Make an app video

November 26, 2013

Two weeks ago, we released a re-designed version of Connect for iOS 7. As the first weeks went well both for downloads and retention, we decided to shoot a demo video for the app. We wanted to show how it works to potential new users and see if a video could help us get more traction and increase conversion rates. With no budget, here's what we've done.

Watch video on Vimeo

Write a little synopsis

Writing a synopsis was not that hard because we went public a few weeks before, so we already had some opportunities to talk with users and measure users' activities. We looked at the most used features and compare them with what users told us about the way they use the app. Then based on several use cases, we introduced the main features and possibilities of the app.

Aaaaandd action!

Here's the fun part! We thought we needed a video camera and a stabilizer but none of us had one... We asked friends but finally we decided to make a try with an iPhone 4S and see how the video quality looked like. Surprisingly, the quality was better than expected! So on a sunny day, we made several serious shots in my own living room.

And after a couple of tries, we had what we needed and started video editing. We made it simply with Apple's iMovie. It's a perfect easy-to-start-with tool when you want to make a short demo video. In one hour - watching tutorials + editing - we came up with something that works. Then a hard part was to find a great music for the video. Honnestly, we spent around 2 hours trying a lot!

Views and conversions

We first showed the demo video to our families and friends, and everyone found it cool. So when we launched the iOS 7 redesign release, we also published the demo video on Vimeo and started sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn.

We got about 400 views the first 3 days with a 40% conversion rate for downloads. I used shortlinks to track viewers who go check Connect in the Appstore and guess 90% of them have downloaded the app (this matches with our download stats). Until now, the app demo video is the marketing channel which has the higher conversion rate.

 

Feel free to watch the app video is available in HD on Vimeo.

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