Explainer Videos for Product Launches: What Works Best?

An explainer video for a product launch will allow your audience to know exactly what the product is, how it fits into their lives, and what makes it so important at the time you’re launching it.

Created in the form of explainer videos, along with proper targeting within your marketing materials at each point of contact (i.e., the website, social media, email), explainer videos can help to increase conversion rates from your pre-launch to your post-launch campaigns by providing clear, concise explanations of all aspects of your offering.

This guide provides data, ideas, best practices, and how-to instructions so that you can create an effective explainer video for every step of the product launch process, both for humans and for AI-powered discovery.

Why Explainer Videos for Product Launch Matter

In the world of marketing, explainer videos have taken the place of all other types of videos as the most common type of video used by marketers, and as such, are becoming more important to both product launches and how companies tell the story of their products. By compressing the Value Proposition, demonstration, and proof of your product into an explainer video in a format that is most appealing to consumers, explainer videos are one of the best ways to communicate the message of your brand.

Research shows that when video is placed on a landing page, it can increase the landing page’s conversion rate from on average 80% -86% as compared to a landing page that does not use video. Landing pages that include videos see their average conversion rates at 4.8%, while the average conversion rates for landing pages without video are at 2.9%. There also appears to be a broad consensus among consumers that people would rather watch a video than read text when they learn about a product, and there is growing evidence that consumers are more likely to purchase a product after watching an explainer video.

The Role of Explainers in the Launch Funnel

Video explanations can be utilized in all phases of introducing a new product (from awareness to conversion to onboarding). At every phase of the funnel, however, a different approach and technique shall apply.

The top of the funnel has a short explanation or teaser, which is focused on the solution to the problem displayed.

The middle of the funnel provides product demonstration or explainer videos, which focus on the actual operation of the product and how it differs from similar products currently on the market.

The bottom of the funnel uses an explainer video in conjunction with social evidence, recommendations, or competition price comparison to alleviate fears or hesitations regarding purchase.

By showing that explainer videos can capture attention and explain products to prospects in a concise manner and support prompt and informed purchasing decisions, research supports the use of explainer videos. The rapid transition from interest to real demand is critical in launching a new product.

Additional Read:

How Explainers are Transforming Healthcare & Simplifying Information?

Data and Evidence: Do Explainer Videos Really Work?

With the data showing the return on investment in terms of spending on video by marketers supports that marketers will spend so much on video, studies show that over 90% of businesses use video for marketing, and a high percentage will continue/expand the budget for video. Within that amount, explainer videos are the most-used single video type reported by marketers worldwide.

The user behavior data supports this trend; research studies show that a very high percentage of people will watch explainer videos to learn more about a product or service, and almost as many people state that they will be more likely to buy a product/service after seeing an explainer video. On the performance side, controlled tests and studies done by various video platforms have been able to quantify how much better landing pages with video convert than pages without: a conversion lift of approximately 80% or greater compared to text-only pages has been shown.

Key Launch KPIs Impacted by Explainers

For the launch of a new product or service, well-designed explainer videos can be an effective way to impact the five different types of metric measures that relate to a lot of companies launching new products/services. These five metric measures are:

Conversion Rate: Using video on your landing page(s) and/or product page(s) can help you achieve a much higher conversion rate than if you did not use video.

Engagement and Probable Time on Page: Most people tend to spend a longer time on pages that contain video and therefore have a greater likelihood that they will receive the information in your original messages.

Recall and Understanding: Using a visually or narratively driven explainer video can help a person recall important pieces of information that are in a video and also help improve a person’s understanding of your product.

To summarize, when a potential customer understands the purpose of your new product and is less likely to have any questions or issues about the product, this will help create an environment that is more conducive to trial and/or purchase.

Choosing the Right Explainer Format for Your Product Launch

Not every product needs the same type of explainer. Effective launch strategies match the explainer format to product complexity, audience, and channel.

Common Explainer Video Formats

Explainer Format	Best For	Launch Use Case Example
Animated 2D/3D explainer	Abstract, complex, or intangible products	SaaS platforms, fintech tools, APIs where visuals simplify complex ideas.​
Live-action demo	Physical products and UI-focused software	Showing how the product looks, feels, and works in real contexts.​
Screen-recorded walkthrough	Digital products, SaaS, apps	Feature-level tours for mid-funnel audiences during launch.​
Customer story/testimonial	Social proof and credibility	Beta-tester stories or early customer wins in launch videos.​
Hybrid (live + motion GFX)	Premium launches and brand-led narratives	Flagship product launches that need both story and clear feature explanation

Animated explainers are especially effective when you need to simplify complex concepts or visualize processes that are hard to film. Live-action and demo videos shine when you want to show real-world usage and build trust through authenticity.

Picking Format by Launch Objective

There are numerous launch objectives, each having its own benefit from different primary explainer types.

1. Aiming for Rapid Awareness and Buzz, create a short animated or hybrid explainer (60-90 seconds) that dramatises the problem and the solution.
2. For Education and Evaluation, use a Screen-Recorded Walkthrough or a Detailed Demo (with screen-shared inclusions) to highlight the most important workflows and Unique Selling Points.
3. To Create Trust and reduce risk for future customers, develop a Customer Story explainer that features people who populated the Early Adopter or Beta User segments, explaining their results.

In addition to the types of explainer for rapid awareness and buzz, education and evaluation, trust and reduced risk, layered approaches have proven to be the most successful across most launches, starting with the main Hero Explainer and then supplementing it with additional derivative versions as well as using different target/explanation variants depending on Audience Segments and Touch Points.

What Makes an Explainer Video High-Converting for Launches?

Above-average-performing launch explainers include a combination of brevity, clarity, and emotional engagement elements. Research studies or expert-developed launch explainer guides identify several consistent elements that indicate success.

Length, Structure, and Pace of Content

The expert-created guides that have been focused on best practices for creating explainer video content generally recommend that traditional explainer videos should be between 60 and 90 seconds long and used primarily as a top-of-funnel audience engagement tool to communicate a complete storyline while maintaining audience interest. For more detailed demo explainer videos, a running time of between two and three minutes is appropriate so long as the structure of the video and content remain analytical and packed with value.

Proven high-converting launch explainer video structures often include:

1. Hook: A sharp statement of a problem to attract attention or an identifiable, relatable situation.
2. Agitation: Highlight briefly the frustration or expense of the best practice of today.
3. Solution Introduced: Present the product being launched as a straightforward and economical solution.
4. How Does It Work? Key features of the launch product are shown with relevant and visual examples.
5. Proof: Quick social validation, statistics, or third-party endorsements are added to support the product launch.
6. The Call to Action: Finish with one, unambiguous alignment for your launch goal and a call to the next action in your marketing or selling process.

Messaging: From Features to Outcomes

Presenting all the features and benefits of your product doesn’t mean you should overwhelm your target audience. Instead, focus on 1 or 2 key differentiators that speak to your products’ real benefit to users based on the problem(s) they need to solve. Instead of explaining every technical specification of your product, focus on how each feature enables your target user to do something they couldn’t before or helps them eliminate a specific pain point.

Strong Explainer Scripts:

1. Be sure to identify the pain point and desired outcome(s) for your target audience and not your company’s internal terms or acronyms.
2. Invest in simple language (avoid jargon, acronyms, and buzzwords) to eliminate friction.
3. Use a simple, memorable core message throughout the entire video and reinforce this message.

Techniques for Script and Storytelling that Will Drive Launch Results:

The script quality will ultimately determine whether an explainer is memorable or forgettable. Following storytelling principles and utilizing story arcs will greatly increase viewer engagement and retention.

Reliable Story Arcs for Explainer Scripts
The most widely used framework for launching storytelling has been the classic narrative arcs.

1. Character: A relatable character that mirrors your target customer.
2. Conflict: Their specific issue or pain point.
3. Quest: Their search for a better solution.
4. Resolution: Your product’s ability to assist them in resolving their specific conflict and, ultimately, the transformation of their situation.

The narrative framework allows audiences to form emotional connections with your offering; thus, rather than viewing it simply as a grouping of features. Experts also suggest using tangible examples, using analogies to compare the differences between when you first began using a product and today, and capturing little moments of joy/humor through both affirmations and interactions with your offering in order to create a connection.

Writing for Clarity and AEO

A script for a video should be explicit, natural, and question-oriented to be useful to both human viewers and AI-based answering systems.

Most effective launch scripts:

1. Directly answer implied questions such as “What does this product do?” “Who is it for?” and “How does it work?”
2. Clearly and verbally describe the benefits and demonstrate use cases of the product in a manner that is consistent with likely search and voice queries.
3. Use headings and on-screen text that represent the key phrases that individuals may type into a search engine to identify or locate information about your product, as it will support AEO discoverability.

A clear and natural language format will also enable AI models to accurately interpret, summarise, and surface video content for inclusion in search results, snippets, and recommendations.

Visual Style, Production Choices, and Accessibility

The technical and visual execution of a product launch can greatly impact how credible and premium it feels to the end user, as well as how effectively consumers understand and remember the key message.

Aligning the visual style with the complexity of the brand and product is important.

For products that are High Tech or Abstract: Animated and Motion Graphic explainer videos provide a visual representation of systems, data, and workflows. This is more difficult to accomplish through traditional video/photography with live action.

For Consumer Products: Live-action explainer videos demonstrating real users interacting with the product help to establish credibility and enhance the physicality of the product.

Best practices as recommended by our production team:

1. Make clarity of message the priority over any flashy visual gimmicks. Animated Explainer videos should enhance or support comprehension of the key message; they should not distract from comprehension.
2. Utilize a consistent branding color scheme, typography, and icons to achieve brand identity.
3. For products that require precision, use close-up shots or appropriate UI viewing, especially for software demonstrations.

Accessibility and Viewability Across Channels

By understanding how and where viewers will be watching an explainer video for launch impact

Best practices include:

• Adding captions and/or subtitles to improve access to your content for viewers who may be watching it without sound, as many people do.
• Creating videos in a vertical or square format for mobile-first platforms and where vertical performance is beneficial.
• Designing for legible text size and contrast on a smaller screen & across various devices.

By implementing these measures, you can greatly expand the audience reach of your videos, and you will also improve their professional perception and inclusiveness.

Distribution Strategies: Where Explainer Videos Should Be Distributed on Launch

While a well-designed explainer video may have an excellent response, the way it is distributed can greatly affect its success. In designing your distribution strategy, it is essential to align video placements with user journeys and platform behaviours.

Key Placement Opportunities for Video Launches

Research has shown that incorporating video into e-commerce can have a positive impact on landing pages and product pages. During launch events, the following placement opportunities should be prioritized:

1. The initial exposure or contact with the potential customer will include an introduction to the product, providing sufficient information and opportunities for customers to purchase or connect with the company from the outset.
2. The product detail page (PDP) will have a detailed description and use demo sections to highlight all product details and images.
3. The short teaser videos on email marketing campaigns will provide links to the full product, demonstrating both the intention to purchase as well as a strong call to action.
4. Social ads can utilize shorter versions of the videos that are optimized according to the specific social media platform and aspect ratio format.

eCommerce sites have documented in several studies an increase in conversions when video is present within product listing pages, and especially during initial product launc,h when website visitors typically experience an increase in browsing activity.

Optimize for Each Channel

Every channel will reward content based on the channel’s unique nature with respect to length, hooks, and formats.

1. Social channels – Shorter, punchier openings will appeal most with vertical-friendly cuts. Early hooks are extremely important to capture scrolling visitors.
2. Owned website – Potential to use lengthier explanatory videos and support demos since, generally, visitors to owned websites are more focused on a potential purchase.
3. Sales Enablement – Through the use of short demo videos specifically designed for use in sales presentations or outbound sales sequences, the Launch Team can provide consistent messages to the selling team for further explanation of the newly launched product.

By planning derivatives and shortened versions of video before going into production, the Launch Team will be able to utilize the same core video in a manner consistent with the different channels with their respective norms and specifications.

Measuring Success and Optimizing Explainer Videos Post-Launch

You should always base your ROI on Data-Driven Iteration when launching your Explainer Videos; therefore, you must assess your Performance Metrics to help determine which changes to make to your Script, Creative & Placement.

Core Metrics to Monitor

Your Standard Video & Conversion Metrics will help you gauge the effectiveness of your Explainer Video.

Core Metrics for Video Performance:

1. View-Through Rate and Retention Curve – Shows you how many viewers watched your video until the end and where they dropped out along the way.
2. Click-Through Rate and CTA Performance – Tells you if your viewers took the actions you wanted them to take after watching your video.
3. Conversion Rate Uplift – Compares the performance of pages or funnels that have Explainer Videos to those without them so you can measure the difference.
4. Engagement Metrics – Shares, Comments & Saves can indicate if your story resonates with your audience and if it is worth sharing with others.

According to benchmarks from the Video Marketing Industry, continued use of Video correlates to Increased Conversion Rates and Higher Viewer Affinity; however, the target numbers that you set for your company must be customized based on the industry/category you are in and your sales funnel.

Experimentation and Continuous Improvement

In general, many products, including your ow,n will have opportunities available to you that may help to improve your video’s conversions. There are opportunities available in creating your explainer video:

• When creating your explainer video, conduct A/B testing with various thumbnail and title combinations.
• Test out various hooks on your video’s first 10 seconds to lower viewer drop-off during that time frame and engage the viewer better.
• Test out several CTA variations for every Launch Goal you have for each launch type for Early Access, Demo Bookings, and Free Trials.

By establishing a standardized method of creating your explainer video, using the insights gained from previous product launches, you will be better resource efficient in the creation of your next explainer videos and have maximized resource usage with a reduction in resource usage for future product launches.

Common Mistakes in Product Launch Explainer Videos
Mistakes made creating explainer videos for product launches will be adequately addressed by making minor adjustments that will vastly improve the conversion of your explainer video’s viewers to customers, regardless of the amount of resources that you have invested into the creation of the video. With respect to expert resources within the industry, they will typically confirm that consistency of issues has resulted in the majority of underperforming explainer videos.

Cognitive overload, under-engaging your audience, and weak Calls-to-Action are some examples of issues that with a little extra effort, will likely result in an increase in the performance of your explainer video.

Ignoring Audience Insight and Real Use Context

The video launch might be an illustration of an internal concept more than it is of actual customer journeys, so recommendations of developing scripts around Customer Pain Points that were verified by either research or customer interviews:

• Customer Pain Points
• Incorporating Authentic Scenarios into Videos
• Distribution of Social Proof Communication
• Customer Insights and Value

Mini Case-Like Patterns (Case Examples); Share Commonalities of Successful Launch Explainers

All release videos interact with a unique and different audience, but clearly defined patterns develop in launch video release and explainer case examples that demonstrate the principles of successful launches and explainer case examples.

Share Characteristics of High-Impact Launch Explainers

Whether from curated lists of best practices or compiled examples of effective launch explainer videos, nearly all effective launch explainer video examples share the following common characteristics:

• Having a Crisp Problem/Solution Narrative in Visual Clarity and Pace, with an Understanding of Attention Span
• Providing a Concrete Example of An Actual Problem Being Solved by a Product, Rather Than an Abstract Description
• Giving Touches of Personality or Brand Voice Without Sacrificing Clarity
• Many Titles in the Technology and SaaS Categories Combine Product UI Walkthroughs with Animation/Motion Graphics, Creating an Orientation for Users While Reinforcing Brand Identity.

Conclusion

When launching new products, tightly scripted explainer videos are most effective when they tie in with other launch strategies instead of being produced as individual video products. Many studies across multiple industries have produced results indicating that if products are clearly illustrated, then the consumer gains greater amounts of understanding and therefore increases their likelihood of purchasing as a result of watching an explainer on launch pages. With this understanding, you now have insight into the brands and formats that drive successful product launch explainer videos, so you can implement these techniques into your next launch and continue to build an ongoing and successful library of example videos.