You've been building for months. The product is ready. The landing page is live. Now you need a video.
This is the moment where most SaaS companies make their most expensive marketing mistake: they treat the launch video as an afterthought. Something to throw together in the last two weeks before launch day.
Here's how to do it properly.
Start with the launch strategy, not the video
The video is a tool. Before you decide what it should look like, you need to know what it needs to accomplish.
Three questions to answer first:
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Who is seeing this and where? A video for your Product Hunt launch is different from a video for LinkedIn ads is different from a video for your homepage hero. The audience, context, and intent are different for each.
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What's the single action you want after watching? Sign up? Join the waitlist? Share with a colleague? Visit the site? Pick one. Videos with multiple CTAs underperform videos with one.
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What does success look like in 30 days? Views? Signups? Revenue? Be specific. "Go viral" is not a strategy.
The launch video stack
Most successful SaaS launches don't rely on a single video. They use a stack of content, each piece serving a different function:
The hero video (Required)
Your primary launch video. 30-90 seconds. This is the piece that does the heavy lifting: captures attention, communicates the core value, and drives the primary CTA.
This video should be the highest production value piece in the stack. It's the first impression. It sets the tone for everything else.
Social cuts (Required)
3-6 short-form pieces (15-30 seconds each) designed for organic social distribution. These aren't cut-down versions of the hero video — they're standalone concepts that share the same visual DNA.
Each social cut should work independently in the feed. If someone never sees the hero video, each social cut should still make sense and drive interest.
Product walkthrough (Recommended)
A longer-form piece (2-5 minutes) that shows the product in detail. This lives on your website and gets shared by your sales team. It's for the audience that's already interested and wants to evaluate.
Don't make this on launch day. Make it in the two weeks after launch, once you have feedback on what questions people are actually asking.
Ad creative (If running paid)
If you're spending money on acquisition, you need dedicated ad creative. This is not your hero video with a different CTA slapped on. Ad creative should be designed from scratch for the platform, the audience targeting, and the conversion objective.
Budget allocation
Here's how we'd allocate a launch video budget at different levels:
$5K total budget:
- Hero video: $3K (60s, animation/motion graphics)
- Social cuts: $2K (4 pieces, derived from hero concepts)
- Skip the walkthrough — record a clean Loom instead
$10K total budget:
- Hero video: $5K (90s, cinematic quality)
- Social cuts: $3K (6 pieces, standalone concepts)
- Product walkthrough: $2K
$20K+ total budget:
- Hero video: $8K (full creative development)
- Social cuts: $5K (8+ pieces, platform-native)
- Product walkthrough: $3K
- Ad creative: $4K (multiple variants for testing)
Timeline
Here's the realistic timeline for a SaaS launch video, assuming you're working with a professional studio:
Week 1-2: Strategy and creative development. Define the concept, write the script, create storyboards. This is where most of the important decisions happen.
Week 3: Production. Animation, motion graphics, or whatever the production style requires. This is where AI-accelerated studios have a massive advantage — what used to take 3 weeks now takes 3-5 days.
Week 4: Polish and delivery. Sound design, color grading, format versions, and final revisions.
Total: 4 weeks for premium quality. 2 weeks if working with an AI-accelerated studio.
If your launch is in less than two weeks and you haven't started the video yet, you have two options: delay the launch or accept that the video quality will be compromised. There is no third option.
Distribution strategy
The best launch video in the world fails if nobody sees it. Here's the distribution playbook:
Day 0 (Launch): Hero video goes live on homepage, Product Hunt, and primary social channels simultaneously. Social cuts stagger throughout the day.
Day 1-7: Paid distribution begins. Test multiple ad variants with different hooks, targeting different audience segments. Kill underperformers fast — within 48 hours.
Day 8-14: Double down on winning ad creative. Begin retargeting video viewers who didn't convert. Share the product walkthrough with interested prospects.
Day 15-30: Shift from launch mode to evergreen mode. The hero video becomes your homepage asset. Social cuts get repurposed into an ongoing content cadence. Ad creative continues to optimize.
The one thing most teams forget
After launch day, the video still needs to work. Your homepage hero video will be seen by every visitor for months or years after launch.
Design the video to be evergreen. Don't reference specific dates, events, or temporary offers. Don't say "just launched" — say something timeless about what the product does and why it matters.
The launch is one day. The video lives forever. Build it for the longer timeline.
