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Street View AI Effects

What it is​

Street View AI Effects are AI-generated visual treatments applied to the Google Street View background of a creative's Street View design (a dynamic front). Each recipient's own house is still the subject of the image, but the scene is re-rendered in a chosen style - a watercolor illustration, a decorated seasonal scene, or a specific home improvement like a fresh roof.

The result feels unmistakably personal: the recipient recognizes their address on the mailer, but the image looks like a custom-made illustration rather than a raw Street View photo.

Where the picker lives​

Effects are part of a creative's Street View design, not chosen per send. Street View designs are available for 4x6 and 6x9 postcards.

  1. Go to Creatives in the sidebar.
  2. Open a 4x6 or 6x9 postcard creative, or click New creative and build one yourself.
  3. On the Front step, click Street View design (or Edit the Street View design if the front already is one).
  4. Under Background, choose Street View.
  5. Click Add an AI effect to open the AI Street View effects picker.
  6. Pick an effect from one of the four categories, or None for the plain Street View photo. The picker shows a sample home so you can see what the effect looks like before applying it.
  7. Confirm the per-mailer fee when prompted (Use it for $0.10 per mailer).
  8. Click Save design, then save the creative.

Once an effect is applied, the button shows its name (AI effect: followed by the effect), and the creative's preview uses a sample home rendered with it.

Effect categories​

Effects are grouped by what they do to the image:

  • Illustration - stylized re-renders of the house (watercolor, cartoon).
  • Seasonal - decorate the scene for a time of year (Christmas lights, cartoon Christmas lights, Halloween decorations, snow day, twilight).
  • Enhancement - improve the atmosphere of the shot (curb appeal).
  • Home improvement - alter one specific element of the house (lush lawn, new roof, fresh paint, solar panels).

There are 20+ effects across these four categories. The picker shows an icon and short description for each so you can see what the effect changes at a glance.

What gets preserved, what gets altered​

Effects fall into two behaviors, and it matters which category you pick.

Illustration, seasonal, and enhancement effects preserve the house structure. The building outline, windows, and roofline all stay recognizable so the recipient still identifies their own address. Only the style, atmosphere, or decorations change.

Home improvement effects alter one specific element. A "new roof" effect changes the roof and leaves the rest of the house alone. "Fresh paint" changes the wall color, "lush lawn" replaces the yard, "solar panels" adds panels to the roof. The recipient sees their house with that one thing swapped, which is the whole point of the effect.

note

Pick a category that matches your message. A "new roof" postcard from a roofing company works because the swap tells the recipient a story. The same effect on a real estate mailer would be confusing.

Pricing​

Street View AI Effects carry a per-mailer add-on fee of $0.10 per recipient, applied on top of the standard mailer per-piece rate. The fee is per recipient the mailer actually reaches, not per design.

Effects are available on every plan, including the free Pay as you go tier. There is no plan-tier gate.

The picker requires you to acknowledge the fee before applying a paid effect, so you always see the added cost before it is attached to the design.

The fee is snapshotted at order submit: the price you are quoted on the review step is what gets charged, even if the plan's fee changes before the send completes.

How rendering works​

Renders happen at send time, per recipient. The AI generation runs when the order fulfills - not when you build the creative.

  • In the editor - a cached sample-home preview shows what the effect looks like without spending a real render.
  • On send - each recipient's Street View photo is generated with the chosen effect and composited into the final mailer.
  • On repeat orders - a render already produced for the same address and effect is reused, so a follow-up campaign to the same recipient does not re-render.

The first render for a new address can take up to a minute; cached renders are served immediately.

When a render can't be produced​

If Google has no Street View coverage for a recipient's address, or if the AI render fails, that recipient's mailer is skipped - it isn't sent or charged, and the order does not fall back to a plain Street View photo for that piece. This keeps every mailer in the order consistent with what was quoted, since the effect fee applies to every recipient at the flat per-piece rate.

The preview in the editor uses a sample home, and it never shows a plain photo in place of an effect, so what you see is what the effect looks like. A failed render only affects real recipients at send time.

tip

Preview against a handful of sample addresses from your list before firing a large campaign, so you can spot coverage gaps early.

Tips & best practices​

  • Match the effect to your message. A watercolor illustration reads as warm and personal; a "new roof" swap reads as a direct home-improvement pitch. The wrong pairing lands as random.
  • Use seasonal effects on-season. Christmas lights in July are memorable in the wrong way.
  • Test with a real address you know. The sample home preview shows the effect's style, but only a real recipient render tells you how coverage and lighting hold up at that address.
  • Watch the math on high-volume sends. At $0.10 per recipient, a 1,000-piece Neighbor Blast adds $100 in effect fees on top of the per-piece rate. Great for the right campaign; unnecessary for others.

Limits & gotchas​

  • Effects only apply when the background is Street View. Map View, uploaded custom backgrounds, and recipient custom-field image URLs do not run through the effect renderer.
  • Non-home-improvement effects preserve house structure, but AI generation is not pixel-perfect. Fine architectural details can vary slightly between renders.
  • Home improvement effects change one element by design. Do not use one on a general marketing mailer where the recipient might mistake the render for their actual house.
  • No Street View coverage means the recipient's mailer is skipped. There is no automatic fallback to a plain photo.