Create AI social media carousels from Google Sheet and auto-publish with Blotato
Create AI social media carousels from Google Sheet and auto-publish with Blotato
π Create Pro-Level Social Media Carousels & Auto-Publish with Blotato
By @nocodehack
Who is this for?
This workflow is built for e-commerce brands, social media managers, marketing agencies, dropshippers, content creators, and automation builders who need to produce professional carousel posts at scale. Perfect for anyone running product marketing, brand campaigns, multi-platform social media, affiliate content, or any business that publishes carousel posts regularly and wants to eliminate design costs entirely.
What problem is this workflow solving? / Use case
Creating professional carousel posts is:
Slow** β designing even one carousel takes 30-60 minutes manually
Expensive** β Fiverr/Upwork designers charge $50-100 per carousel
Inconsistent** β AI-generated slides never visually match each other
Unscalable** β managing multiple brands multiplies every problem
Tedious** β exporting, uploading, scheduling, and publishing is repetitive busywork
This workflow solves:
β Manual carousel design (Canva, Photoshop, Figma)
β Paying designers per post
β AI images that look obviously AI-generated
β Visually inconsistent slides that don't match
β Manual copywriting for captions and hashtags
β Manual uploading and publishing to each platform
β Managing multiple brands with different visual identities
It turns one Google Sheet row into a fully designed, published carousel β across Instagram, Facebook, and X β for approximately 5 cents.
What this workflow does
This automation system acts as a complete AI-powered carousel design studio and publishing pipeline.
Step-by-step pipeline:
Step 1 β Data Pipeline (Google Sheet)
Runs on a schedule (configurable interval)
Pulls the next unprocessed row from Google Sheets
Each row = one carousel (one brand, one product, one post)
Marks the row as "Processing" to prevent duplicate execution
Checks if product description and images are provided β if missing, auto-scrapes from the product URL using Jina.ai (free, no account needed)
Merges all data into one clean payload for the AI
Step 2 β AI Creative Direction (Claude)
Sends all product data (description, images as base64, brand logo, creative specifications) to Claude via the Anthropic API
Claude acts as an executive creative director β not just generating content, but building a complete visual identity first:
Color palette (2-3 hex colors)
Typography style and hierarchy
Lighting direction and mood
Signature design element
Background texture concept
Then generates for each slide: headline, body copy, layout approach, and a detailed 80+ word image prompt
A 2000-word system prompt with banned elements list eliminates the generic AI look (no waves, no scattered leaves, no flat backgrounds, no Canva-style templates)
Every image prompt ends with a negative prompt / AVOID block β same concept as Stable Diffusion negative prompts, applied to Gemini
Output is structured JSON via a parser β no freeform text that could break the pipeline
Also generates the Instagram caption and hashtags
Step 3 β Image Generation with Visual Consistency Loop
This is the core innovation of the workflow**
Slides are generated sequentially, NOT in parallel β this is critical
For slide 1: Gemini generates the image from the prompt + product reference images
For slide 2+: The workflow fetches all previously generated slides, converts them to base64, and attaches them as reference images alongside the current prompt
The text prompt explicitly instructs: "Match the exact typography, color palette, and lighting from the attached previous slides"
This creates a double enforcement system β visual reference + written instruction
Result: every slide in the carousel shares the same visual identity without using templates or presets
Images are generated via NanoBanana Pro (Gemini image generation API)
Each generated slide is uploaded to Blotato media storage and saved to a global memory array for the next iteration
Uses $getWorkflowStaticData('global') to persist slide URLs across loop iterations
Step 4 β Publishing & Status Update
Collects all uploaded slide URLs in correct order
Reads the "Socials" field from the Google Sheet (comma-separated: instagram, facebook, x)
Routes to the correct platform via a Switch node
Publishes via Blotato API β supports immediate posting or scheduled posting (ISO 8601 format)
One row can publish to all three platforms simultaneously
Updates the Google Sheet row: Status β "Published" + direct Post URL
If anything breaks: Status β "Failed" with error details
β‘οΈ Result: One Google Sheet row in, one fully designed and published multi-platform carousel out. 5 cents. 5 minutes.
Setup
Required accounts & API keys:
Google Sheets** β read/write access to your content spreadsheet
Anthropic** β Claude API key (creative direction + copywriting)
Google AI / Gemini** β API key for image generation via NanoBanana Pro ($300 free credit per new Gmail)
Blotato** β API key for media upload + multi-platform publishing
Jina.ai** β free web scraping, no account required (10M tokens free)
Google Sheet structure:
Column
Description
Brand Logo URL
Direct link to your brand logo β placed on every slide automatically
Product URL
Link to product page β used for auto-scraping if description/images are empty
Product Description
Optional β write it yourself for best results, or leave blank to auto-scrape
Product Images URL
Direct links to product photos (comma-separated for multiple)
Specification
Creative direction hint (e.g. "dark cinematic luxury" or "bright playful minimal") β leave empty for AI to decide
Post Date
YYYY-MM-DD format β workflow only picks up rows matching today's date
Post Hour
now for immediate publish, or 14:00 / 2pm for scheduled
Socials
Comma-separated platforms: instagram, facebook, x
Status
Leave empty β auto-filled: Processing β Published / Failed
Post URL
Leave empty β auto-filled with direct link to live post
Configuration steps:
Import the workflow JSON into n8n
Add all required API credentials in n8n's credential manager
Create your Google Sheet using the template provided (link in resources)
Set your Blotato profile IDs in each publishing node (one per platform)
Map platform outputs in the Switch node
Verify the Gemini image generation endpoint in the NanoBanana Pro node
Test with one row before activating production mode
Recommended hosting:
n8n is free and open source but needs a server. A VPS with at least 2GB RAM handles image generation and multiple API calls without issues. The workflow runs 24/7 on schedule.
How to customize
Change AI model:** Swap Claude for GPT-4o or Gemini in the LLM Chain node β the structured output parser works with any model
Change slide count:** Edit the system prompt and user prompt (currently locked to 3 slides)
Change visual style:** Edit the creative direction in the system prompt β modify banned elements, change composition approaches, adjust the quality standard
Add platforms:** Add new outputs to the Switch node + new Blotato publish nodes (Blotato supports TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, YouTube, Bluesky)
Add approval step:** Insert a Wait node before publishing to manually review before posting
Change image hosting:** Swap Blotato Upload for Cloudinary or any S3-compatible storage
Change scraper:** Swap Jina.ai for any other web scraping tool
Adjust scheduling:** Modify the Schedule Trigger interval and use the Post Hour column for per-post timing
Multi-brand setup:** Each row can have a different brand logo and creative specification β the AI generates a fresh visual identity per row
Cost breakdown per carousel (approx.)
Component
Cost
Claude (creative direction + copy, ~8K tokens)
~$0.02
Gemini (3 slide images via NanoBanana Pro)
~$0.03
Jina.ai (web scraping)
Free
Blotato (publishing)
Per plan
Total per carousel
~$0.05
Compare: Fiverr/Upwork designers charge $50-100 per carousel post. This workflow does it for 5 cents.
Gemini offers $300 free credit per new Gmail account β enough for thousands of carousels before spending anything.
Expected outcome
You get a fully automated carousel production system that can:
Generate agency-quality carousel designs from a spreadsheet
Maintain visual consistency across all slides without templates
Handle multiple brands with completely different visual identities
Publish to Instagram, Facebook, and X simultaneously
Schedule content weeks in advance
Scale from 1 carousel/day to dozens without additional effort
Eliminate design costs almost entirely
Typical use cases
E-commerce product marketing (daily product carousels)
Brand awareness campaigns across multiple platforms
Affiliate marketing content at scale
Social media agency client deliverables
Dropshipping product promotion
Multi-brand social media management
Content calendar automation
A/B testing different creative directions for the same product
Watch the full step-by-step walkthrough.
π₯ Video Tutorial
π Need help or want to customize?
π© Contact: LinkedIn
πΊ YouTube: @nocodehack
π Resources & Downloads: nocodehack.io