How To Use Ai Tools To Create 'small Business Saturday' Posters, Flyers, And Ads - For Free

Canva is a powerful AI creation suite. It's truthful bully that, aft 20 years of being an Adobe loyalist, I made nan move a mates of years agone and haven't looked back. It's packed pinch devices that make creating arsenic elemental arsenic a click. In Canva's Magic Studio, for example, there's Magic Grab, which tin isolate parts of an image for further editing. There's besides a inheritance remover, an eraser, an expander, and more.

Not each of Magic Studio is free, though. The free Canva scheme includes constricted entree to AI devices for illustration Magic Write (up to 25 prompts), positive prime uses of Magic Design. Many Canva features are exclusive to Canva Pro, which costs $15 per month. Still, compared to hiring a designer, it's a bully deal. Canva is free to usage if you don't want to subscribe, truthful you tin still research pinch non-paywalled features without spending a cent.

The champion part? Free ChatGPT besides now useful pinch Canva. OpenAI precocious made its "apps" feature disposable to each logged-in users crossed each plan. You'll conscionable request to link Canva wrong ChatGPT first, but aft that, generating designs for illustration a poster is arsenic easy arsenic typing a prompt. Here's how:

1. Connect ChatGPT to Canva. You request to log successful to some ChatGPT and Canva. Then, successful ChatGPT, spell to your floor plan icon > Settings > Apps and Connectors, prime Canva, and link it to your signed-in account.
2. Generate your poster successful ChatGPT. Enter a punctual successful ChatGPT to create your poster. For example: "Create an 18×24 poster for Small Business Saturday successful Canva. I'm a metaphysical shop that sells crystals, herbs, potions, books, and coffee. I'm having a waste connected crystals aft Black Friday."
3. Choose a design. ChatGPT will make respective poster templates. Click 1 to grow it, past prime Open successful Canva successful nan apical area to edit your creation straight successful Canva.
4. Customize your poster. Now you tin commencement fine-tuning your design. Canva Pro users tin upload logos and create marque templates to instantly use their fonts and colors. Free users tin still edit each constituent -- text, colors, fonts, and images -- manually. You tin besides upload your logo arsenic an image and usage nan colour picker to set nan design's palette. The free scheme includes thousands of templates, icons, and export options.
5. Refine pinch prompts. If you for illustration little manual editing, make your punctual to ChatGPT much detailed. Include your brand's colour codes, upload a logo, mention a shop sanction aliases nan arena date, and specify immoderate callouts, specified arsenic "Exclusive in-store deals." If you want nan images successful nan creation to person a circumstantial look, specified arsenic hyper-realistic, past specify that. Just support refining done prompts until you get a last creation you for illustration and want to use.
6. Export aliases print. When you're done, unfastened nan creation successful Canva and spell to Share > Download > PDF Print. Choose RGB for integer usage aliases CMYK for printing yourself. You tin besides prime Print pinch Canva, which showed maine an 18×24 no-frame poster people for $69 pinch free delivery, positive further options for frames and finishes.

In minutes, you've created a Small Business Saturday poster that's fresh to show successful your shop to beforehand your income and business. You tin create nan poster wholly for free utilizing Canva and ChatGPT -- or, if you take to walk a little, you tin unlock Canva Pro devices and moreover people it.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's genitor company, revenge an April 2025 suit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights successful training and operating its AI systems.)

Prefer Gemini complete Canva? No problem. Gemini makes it easy to design everything from presentations to flyers. For example, I utilized it to create a compact A5 flyer for in-store handouts and slides for societal media posts. You don't moreover request a abstracted app relationship for illustration Canva since Gemini generates images for free.

Also: This caller Gemini instrumentality takes your position ideas and instantly brings them to life - here's how

In my experience, Gemini tin nutrient layouts and infographics from a elemental matter prompt. Here's how:

1. Open nan Gemini mobile app connected iOS aliases Android (or spell to gemini.google.com connected desktop). Select Create Images from nan instrumentality paper by nan punctual field. 
2. Enter your prompt. As I said before, beryllium specific. For example: "Create an A5 flyer for Small Business Saturday astatine The Enchanted Shop. Use bold header 'See you Saturday!,' see date/time (Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025) and location (Malone, NY), matter 'Show this flyer for 10% disconnected in-store,' and usage hyper-realistic images of crystals. Use marque colors #cfff4b (energy yellow), #003fc6 (blue), #000000 (black), #ffffff (white)."
3. Gemini should instantly draught a flyer layout. If you don't for illustration it, refine your punctual until you get a creation that makes you happy.

Gemini besides includes a built-in Canvas mode -- an interactive workspace disposable to each users -- that you tin usage to make slides. If you subscribe to Google AI Pro for $19.99 per month, you tin entree Canvas pinch Google's astir tin model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, which is champion for analyzable projects.

I really enjoyed trying Canvas. Although it's meant for generating multi-slide presentations pinch emblematic descent sizes, you tin export nan full platform to Google Slides to edit further. I imagined utilizing these slides connected Facebook -- for illustration a station assemblage -- truthful users could click done to study much astir my Small Business Saturday sale. Here's how.

1. Open Gemini Canvas. In nan Gemini app aliases website, prime Canvas successful nan instrumentality paper by nan punctual field.
2. Enter your prompt. Use circumstantial instructions. Gemini will create a draft.
3. Edit nan design. You tin upload your logo to usage aliases inquire it to set immoderate auto-generated matter aliases elements.
4. Open successful Slides. Here, you tin manually edit nan designs successful Google Slides. It includes features for generating images, uploading assets, enabling one-click templates, and adjusting background, layout, theme, colors, and fonts. It won't beryllium A5 size, but in seconds, you'll person trading materials you tin download and stock online.
5. Export your design. When done, download your record arsenic a PDF aliases PNG. The PDF (at astir 300 DPI) tin spell to your printer for an A5 run, and nan PNG tin beryllium shared digitally.

Now that you've created posters, flyers, and slides to stock online aliases successful person, let's talk astir ads. For this task, you tin effort Pomelli, Google's caller AI trading assistant. It lets you easy make societal and show advertisement graphics.

Also: I'm an AI devices expert, and these are nan 4 I salary for now (plus 2 I'm eyeing)

Pomelli is simply a Google Labs/DeepMind research that analyzes your website to build a "Business DNA" (color palette, fonts, tone), past automatically generates tailored trading assets specified arsenic posts, banners, and ads based connected that DNA. It's cleanable for SMBs that want on-brand run creatives.

Since I made up a metaphysical shop for this article, I don't person an existent tract for it to use. So I used www.zdnet.com successful Pomelli:

1. Sign up for Pomelli. Go to labs.google.com/pomelli. (It's free, presently successful nationalist beta successful nan US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and disposable to those pinch a Google account.) 
2. Build your Business DNA. Enter your website. Pomelli will crawl it to extract your marque colors, fonts, tone, and images. Once it loads your Business DNA, you tin edit what it shows -- from nan logo, fonts, colors, tagline, marque aesthetic, to nan voice, overview, and images. Just click into each 1 to customize. When done, click Looks good.
3. Customize campaigns. Pomelli will now show you campaigns that you tin download and usage successful your advertising. On a run design, spell to More > Duplicate to set its size (like provender 4:5 aliases quadrate 1:1). You tin besides click Add imaginative astatine nan bottommost of nan run surface to picture further campaigns you want to make, specified arsenic a communicative (9:16) to share. Click into immoderate run creation to hole nan layout, adhd a telephone to action, aliases alteration nan image, header, and description.
4. Download your campaign. When done, click your run and spell to More > Download to get nan asset, which you tin past usage for advertising. These are fresh to upload to societal websites, for illustration Facebook and Instagram, aliases immoderate integer advertisement level you prefer.

You still tally your advertisement run (for example, utilizing Facebook Ads Manager aliases Google Ads). But for imaginative assets connected a shoestring budget, Pomelli tin prevention you hours compared pinch manual design.

Do I person to salary for ChatGPT, Canva, Gemini, aliases Pomelli?

No. You tin usage free ChatGPT (it now includes precocious models) to brainstorm transcript aliases make designs. Free Canva is besides rather powerful for this task, though Canva Pro includes premium templates and unlocks respective built-in AI tools. Gemini, Gemini Canvas mode, and Pomelli are besides each free to use, but you tin upgrade your Gemini subscription to activity connected much analyzable projects.

Can I edit assets, aliases americium I stuck pinch what nan AI outputs?

Yes. You tin and should customize. Just deliberation of nan AI output arsenic a starting point.

You tin alteration colors, switch generated images for existent photos, edit text, move elements, adhd your logo, and more. The thought is to usage AI for speed, but nan last merchandise should beryllium thing you're proud to stock and promote.

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday is an yearly waste arena held nan time aft Black Friday. It's meant to promote group to shop astatine small, section businesses. American Express started nan yearly waste astir 15 years ago, and it's now co-sponsored by the Small Business Administration. 

Should I prosecute a designer for Small Business Saturday?

One could reason you should springiness schematic designers immoderate of your business for Small Business Saturday. However, nan constituent of this article is that AI devices are disposable for free to do nan dense lifting truthful each small-business proprietor tin participate and make nan astir of nan vacation season.

Also: I've been testing nan apical AI browsers - here's which ones really impressed me

With small to nary money, you tin bent posters successful your window, manus retired flyers to each customer, and stock societal graphics. The much channels you use, nan much turnout you could thrust aft Black Friday, sloppy of your budget.

Because, let's beryllium honest, astir mini businesses don't person tons of rate to walk -- and that's OK. Maybe, astatine nan very least, you tin prosecute a designer to create an arena logo aliases a photographer to seizure your products connected sale, and past usage those pinch disposable AI devices to create your trading assets.

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