How to make a launch video for your startup

Published 28 September 2026. About a six-minute read.

A launch video has one job: help a stranger understand what you've built, quickly enough that they keep watching. It isn't a brand film and it isn't a product tour. Think of it as the short, loud version of your homepage, cut for the places where people scroll.

Start with the facts, not the script

Most launch videos go wrong before anyone opens an editor, because they start with adjectives. Fast, powerful and seamless say nothing a viewer can check. Start instead by writing down the facts you could defend: what the product does in one sentence, who it's for, what it costs, a number you can source and a feature that is genuinely yours.

Then check each one against your own website. If a fact isn't on a page you'd happily link to, either publish it there or leave it out of the video. It sounds fussy, but a video travels further than your homepage (it gets reposted without context) and it's the one place you can't add a footnote.

It's also the rule we built Launch Video Maker around. We read your site, list every fact we'd like to put on screen alongside the page it came from, and nothing goes into the video until you've approved it.

What to show

A launch video needs fewer ingredients than you'd think. Five beats cover almost every product:

1. The problem, in the words your customers use. One line.
2. What it is. The product's name and what it does, in one sentence.
3. The product doing its main job. A real screen and a real result, not a mock-up of a mock-up.
4. One piece of proof. A number, a customer, a before and after, or a price that surprises.
5. What to do next. A web address, a handle or the name of the button to press.

If the audience is obvious from the product, you don't need to say who it's for. If it isn't, fold it into the first line. Resist a sixth beat. Each extra idea shortens the time the others get on screen.

The order of beats

On a feed, the first moments decide whether anyone stays, so lead with the most interesting true thing you have. That's often the problem or the result, rarely the logo. A running order that works for most products:

• Hook: the problem or the payoff, stated plainly.
• Name: what the product is called and what it does.
• Show: the product doing the thing, with the part that matters large enough to read on a phone.
• Proof: the fact that makes the claim believable.
• Ask: one call to action, held on screen long enough to read.

For a 30-second cut, a reasonable starting point is about three seconds of hook, five for the name, a dozen for the product, five or six for proof and the last few for the ask. Watch it back on a phone and trim wherever your attention drifts.

How long should it be?

Length follows the job, and the job depends on where the video plays.

• 15 seconds: one idea, one proof point, one call to action. It suits Shorts, Reels, TikTok and adverts, where people haven't chosen to watch you.
• 30 seconds: enough room to show the product working. It's the most flexible length and the one to make first if you only make one.
• 60 seconds: for YouTube, LinkedIn and your own landing page, where the viewer has already decided they're interested.

Shape matters as much as length. Vertical 9:16 is for Shorts, Reels and TikTok; widescreen 16:9 is for YouTube and your website; portrait 4:5 is for feeds. Recut for each one rather than cropping a single version, because a widescreen layout cropped to vertical loses its edges, which is usually where the words were. Our guide to launch video sizes and lengths has the platform limits and safe areas, with links to each platform's own help pages.

Plan for sound off and sound on

Many feeds start a video muted, so every point has to work as text on screen. Keep the words short, large and on screen long enough to read twice. Then let the music reward the people who turn it up: a beat that lands on the cuts makes a simple edit feel deliberate. Don't rely on a voiceover to carry a fact that isn't also written down.

Common mistakes

• Opening on the logo. Nobody knows your logo yet. Put it at the end, next to the call to action.
• Too many ideas. Three features in fifteen seconds reads as none. Pick the one that sells the others.
• Adjectives in place of proof. Swap every "powerful" for something a viewer could check.
• Numbers you can't source. If a customer asks where a figure came from, you should be able to send a link.
• Text too small or too close to the edge. Platform buttons and captions cover the bottom and sides of vertical video. Keep the important words in the middle.
• Three calls to action. Sign up, follow and visit is two too many. Choose one.
• One cut, cropped everywhere. Each shape needs its own layout.

Make it yourself or have it made

You can make a good launch video with a screen recording, a free editor and a quiet afternoon. The hard parts are restraint and legibility, not software. Write the facts down first, cut to the five beats, check it on a phone with the sound off, and you'll be ahead of most launches.

If you'd rather not, Launch Video Maker writes a motion reel from your website. You approve every fact, then pick a style or let us choose, and we produce it in 15, 30 or 60 seconds for the shapes you need, from £9. You can see reels we've made for our own products on the homepage.