Explainer VideosOne idea, understood

The job of an explainer is comprehension#

An explainer has one job: after watching it, a newcomer can describe what you do in their own words. Not admire it, not feel moved by it, but explain it. That is a narrower and more testable goal than most brand videos have, and it is why explainers are among the most useful videos a company can own.

The goal also sets the boundaries. An explainer is not a tour of every feature, a brand manifesto or a founder’s origin story. Each of those may deserve a video. Put them inside an explainer and you get the most common failure in the format: a video that says a great deal and leaves the viewer unable to repeat any of it.

When you need one, and when you do not#

You need an explainer when the product is new, abstract or invisible: software, financial products, B2B services, health and insurance products, anything whose value lives in a process the customer cannot see. You probably do not need one when the product is obvious from a photograph and the decision turns on price, taste or availability. A product video serves those better.

A practical signal: if prospects routinely ask ‘so what exactly do you do?’ after reading your homepage, you need an explainer. If they ask ‘how is it different from X?’, you may need a comparison video instead.

The structure that works#

Most effective explainers follow the same skeleton. It is not a creative constraint so much as the order in which a human mind accepts a new idea: recognise the problem, accept a solution exists, see how it works, believe it is real.

Notice that features appear only inside ‘how it works’, and only those needed to make the idea concrete. If a feature does not help the viewer understand the core idea, it belongs in a demo or a help video, not here.

Script first, and script short#

Write the script before choosing a style or a studio. The script is where comprehension is won or lost, and it is far cheaper to rewrite words than to re-animate scenes. Read it aloud to someone outside the company. If they cannot repeat the idea back, rewrite. Our video scriptwriting guide covers technique in detail.

A useful discipline is to write the one-sentence idea at the top of the script and check each scene against it. Scenes that do not help a newcomer understand that sentence are candidates for a separate video.

Length follows from the script, not the other way round. A common planning rule is that narration runs at somewhere around 130 to 160 spoken words per minute, depending on the voice and the language. Use the calculator below to sense-check a draft before it goes to production.

Choosing a style#

Style should follow what the viewer needs to see. Abstract processes suit animation; physical products and human services suit live action; software usually suits a blend of screen recording and simple motion graphics. The full comparison is in animation vs live action.

What separates a good explainer from a forgettable one#

The mistakes that make explainers forgettable#

Most weak explainers fail in the same handful of ways. Each is easy to spot in a script, and each is far cheaper to fix there than after animation or filming.

• Starting with the company. ‘Founded in…’ or ‘We are a leading…’ tells the viewer nothing about their problem. Start with them.
• Inside language. Product names, internal jargon and category acronyms that customers do not use. Borrow the words from sales calls and reviews instead.
• Feature lists. Six features in sixty seconds leaves no memory of any of them. Pick the ones that make the core idea concrete.
• Generic characters. The same smiling illustrated office worker appears in countless explainers. Specific situations and a distinctive look make yours recognisable.
• Narration that describes the picture. If the screen shows a phone, the voice should not say ‘on your phone’. Let each channel do its own work.
• A weak or multiple call to action. One next step, matched to where the viewer is, is enough.

Test comprehension before you launch#

An explainer’s success criterion is testable before a single scene is animated. Read the script, or play a rough animatic, to five or six people who match the target audience and do not know the product. Then ask three questions: what does this company do, who is it for, and why would someone choose it?

If their answers match your one-sentence idea, proceed. If they repeat a feature but not the idea, the script is leading with detail. If they cannot say who it is for, the problem section is too generic. This small test, run in an afternoon, prevents the most expensive kind of rework. The same discipline is described in storyboarding, where animatics make the test even more realistic.

One explainer or several?

Companies with several audiences often try to make one explainer that speaks to all of them. A buyer, a user and a finance approver want different things explained, and one video that addresses all three explains nothing well to any of them. If your audiences genuinely differ, make a short core explainer of the shared idea, then separate short videos for each audience’s main question. Modular scripts make this efficient, because scenes can be shared between versions.

Where to put it#

• Homepage and core landing pages, near the headline, where first-time visitors ask what you do.
• Sales follow-up emails, so prospects can share the idea with colleagues who were not on the call.
• Onboarding, as a reminder of the idea before the detail begins.
• YouTube and search, titled around the question people type. See YouTube SEO.
• Paid campaigns, as a shorter cut that delivers only the problem and the idea.

On landing pages, test whether the video helps. Some audiences prefer to scan text, and a video can push important copy below the fold. Treat it as a hypothesis, as you would any element in landing page design.

Published by Fabulous.Media, a network of specialist marketing agencies. Updated 9 October 2026. Platform features change often; check current official documentation before acting on platform-specific detail.