Tips For Creating Compelling App Preview Videos

The number of the apps in major app stores is increasing every day, as does the competition between similar apps in a category. If you are an app developer, believe me, designing a great app should not be your only concern. In this continuously evolving market, your app must be found by users when they search for it.

App Store Optimization (ASO) is a great way to increase the visibility and download numbers of your app. With ASO, you should find relevant keywords for your app and optimize your app’s name, title and description with them. This will increase the rank of your app in searches, but getting found isn’t your only solution. You need to convince users to download your app instead of your competitors available in your category. Research shows us that visual components have a greater influence on users to choose the app they need, so you should make your app’s icon, screenshots and preview video as appealing as possible. I explained How to create effective screenshots before and in this article, I am going to explain some useful tips for creating effective preview videos.

You Need a Plan

So, you will create a compelling video and convince users how fun or useful your app is. That’s great, but how? Before creating your video, you need to answer a few questions like; “How will you show users what your app is about?” or after you decide what features or functions of your app in preview video, “How will your preview video flow?”. If you come up with a solid plan, your job will be significantly easier. Your plan should include:

• The unique feature(s) that separate your app from others in the same category
• The individual scenes for each key feature you choose and organizing them in a compatible order.
• A poster frame (a static screenshot that your video starts on).
• Time limitations of Google Play and iOS App Store and Google Play that you need to comply with.

Make Your Video More Attractive

You create your preview video by the book. It shows users what your app is about, like it is supposed to do. So you finished the job, right? Of course not. You can make it more attractive by adding text, music and voiceover.

• Text – Developers usually use additional text on screenshots, but you can also use it to enhance your preview video. Some features can be understood easily, but others may need some text explanation. In that case, you can use text to explain the feature or highlight important aspects of your app.
• Music – Using music as a backing for video is a great way to make it more attractive. You can use the music that you already use in your app or any other music that fits the onscreen action.
• Voiceover – Sometimes, your app can’t speak for itself and you need to use voice to explain onscreen action, but make sure that it’s 100% necessary. If you’re targeting multiple regions, localization will be a problem in the App Store. You should also keep in mind that in order to get the maximum effect, the voice you use should be unique. If your voice is not that unique, you need to hire someone to do the voiceover for you.

There are rules…

And lastly, there are a few things you should know about the regulations for both App Store and Google Play:

• You can put 30 sec. length vi­deo ­in the App Store and 2 mi­n. length vi­deo i­n Google Play.

• While Google Play allows you to localize preview video, the App Store doesn’t. This means that Google Play allows you to link different videos for the languages it support, but in the App Store, you can only use one language to reach as many audiences as possible.
• Your preview video should not look like an advertisement.
• For the App Store, you should create different videos for iPhone and iPad apps.
• Apple doesn’t allow usage of live action footage. You should use screen captions.
• Everything you include in preview video should have a license. Don’t use anything otherwise.

I think you have everything you need to create a compelling preview video. If you have any additional tips, please be sure to leave a reply in the comments section.