App promo video for launch - must or nice to have?

Guillaume Mathieu
37 replies
For those who have already released an app on Appstore / Playstore / ProductHunt: can you share your opinion about the app promo video: do you think it is a must that will determine the success of your launch or just something nice to have? Also please share your experience on how you created such promo material in early-stage (tools, templates, use of freelance services,...) Thanks!

Replies

Mark Prutskiy
We made an app promo video. It hurt our conversion to App Store. So we removed it. I'd say it's so optional and one of an experiment for ASO.
Debajit Sarkar
Must! If you were one of your customers, between an app with a promo video and a comparable app without it, what would you choose? Thatโ€™s right. In front of your competitors, a promo video offers you an advantage since it demonstrates to your users that you took some time to present them your app in a more inviting and entertaining manner. How did we create our promo video: 1. Wrote the script that describes the problem and how our app will solve the problem. 2. Kept the video short. Just a 50 sec video. 3. Recorded voice using a high-quality USB microphone and audio recording software Audacity. To generate a human-like voiceover used text to speech software. 4. Created visuals using the app Animaker. Downloaded stock videos from Pexels and Pixbay since they are free for use. Added music tracks from YouTube Audio Library and Premium Beat. 5. Edited the video using Camtasia.
Guillaume Mathieu
@dsarkar wow thanks for all the tips and sharing the extensive toolbox you used to make your video! Quite impressed to see there is possibility to something good with just min cost (but I guess quite a bit a of effort, but yeah if it helps differentiate and stand out of the crowd its is great value). Thanks a lot again!
Giovanna Pergher
@dsarkar thank you for sharing. We are divided between creating a video in-house or finding a third party, so that toolkit is quite helpful!
Joel Sturmfels
@dsarkar I've had similar advice from marketing friends in terms of length and content. I'm yet to actually try it and see the results first hand however.
Daniel Engels
Videos usually get greater engagement. But I believe it's better to have nothing than an unprofessional video.
Hina Ashfaq
As an audience, I would prefer a promo video that can easily explain the whole product within a minute or so.
Guillaume Mathieu
@sidra_arif or even shorter for stores, considering app store's requirements (<30s) and user's attention span!
Arun Pariyar
In my time here in PH since April. I have seen products with and without and seen both the approaches work. Personally I would say that if you do make a video to do the best you can and poorly done video is worse than no video. Hope you find something that works for you โœŒ๏ธ
Guillaume Mathieu
@arunpariyar thanks for that!, Seems like a consensus >> poor video can definitely hurt, better none in that case
Dylan Merideth
Seems like its good only if its a high quality production, I think a promo video can also be useful for a paid ad campaign in addition to the PH page
Sohini Mukherjee
We made an App Promo video for Playstore and it really helped our conversion. It acted as the first step for the user to get to know the app before they could download it. I think if you really invest in a good video that provides value and insight into the app, it is definitely worth it.
Guillaume Mathieu
@sohini_mukherjee1 Thanks for sharing your experience! Would you be OK to share the link to that video?
Bhavik Singh Minhas
Hey Guillaume, I hope you're doing awesome! Not really sure how to answer that, as we're launching for the first time this week too... But as per the tons of research I've done over weeks, it's a pretty cool thing to have.
Guillaume Mathieu
@bhavikminhas so you ended up doing one? When are you launching?
Bhavik Singh Minhas
@guillaume_mathieu1 We're launching this Friday... but we finished creating our media assets last weekend.
Bhavik Singh Minhas
Hey @guillaume_mathieu1 As mentioned, we launched today... you can check us out at www.producthunt.com/posts/longsh...
Bhavik Singh Minhas
Thank you so much @guillaume_mathieu1 If you have any feedback or queries, I'll be happy to help you.
Jay Song
Tough question. People don't read text! but they don't watch a poor video either.
Valdis Takeris
Everybody comments about good and poor video, but what's good and what's bad? Also in the video you have few seconds only to grab attention. If you can make an attention grabber in first few seconds, then also un-expensive video will work well. The most important - it should tell the story so there is no doubt anymore what is your product. Or even better - what problem do you solve. If you succeed with it, perfect. Otherwise also cool video may not help you.
Guillaume Mathieu
@valdist Resonates well with some recent reading (educating myself on app marketing) https://www.julian.com/guide/gro... >> the author makes a point about how messaging (ie: communicating the value proposition) is of utmost importance, and cool stuffs around are nice but may get in the way of your messaging. My favorite quote: "People don't have short attention spans, just short consideration spans"
Saif Ullah Khalid
Well, I haven't launched anything yet but as a user, I find it informative to have a promo video. It is more convenient than reading out lengthy paragraphs.
Launching soon!
Video is the hottest way to market your app. It's a great way to show off your product and tell your story. And a great app video can make all the difference between success and failure.
Patricia
We did ours for Kairn internally like pure QuickTime + online editing ๐Ÿ˜… worked great !! But then recently saw some amazing ones (loved the one from Claap yesterday > meow.ph/claap) so maybe next one will do a pro. Super interesting thread thanks ๐Ÿ™
Guillaume Mathieu
@patricia_bsc_kairn Looking at all today's launches >> impressive videos everywhere, many look very pro-made.
Mahyad
It is not really a make it or break it anymore to have a video, we had a pretty good launch on Product Hunt for SigmaOS but only had pictures, but there are also launches with app promo video that are pretty good as well. It really depends how much time you can spend on it
Vitaly Nikolaev
I think that videos and animation are one of the best ways to catch the eye
Anastasiia K
I'd that's a must that is nice to have :) Why a must? Video marketing is an essential part of marketing, which is especially necessary for an early product launch. People should be able to feel your product or learn about its basic features. It all depends on the video you decide to make - focus on emotions, trigger the desire to interact with your product - that's totally up to you and your branding/marketing strategy. Yet, do not rush it and better invest a bit in the video creations. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to get good quality content at a fairly low cost.