a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY"

{
  "id": "a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127",
  "brand_id": "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
  "name": "First Flush Darjeeling Tea",
  "description": "A single-estate spring harvest tea from the Darjeeling hills.",
  "kind": "tea",
  "source_url": "https://shop.example.com/products/first-flush-darjeeling-tea",
  "image_urls": ["https://cdn.example.com/tea-tin-front.jpg"],
  "status": "ready",
  "audiences": { "count": 3, "generation_status": "ready" },
  "created_at": "2026-09-30T10:00:00.000Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-30T10:02:00.000Z"
}

Your product already has audiences, which campaigns and videos use. List them any time with GET /products/{product_id}/audiences; see Audiences.

4. Start a Quick Shoot

A Quick Shoot takes the product, a look and a count, and returns that many finished photos. This one asks for one standard photo, and max_credits caps what it can spend at one credit:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "product_id": "a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127",
    "quick_shoot": { "count": 1 },
    "max_credits": 1
  }'

const response = await fetch("https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.LOCALADS_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    product_id: "a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127",
    quick_shoot: { count: 1 },
    max_credits: 1,
  }),
});

const photoshoot = await response.json();
console.log(photoshoot.id);

import os
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['LOCALADS_API_KEY']}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "product_id": "a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127",
        "quick_shoot": {"count": 1},
        "max_credits": 1,
    },
)

photoshoot = response.json()
print(photoshoot["id"])

The look defaults to standard. See Quick Shoot for the other looks and counts. The response is 202 Accepted, with the photoshoot’s id and one outputs entry per requested photo, all queued:

{
  "id": "e8766ffd-66f7-47c9-86bc-0d93e6868d06",
  "brand_id": "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
  "product_id": "a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127",
  "template_id": null,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "status": "queued",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "id": "19025a65-5395-41c9-af90-d7cca7fb6421",
      "position": 1,
      "status": "queued",
      "image_url": null,
      "width": null,
      "height": null,
      "caption": null
    }
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-09-30T10:05:00.000Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-30T10:05:00.000Z"
}

5. Get the photos

Poll the photoshoot every few seconds until its status is completed, then print the image URLs with jq. Keep a few seconds between polls; see Polling for a backoff strategy.

curl https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots/e8766ffd-66f7-47c9-86bc-0d93e6868d06 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY"

const url =
  "https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots/e8766ffd-66f7-47c9-86bc-0d93e6868d06";

let photoshoot;
do {
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 5000));
  const response = await fetch(url, {
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.LOCALADS_API_KEY}` },
  });
  photoshoot = await response.json();
} while (photoshoot.status === "queued" || photoshoot.status === "in_progress");

const imageUrls = photoshoot.outputs
  .filter((output) => output.status === "completed")
  .map((output) => output.image_url);
console.log(imageUrls);

import os
import time
import requests

url = "https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots/e8766ffd-66f7-47c9-86bc-0d93e6868d06"
headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['LOCALADS_API_KEY']}"}

while True:
    photoshoot = requests.get(url, headers=headers).json()
    if photoshoot["status"] not in ("queued", "in_progress"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)

image_urls = [
    output["image_url"]
    for output in photoshoot["outputs"]
    if output["status"] == "completed"
]
print(image_urls)

When the shoot is done it looks like this:

{
  "id": "e8766ffd-66f7-47c9-86bc-0d93e6868d06",
  "brand_id": "1423f915-beca-4c53-a5e4-7c8c99537be9",
  "product_id": "a1516a75-9be5-461a-93af-c1896a0a3127",
  "template_id": null,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "status": "completed",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "id": "19025a65-5395-41c9-af90-d7cca7fb6421",
      "position": 1,
      "status": "completed",
      "image_url": "https://cdn.example.com/generated-photo-1.png",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024,
      "caption": null
    }
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-09-30T10:05:00.000Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-30T10:06:30.000Z"
}

Extract the finished URLs:

curl -s https://makelocalads.com/api/v1/photoshoots/e8766ffd-66f7-47c9-86bc-0d93e6868d06 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOCALADS_API_KEY" | \
  jq -r '.outputs[] | select(.status == "completed") | .image_url'

The image URLs are ready to use as they are.

Next steps

Make the app’s other creatives for the same product:

Ad campaigns

Static ad creatives from a recipe, several ad types, or a brief.

Listing images

Amazon listing images, one rendered idea per image slot.

Photoshoots

More photos: other looks, templates, or moodboards.

ChatGPT ads

Chat-card ads with a shared landing page, price and targeting.

Videos

Videos from any recipe (UGC voiceover, Pixar style, podcast, song…), or animate a finished photo.

Get started

Set up

Ad campaigns

Listing images

Photoshoots

ChatGPT ads

Videos

Core concepts

Help

Prerequisites

1. Configure the key

2. Pick or create a brand

3. Create a product

4. Start a Quick Shoot

5. Get the photos

Next steps

Ad campaigns

Listing images

Photoshoots

ChatGPT ads

Videos

​Prerequisites

​1. Configure the key

​2. Pick or create a brand

​3. Create a product

​4. Start a Quick Shoot

​5. Get the photos

​Next steps

Ad campaigns

Listing images

Photoshoots

ChatGPT ads

Videos

Prerequisites

1. Configure the key

2. Pick or create a brand

3. Create a product

4. Start a Quick Shoot

5. Get the photos

Next steps