12 of the Best App Explainer Videos (And Why They Work)

There are nearly nine million mobile apps. Statistically, less than one percent of them succeed. Marketing being one of the reasons behind the failure. A good video will be a boost to any app marketing strategy so with that in mind, here are 12 of the best app explainer videos that may help inspire something similar and generate the results you need.

Med Mart

You don’t see many 3D explainer videos. That’s because you need to spend considerably more money than with 2D videos to make them look good. This divine 3D number from Med Mart hasn’t held back on the visual quality. It’s for a cosmetic surgery booking app so this focus on looks is hardly surprising.

Looking beyond the eye candy though, this video’s magic lies in its beautifully simple and engaging app demo. Instead of limiting itself to only displaying the app’s UI, the app demo takes a step back, looks at the overall process of making bid requests on cosmetic surgery jobs, and presents it in the simplest, easiest to watch, and most engaging way possible.

Soopa

Very impressed by how this video bases its intro hook around large amounts of text whilst using minimal voice-over. A bold move. Normally the smart move would be to make a hook take as little effort as possible from the viewer – i.e. having the sales message with a clear voice-over from start to finish. But this quick succession of very relatable text messages is as effective as anything. 

I think the fact that the messages make the viewer work a bit is actually a strength. Plus, having just text messages is a more accurate depiction of how the problem actually plays out in real life.

Need Done

What I love about this video is how it perfectly matches its visual style with the product’s brand voice. The product is an app for helping overwhelmed parents. It can provide a life raft for when parenting gets so hectic you want to scream. And it’s designed to facilitate care through comradery. This care factor is why the visuals are the complete opposite of the kind of sharp, harsher graphics you might see on say, a fin-tech app.

The graphics are deliberately scribbly, friendly, and ‘unpolished.’ Along with the cute sound design and smiling, unthreatening characters, as a viewer, you subconsciously feel that this product has your back. 

I’m by no means saying that this style of design and animation is better than something more clean cut. This style may be unsuitable for say, the legal industry or cloud computing. But what I am stressing is that the best app explainer videos have a clear tone of voice and make sure their visual look and feel match that.

Call Me Out

If I were to ask you to imagine an app that promoted safety, the image you’d build would be duller than an accountant’s interior design choices. The creators of this video were clearly aware of this potential pitfall when they briefed this. The result of course is anything but boring.

Using some of the most engaging animation in town, a celeb endorsement, and a mini-app demo at the end, this explainer video does everything it can to make prioritizing road safety the cool thing to do. It’s also only 30 seconds long: zero chance of the video dragging and becoming boring.

Nest Express

This video really makes the most of the fact that it’s animated. Despite having zero speech and zero text, it perfectly illustrates a problem before presenting Nest Express as the solution. There are so many explainer videos out there that use text and dialogue but have an unclear message. This video removes all the unnecessary visuals and all the unnecessary audio so that you’re left with a sales message you can’t help but absorb. Plus, it’s very funny.

Photomath

Since we’re on the topic of videos that work without audio, here’s another beautiful lesson in simplicity. No need for a clever hook or other common sales techniques. Since the application is so neat and simple, all the makers of Photomath needed to do was show its magic in action. 

Granted, the app is so cool that it sells itself. But a less competent explainer video producer might have decided to complicate things unnecessarily with a V.O, funky animation, etc., etc.

Chatbooks

On the other hand, some products can benefit from an all-out sales pitch. The script for this makes you feel like this app is such a good idea that saying no would be foolish. Its over-the-top hook, its multiple counterarguments to potential objections, and its ease of purchase are enough on their own to make you watch all 3 minutes and 50 seconds. But with all that humor layered on top of it, and the catchy strapline it makes many other explainer videos look lazy.

The new Microsoft Office App

Microsoft has a slightly different challenge than most when launching a new app. People are already very familiar with the Microsoft brand and Microsoft Office. All this app needed to do was tell people that the programs they know (Word, Powerpoint, etc.) are now available in the palm of your hand. 

Quite understandably Microsoft has avoided complicating things by adding a voice-over or even a product demo. Instead, they’ve gone for hardcore eye candy. Pulling out the big guns with luscious 3D work, showing off the office tasks we’re familiar with in the coolest possible way. No clever sales pitch required.

Headspace

If I had to bet, I imagine that the main challenge this brief wanted to tackle was the fact that meditation wasn’t seen as a worthwhile practice and reserved only for hippies and monks. The video ticks the right boxes with things like friendly, uplifting animation, and a warm down-to-earth voice-over. Great for making the audience feel the peace and joy that Headspace is selling. However, the pitch the voice-over gives is where the real magic happens.

It smoothly outlines the benefits of meditation – something basically any human will want. It also addresses and overcomes the main objection that I’m guessing most of their target audience has: “it’s not for the average person like me.” It does this by saying that Headspace is for all experience levels, and then offers a mini demo and overview of the app, showcasing all the different goals and use cases the app can be applied to.

Kinjo

If you have an aversion to f-bombs and puerile humor, then you may not enjoy this number from Kinjo. Thankfully the video puts these qualities to good use. Kinjo has clearly gone all-in on making something that shouts loudly and doesn’t try to be all things to all people. Going by the quality of the animation I would imagine they didn’t have much cash to spend on production. So this all-or-nothing approach to the script makes total sense.

The video’s in your face, unapologetic, screw you attitude to greedy 2nd hand game dealers is what makes this video so memorable and effective. It also serves as the perfect example of shouting your brand’s message loudly and proudly, even if it’s a little rude.

BRD

There’s a lot of confusing and complicated chat around Bitcoin these days. So this explainer video from BRD needs to address that.  Its friendly intro line – “let’s say you’ve managed to buy some Bitcoin” – assumes that the audience is made up of casual Bitcoin owners. Then, with the help of a calmly voiced V.O., it outlines the problem many Bitcoin owners face; cybercrime.

What I particularly like about this video is that it treads the careful line between drawing attention to a very real problem and scaremongering. With Bitcoin and cryptocurrency being surrounded in doubt over their legitimacy and security, people need all the reassurance they can get.

The video then finishes things off by presenting BRD as the solution to your Bitcoin security issues and assures the viewer that one of their biggest potential concerns (losing their Bitcoin wallet) won’t be a problem. 

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Final thoughts

The best app explainer videos will make the app they’re promoting feel like such a useful addition that any viewer would be silly to not at least give it a go. I like to think all the above videos do that job. One thing to note is that all the above videos solve a very real problem and (in some cases) do it in a very cool way. 

To make the best app explainer videos you need to have a good app to sell. And you need to have product-market fit. No clever app demo or sales pitch is going to sell a product that doesn’t make users’ lives better. 

At Bullseye Motion we make sure that every tech product we make a video for has the basics locked down. A clear, defined audience and a good strong use case. Otherwise, you’re throwing darts at an invisible dartboard. If you’ve got your audience in your sights and know that a good quality explainer video is what your brand needs, then click below to book a meeting with me, Bullseye’s creative director, and we can talk about the best approach for your business.

P.S. all comments and feedback on this blog are appreciated! If there’s any way you think it could be improved, then feel free to shout and I’ll see if I can work them into a redraft. xx