Choosing a product explainer video maker: style, structure and the brief

Explainer video vs product demo video

An explainer answers "why should I care?" for someone who doesn't know you yet. It spends most of its time on the problem and the change your product makes, and it can show the product briefly or not at all. A demo answers "how does it work?" for someone already interested, and it spends nearly all its time on real screens.

That makes them good at different spots. Explainers live on the homepage, in ads and at the top of a pitch. Demos live further down: the features page, the trial welcome email, the sales follow-up. If your visitors already understand the category (another CRM, another project tracker), skip the explainer and lead with a demo. Our guide on how to make a product demo video covers that route.

The classic explainer video structure

Nearly every explainer that works follows the same arc. The timings below are for a 60–90 second video, and they're a starting point rather than a rule.

1. Problem (first 10–15 seconds): the viewer's situation in their words. No logo animation first.
2. Why it hurts (10–15 seconds): the cost of the problem, in time, money or embarrassment.
3. The solution (5–10 seconds): your product's name and the one change it makes.
4. How it works (20–30 seconds): three steps at most, ideally showing the actual product.
5. Proof (5–10 seconds): a number you can back up, a customer name you have permission to use, or a short quote.
6. Call to action (5 seconds): one next step, said and shown.

Write the script before anyone draws a frame. At a typical speaking pace of 140 to 160 words a minute, 75 seconds holds about 180 words, which is less than most first drafts. The explainer video script template has a filled-in example you can copy.

Explainer video styles: cost, time and fit

Style decides budget and schedule more than length does. The ratings below are relative, for a 60–90 second piece; actual quotes vary widely by maker and region, so check current pricing with whoever you're considering.

For software, animated product UI usually ages best in one sense and worst in another: it shows the real thing, but it shows the real thing as of today. Plan on updating it when the screens change. Motion graphics avoid that problem by never showing the UI, which is also why they convince fewer people that the product exists.

Choosing a product explainer video maker: DIY, AI or agency

Template tools suit teams with a designer, a clear script and a small budget. You'll get something clean in days, and it'll look like other template videos. Agencies and freelancers bring script help, a custom style and a producer who keeps it on schedule; you pay for that and wait for it.

AI tools sit in between and differ a lot. Avatar tools generate a presenter; general AI video tools generate footage from prompts, which rarely shows your real product accurately. DemoVexa takes a narrower route: it reads your app's code folder (or website and docs), writes the brief and script, and rebuilds your real screens as animation timed to the voiceover. That fits explainers that show the product. It isn't the right maker for a character-led cartoon or a live-action shoot; for those, hire a studio. The buyer's guide to demo video tools sorts the options by starting point.

• Ask any maker for two or three past explainers in your category, not their showreel.
• Ask who writes the script and how many script rounds happen before animation starts.
• Ask what you receive at the end: the MP4 only, or the project files, music license and caption files too.

How to brief an explainer video maker or agency

A good brief fits on one page and saves you a round of revisions. Most disappointing first cuts trace back to a brief that listed features instead of naming a viewer and a problem.

• The viewer, by situation: "a finance lead at a 50-person company closing the month in spreadsheets".
• The one problem and the one change. If you list five, the maker will pick for you.
• Where it will play and in which shapes: homepage 16:9, plus 9:16 and 1:1 cuts for social.
• Target length and the call to action, with the URL.
• Brand files: logo, colors, fonts, and screenshots or a test account if the product appears.
• Proof you're allowed to use: customer names, numbers, quotes, each with permission.
• Two or three explainers you like, and one you don't, with a line on why.
• Who approves, and how many rounds of changes are included.

Use a made-up example to test the brief. If you were briefing for a fictional invoicing app called Ledgerly, "freelancers who chase late payments by email" is a viewer a writer can work with. "SMBs" isn't.

After it's made: captions, cutdowns and accessibility

Ship captions with every version. Captions for prerecorded video are a Level A requirement in WCAG 2.2, and plenty of viewers on social feeds watch with the sound off. Ask for caption files (SRT or WebVTT) as a deliverable, not burned-in text only.

Explainers lean on visuals, so check the narration carries the meaning. WCAG's Level AA criterion on audio description says no extra description is needed when all the important information in the picture is already in the audio. Writing the voiceover that way from the start is cheaper than adding a described version later.

Finally, cut it down. A 15-second version for ads and a 30-second one for social come almost free if you plan them in the script. Wistia's analysis of over 13 million videos puts average engagement for videos under a minute at 52% (Wistia), so the short cut may end up doing more work than the full one.

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