An app promo video is a short clip that shows what your app does and why someone should install it. For most launches, make it 30 seconds, vertical (9:16), built as hook, problem, three key screens, payoff and one call to action. Add captions, because most people watch with the sound off, then cut shorter or wider versions for each platform.
Below: what each kind of promo video is for, a second-by-second structure, the formats every platform takes, and how to show your UI so it reads on a phone.
The short answer
- Length: 30 seconds for a launch video, 15 to 30 for ads, 15 to 30 for an App Store preview (Apple's hard limit).
- Shape: make the 9:16 vertical master first. Add 1:1, 4:5 or 16:9 cuts only where you'll post them.
- Structure: hook (0–3 s), problem, three screens, payoff, call to action.
- Sound off: captions on every line, and a story that works without a voiceover.
- UI: real screens, zoomed in, filled with clean fictional data.
What the video is for decides its length
"Promo video" covers four jobs. They want different cuts, so decide which one you are making before you open an editor.
| Use | Where it runs | Length | What it has to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch video | Your site, Product Hunt, X, LinkedIn, an email | 30–60 s | Explain the app to someone who has never heard of it |
| Paid ad | Reels, TikTok, Shorts, LinkedIn and X feeds | 15–30 s | Stop the scroll and earn one tap |
| Store preview | App Store, Google Play | 15–30 s | Show the app working, nothing else |
| Social teaser | Your own accounts | 10–20 s | One feature, one moment, posted often |
The ad and store numbers come from the platforms. LinkedIn recommends 15 to 30 seconds so a video ad qualifies for every placement. Apple requires App Store previews to run 15 to 30 seconds. Google Play only autoplays the first 30 seconds of your preview, muted, and asks you to show the app within the first 10. The store rules are covered in detail in our App Store preview video guide.
If you only make one, make the 30-second vertical launch video. Trimming it down later is easy. Building up from a teaser means starting over.
A 30-second structure that holds attention
| Time | Beat | What's on screen |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 s | Hook | The most striking moment in your app, or one line naming the pain |
| 3–7 s | Problem | The messy before: the spreadsheet, the 12 tabs, the missed reminder |
| 7–22 s | Three key screens | One feature per screen, about 5 seconds each, each with a 3–6 word caption |
| 22–27 s | Payoff | The result: the streak, the booked trip, the empty inbox |
| 27–30 s | Call to action | App name, icon, one instruction: "Free on iOS and Android" or "Join the beta" |
A few rules that make this work:
- Open on motion, not a logo. Your logo means nothing to a stranger yet. Save it for the last three seconds.
- One workflow, not a feature list. The three screens should be three steps of one job: add a plant, get a reminder, see it bloom. A tour of unrelated features reads as a menu, not a story.
- Three screens, not eight. Pick the steps someone would explain to a friend. Everything else goes on your website.
- One idea per caption. If a caption needs two lines, the scene is doing too much.
- One call to action. "Download, follow us and join the Discord" gets you none of the three.
A fill-in script
Fill this in before you record. If a cell is hard to fill, the video will be hard to watch.
| Beat | Seconds | Caption (3–6 words) | Shot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | 0–3 | "Your ___, in ___ seconds" | The best moment in your app |
| Problem | 3–7 | "No more ___" | The messy before |
| Step 1 | 7–12 | Verb + object | Screen where the job starts |
| Step 2 | 12–17 | Verb + object | The key interaction, zoomed in |
| Step 3 | 17–22 | Verb + object | The screen that finishes the job |
| Payoff | 22–27 | The result, in plain words | The finished state |
| Call to action | 27–30 | One instruction | Icon, name, where to get it |
Cutdowns: 30, 15 and 6 seconds
Cut shorter versions by dropping beats, not by speeding everything up.
- 15 seconds: hook, one step, payoff, call to action. Good for ads and teasers.
- 6 seconds: hook, payoff, app name. That fits YouTube's bumper ad slot, which Google caps at 6 seconds, and works as a looping social post.
Formats: which shape goes where
| Ratio | Pixels | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|
| 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Stories. LinkedIn accepts it too. |
| 1:1 | 1080 × 1080 | Square feeds. LinkedIn accepts it, and YouTube files it as a Short. |
| 4:5 | 1080 × 1350 | LinkedIn's recommended ratio for vertical video ads |
| 16:9 | 1920 × 1080 | YouTube, your website, Product Hunt and LinkedIn in landscape |
What the platforms say, checked October 2026:
- Instagram Reels: Meta's ads guide recommends 9:16 for Reels, and now for Instagram feed video ads too. Keep text out of the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side, where the app's buttons and captions sit.
- TikTok: 9:16 is the recommended in-feed ad shape. 1:1 and 16:9 are accepted.
- YouTube Shorts: any square or vertical video up to three minutes long is filed as a Short. Use 16:9 if you want it treated as a regular video.
- LinkedIn: 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16 are all accepted for ads, with 4:5 as the recommended vertical ratio. Captions go in as an SRT file.
- X: we couldn't load X's ad specs page when we checked, so confirm current shapes on business.x.com before you export.
The practical setup: make 9:16, then add a 16:9 cut for your website and Product Hunt, and a 4:5 or 1:1 cut if LinkedIn or X matters to you. Design every scene with the caption in the middle of the frame, so each cut is a re-crop, not a redesign.
Captions, music and pacing
Feeds and store pages often play your video with the sound off. Google Play says its preview autoplays muted, and Meta's ads guide marks captions as "recommended" for Instagram Reels and feed video. Plan for silence:
- Burn in your key lines. Big, high-contrast text, in the safe zone, on screen long enough to read twice.
- Add real captions too where the platform supports them, like LinkedIn's SRT upload. They help people who rely on them, and the burned-in text won't cover every word of a voiceover.
- Use music for rhythm. Cut on the beat. Licensed or royalty-free only: a copyrighted track can get your ad rejected or the audio muted.
- Check what the license covers. "Royalty-free" means no per-play fees, not free for any use. Make sure it covers paid ads, and keep the license. On YouTube, copyrighted music can put ads on your video, and Google Play won't accept a preview video with ads on it.
- Keep scenes short. A new shot every 1.5 to 3 seconds feels quick without being frantic. Hold a little longer on the payoff.
- Test it muted on a phone. If the story still makes sense with the sound off and the phone at arm's length, it works.
How to show your UI so it reads
A full-screen recording of your app, shrunk into a social feed, is unreadable.
- Zoom in on the action. Start on the full screen for a beat, then push in on the button, chart or card the caption is about.
- Use a device frame sparingly, and never in an App Store preview. A frame helps people understand they're looking at an app. A frame plus a background plus a hand is three things to read at once. In a 9:16 video, the screen can often fill the frame on its own.
- Use fictional demo data. Never show real users' names, messages or photos. Fill the app with believable sample content: tidy names, round-ish numbers, a streak that looks earned. Store rules apply too: Google asks for the actual in-app experience, and Apple wants previews built from captures of the app itself.
- Clean up the status bar. Full battery, full signal, a neat time, no notifications.
- Animate between real states. Tapping, scrolling and screens sliding in look like the app. Effects your app doesn't have will look like a promise you can't keep.
From our sample kits
Our samples page has three sample apps we made to show the approach. Each is a 30-second 9:16 video:
- Momentum (habit tracker): a first-run video that opens on the streak screen, walks through setup, and ends on a week of checked days.
- Sprout (plant habit app): a core tour that follows one plant from first photo to full bloom, so the three key screens tell a single story.
- Encore (concert trip planner concept): a features video that shows tickets, travel and the hotel in one flow, one feature per beat.
Each also has three matching posts cut from the same scenes: one video, many cuts.
DIY or hire someone
You can make a good promo video yourself with a screen recorder, a video editor (CapCut, DaVinci Resolve or iMovie), an optional mockup tool and a free afternoon, especially if you follow the structure above and keep it to 30 seconds. Where it gets slow is the polish: smooth zooms, caption timing, clean demo data and four cuts for four platforms.
If you're weighing tools against freelancers and studios, we broke down the real costs in how much an app promo video costs. For the rest of launch week, see the app launch checklist, what to prepare for Product Hunt, and the exact App Store screenshot sizes to match.
Get a promo video made for your app
We make app promo videos from your screens, in your colors, fonts and logo, with fictional demo data and captions built in. The Starter plan is $99 for a 30-second 9:16 promo video, three social posts, three App Store screenshots and three Google Play screenshots in phone and tablet sizes, plus share copy. The Launch Kit adds three videos and six posts, and extra formats (1:1, 4:5 or 16:9) are $29 each. See what the work looks like on our samples page, then ask for a free 10-second teaser before you pay anything.