The best explainer videos are not the prettiest; they are the ones that make a stranger understand in under two minutes what took your sales team fifteen. Here are example structures for the four kinds of explainer, what makes viewers stay, the mistakes that make them leave, and how to measure an explainer by what it produces.
Example 1: the live-action explainer for a service
A real client states the problem in one sentence. A team member explains what changes, on site. Three steps shown, not listed: the request, the work, the delivery. A number the company is allowed to give. One next step. Ninety seconds. Works for services, trades, healthcare, education: anywhere trust matters and the work can be seen.
Example 2: the motion design explainer for software or finance
The user's frustration drawn in ten seconds. The product as a simple diagram, not a screenshot tour. One scenario followed end to end. A comparison before and after. The call to action on screen. Sixty to seventy-five seconds. Works for the abstract: software, finance, processes, data.
Example 3: the screen capture demo
A voice that speaks like a colleague, not a narrator. One task completed from start to finish, no menu tour. Cursor movements slowed, dead time cut. Chapters if longer than two minutes. Works for onboarding and sales demos, and only as well as the script.
Example 4: the hybrid explainer for B2B
A person on camera for trust, animated overlays for clarity: the founder or an expert explains, and the numbers, diagrams and interfaces appear beside them. Ninety seconds. The most common right answer for B2B, because it combines the two things a buyer needs.
What makes viewers stay
The first five seconds name the viewer's problem, not the company. One idea per video. A structure the viewer can feel: problem, change, how, proof, next step. Real footage or clean design, never stock characters. A voice that fits the audience. A length that respects the job: earn the next conversation, not explain everything.
The mistakes that make them leave
Starting with the logo. Listing features. A script written by the people who know too much. Stock music filling the argument. No proof. No next step. Three minutes when ninety seconds would do.
Measure by inquiries, not views
An explainer on a sales page is measured by the inquiries that page produces before and after, and by the sales conversations that got shorter. Ship it with its page and its counter. Studio FLF shoots live-action and hybrid explainers alongside its corporate films in Miami, with real people and real places, and delivers the measurement with the film.
If your team repeats the same explanation every week, tell us what it is: that is the explainer.