These are the insights we got after producing hundreds of explainer videos.
Before you start
1) Check if the ROI numbers add up. Sometimes they don’t.
The easiest formula to calculate ROI is:
Predicted Reach (i.e. 10 000 people) x Avg. deal size (i.e. 100$) x Predicted Conversion increase (i.e. 0,5%) / investment x 100%
So it makes the most sense to produce an explainer if you have:
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good organic reach (Twitter or LinkedIn followers, e-mail lists, etc.) or the ability to get paid reach cheaply (FB Ads, YT Ads),
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high ticket sales,
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high potential for increasing conversion (typically because clients have problems with understanding your value proposition and what makes your product special).
2) Learn about the best case studies but be skeptical about them.
The three best case studies I know fall into the formula I’ve described above.
a. Dropbox that got +3% conversion rate.
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They had a high organic reach as they placed the video on their referral page.
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Their user was worth around 100$.
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It was hard to get why Dropbox might be helpful. So the video helped people to understand it.
b. WNL, medical e-learning company from Poland, that got 42% conversion.
[But that’s the Landing Page conversion with a video, not the video surplus like in the Dropbox case.]
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They had an organic reach as they had a great quality e-mail list of future doctors.
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Their user was worth around 400$.
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Their e-learning was something new, so people needed to understand why it’s unique.
c. Crazy Egg that got 64% conversion.
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They had a great reach – it was Neil Patel’s company.
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Their user was worth around 100$.
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They sold a heatmap analysis tool which was a new thing at that time. Heatmaps were easy to explain with visuals, so the video worked.
But… we all get how it works. These are the best cases. From thousands or even millions of explainers. Don’t expect that you’ll get similar results.
That’s why it’s so important to estimate your ROI. And if you decide to produce a product video, squeeze 100% out of it.
3) Set aside enough time for the production.
Typically explainers are evergreen content.
It means that you’ll stick with the video for a long time. Not for a three-month-long campaign but for three years. So don’t do them half-assed.
The process in most studios takes 3-6 weeks. It’s good not to rush it too much because the quality/creativity will suffer.
4) Have one goal (not two, not three) from the start.
In theory, it’s easy. But not in practice when you have multiple stakeholders.
If you want to generate leads, focus on generating leads. If you want a meeting icebreaker for salespeople, focus on that.
In the end, you can have 2-3 goals. But the studio (and their copywriters) need to understand what’s the goal nr 1.
5) Use it as an opportunity to work on your product narrative.
Make this project a reason to align your team around one consistent product narrative. Get sales onboard. Get their insights from customers’ conversations. Do some conversations yourself.
The studio may conduct a workshop where they combine your marketing and sales perspectives. If they can’t, do it yourself.
The insights and alignment you get might be the most significant ROI of the production.
Negotiating with the studio
6) If you can, talk directly with the studio.
That’s an obvious one. Agencies typically get 10-30% from the deal for forwarding e-mails.
If you want to find a studio yourself – I recommend taking a look at Clutch.co. On Clutch, the reviews are LinkedIn-verified. And very detailed, so they’re almost like case studies.
7) Ask to provide your voice-over.
Voice-overs can be expensive.
Some studios buy them via big voice-over companies. These companies can charge up to 3 times more vs. working directly with an artist.
So if you bring your voice-over, the whole project may become cheaper.
8) Negotiate the payment terms.
Most studios work via agencies. Which means they wait for money between 30 and 90 days.
So ask the studio how much they can give you off if you make a 50% downpayment. Typically, the account manager can’t decide (and understand why cash flow is important), so ask his boss.
You can expect a 5-15% price cut.
Video’s content
9) Treat the script like a copy, not an artistic folly.
The script is an essential part of the video.
Just like copy is sales at scale, the product video can be a sales presentation at scale.
You can write it yourself or give it to the studio.
I recommend asking the studio to write it. That’s because you will get a fresh perspective on your product. And if the script is terrible, you can always edit/rewrite it yourself.
Whether you give feedback to the studio or write it yourself, remember to follow Dave Gerhardt’s rules from Laws of Copywriting:
- Learn how people make decisions.
- Uncover the selfish benefit.
- Tell a great story.
- Write like you talk.
- Use customers’ words, not yours.
- Write choppy copy.
- Be specific.
- Nail the headline.
- Back it up with social proof.
- Address objections upfront.
10) Don’t go for the “This is Ken, Ken is a salesman, and he has a problem updating the CRM” format.
If you’re not good at storytelling, don’t for for the „This is Ken, Ken is a salesman, and he has a problem updating the CRM” format.
If you don’t play it well it will be boring because this format has been used many times. No one would give a damn about Ken.
If you’re not good at storytelling, make your audience a hero.
Address them directly by saying i.e. “Do you have problems with updating your CRMS?”
11) Don’t go for stock videos (unless you’re really tight on a budget or need to do 100s of them).
You can do them cheaply. But they all look the same. So people may switch off.
12) Tie the length of the video to context and moment in the pipeline
There’s no ‘best video length’ just like there’s no ‘best content length.’
It depends mostly on two things: how focused your client is and what’s his position in the funnel.
Examples of high focus vs. low focus contexts:
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LinkedIn vs. TikTok;
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Homepage vs. FB Ad;
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Stakeholder’s e-mail inbox vs. YouTube campaign.
Position in the funnel:
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Top of the funnel – “Just looking around,”
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Middle of the funnel – “I’m comparing different options,”
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Bottom of the funnel – “I want to make a decision.”
The lower they’re in the funnel, the more time they can spend on your video. If you don’t believe it, recall the last moment you were looking for a new tool and how much time you have spent on research.
So what are the best video lengths IMO?
Low-focus/Top of the funnel:
30 – 60 sec.
High focus/Bottom of the funnel:
120 – 180 sec.
When it comes to the time, I recommend a smart trick.
If you go for a minute-long video, make the length 0:59. Psychologically, it looks much shorter than 1:01.
Then you can send it to your client and say, “It’s just 59 seconds”.
Distribution
13) Don’t post links. Post videos in native Social Media format.
An obvious one, but it’s good to remember about it. Especially if you give this task to someone else.
14) Work on your YouTube SEO.
Here’s an excellent how-to guide:
It can pay off very well if you go for more specialized keywords.
One of our videos had only 14 views when it started showing up on Google. That’s because there were many articles about the subject but very few videos.
Or animationfor SHARP has got over 100 thousand views so far.
15) DM (or e-mail) your employees, clients, and friends to like it or share it on Social Media.
Very underutilized tactics. One of our clients got 150 likes on LinkedIn and massive reach using this tactic. And it was a video about Excel courses.
16) Test it on Landing Pages.
You could have heard that Rypple achieved a 20% increase in conversion after adding an explainer to their LP.
It’s a nice story, but it doesn’t mean it will work the same in your case. I’ve seen LPs that got lower conversion rates when the video was added.
So it’s crucial to test it.
17) Get a good Landing Page
A good video will make a bad LP perform better. But it won’t save it. So work on that as well.
You can use the narrative (and visuals) created in the video to improve your LP and make the message consistent.
Or go the other way round – ask the studio to produce a video that’s in line with your Landing Page’s visual identity.
Or go the other way round – ask the studio to produce a video that’s in line with your Landing Page’s visual identity.
18) Consider adding the video’s link to your Contact’s autoresponder.
You can go for something like
“Hey, We’re preparing the answer. In the meantime, you can watch how our solution can help you. It’s just 87 seconds.”
19) Test the video on FB Ads.
The FB video ads are supercheap, and sometimes they can generate significant returns.
They can use it as an:
– onboarding tool that explains to newcomers what’s your solution about,
– prospecting tool, which means they send a video to potential clients,
– stakeholders-alignment tool as they send it after the meeting, so people who didn’t attend the meeting can understand your solution
We do our workshops in Mural
After the production
21) Update your video
Make a deal with the studio that they’ll archive the video for 2-3 years.
Then if something changes in your product, you can update the video cheaply.
22) Ask the studio to use the visuals from the video.
You can get nice consistent banners, Landing Page visuals, etc.
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And this is it.
If you estimated your ROI from the explainer video and it’s positive, take a look at our Portfolio. Maybe you will like our animations and we will produce something together.
He has studied psychology at the University of Warsaw, and business at Warsaw School of Economics, as well as at University of Cambridge Judge Business School. During his studies, he has researched how people think when they are overwhelmed by information.
It has inspired him to focus on communication that explains complex subjects in a simple way. In Explain Visually, he has lead projects for companies such as IKEA, Carlsberg, Pratt & Whitney, Orange, and Pfizer. Fan of rational, science-based approach, and building marketing and sales on robust fundamentals.
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