B2B Explainer Videos: Examples, Formats & Planning
A software company sends a prospect a link. The prospect forwards it to a technical lead, who forwards it to finance, who shows it to the person who signs. Somewhere along that chain, a two-page PDF gets skimmed and a ninety-second film gets watched all the way through.
That’s the job of a B2B explainer video: a short film that explains a product, service or process to people who are buying for a business, and gives each of them a reason to take the next step. This guide covers the formats that work, an example of each from our own films, who’s actually watching, and how to plan one before anyone opens an animation tool.
We keep this guide to formats, examples and planning. If you’re ready to talk to a studio, our explainer video company page covers how we work on complex B2B products.
B2B explainer videos at a glance
Plan one film for one buyer and one question, pick the format that answers it, keep it to 60 to 90 seconds for a first look and cut shorter versions from the same master for email, social and sales calls.
| Buyer’s question | Format that answers it | Typical length | Where it lives |
| “What is this, and is it for me?” | Concept or overview explainer | 60 to 90 seconds | Homepage, landing pages, paid social |
| “How does your product work?” | Product explainer | 90 seconds to 2 minutes | Product pages, demo follow-ups, sales emails |
| “Can it do the thing I need?” | Feature or workflow film | 45 to 90 seconds each | Help centre, feature pages, sales decks |
| “What happens after we sign?” | How-it-works or process film | 60 to 120 seconds | Proposal pages, onboarding, partner packs |
If you only have budget for one film, make the product explainer. It answers the most common question and every other cut can come from it.
What is a B2B explainer video?
It’s a short video, usually animated, that explains a business product or service to a business audience. You’ll also hear B2B animated videos, B2B animation, animated videos for business and tech explainer videos. The names overlap, and the job is the same: make something complicated easy to understand.
B2B isn’t just B2C with a bigger budget. A few differences change how you plan the film:
- More than one viewer. A purchase usually involves a user, someone technical, someone who owns the budget and a sponsor. The film is often forwarded, so it has to make sense to a person who hasn’t seen the last three emails.
- A longer, more careful decision. People want to be sure before they commit, so a film that shows how something works and where it fits does more than one that only excites.
- A product that's hard to picture. Software, data, finance, logistics and industrial technology are things you can’t film in an afternoon. Animation can show what a camera can’t: data moving between systems, a process behind the scenes, a warehouse at scale.
- A film that gets reused. One B2B film often ends up on a homepage, in a sales email, at a trade-show booth and in an onboarding pack.
Our guide to what an explainer video is covers the basics if you’re new to the format. The rest of this guide assumes you’re deciding which kind to make.
The four formats, by what the buyer is asking
The simplest way to choose a format is to ask which question the viewer is stuck on. Each format below answers a different one, with one of our own films as an example.
1. The concept explainer: “what is this, and is it for me?”
A concept explainer is the first-look film. It states the problem, introduces your approach in one sentence and gives a single next step. It’s the film for a homepage, a landing page or a cold audience, so it should be short and make sense with the sound off.
This film for Vertech, an industrial software and automation business, runs under a minute. It opens with a marathon comparison to make the point that you shouldn’t design a system you’ve never seen run, then moves quickly to the company’s iterative, operator-focused approach, set in an isometric warehouse scene.
Why it works: it sells a method, not a feature list, and the comparison makes sense to someone who has never heard of the company.
If your first film will sit on your site, our website explainer video guide covers placement, length and autoplay.
2. The product explainer: “how does it work?”
This is the workhorse. A product explainer walks the viewer through the problem, the product and the outcome, and shows the product doing something. It’s usually a little longer than a concept film because it has to cover who it’s for and how it fits into their day.
Luminix’s film is a good example. It explains a mobile app that lets field teams work with Salesforce data even when they have no signal, opening on the problem of unreliable connectivity in the field, then showing the interface working on devices, with floating screens over live-action footage.
Why it works: the viewer sees the product in use, in the situation it was built for, so the benefit is obvious without a feature tour.
For software specifically, see our guides to SaaS explainer videos and software animation videos.
3. The feature or workflow film: “can it do the thing I need?”
By the time a prospect is comparing options, a general overview isn’t enough. They want to know whether a specific capability exists and how it behaves. A feature film takes one capability and shows it start to finish.
Cashfac’s film does exactly that for financial software. It’s about one function: allocating incoming deposits to virtual sub-accounts. It shows how deposits are matched, what happens when one can’t be matched automatically and how the allocation file is exported to a company’s own systems. The film stays on that one function.
Why it works: one capability, followed through every step, answers the question a finance or operations lead is actually asking, and it can be dropped into a sales email as a direct answer.
A series of short feature films is also easier to maintain than one long one: when a feature changes, you update one film, not the whole story. Our finance and fintech animation videos page shows more of this kind of work.
4. The how-it-works or process film: “what happens next?”
Late in the buying process, the worry shifts from “does it work?” to “what’s it going to take?”. A process film answers that by laying out the steps: how it gets set up, how it runs and what the buyer needs to do.
Apera’s film for its ViewPod robotic system is built this way. It says what the product does in one sentence, then runs in three numbered steps (calibrate, teach, run), then explains how a customer gets started. The structure makes a technical system feel manageable.
Why it works: a numbered sequence turns an unfamiliar, high-stakes purchase into something a buyer can picture themselves doing.
The same approach suits logistics and supply-chain products, where the value is in how a process runs from end to end. Our logistics and supply chain explainer videos page shows examples.
Who’s watching: the buying committee
Because several people watch, it helps to decide up front who the film is for. You can’t write for all of them at once, but you can write for one and make sure the others aren’t confused.
| Viewer | What they want to know | What the film should show |
| The day-to-day user | Will this make my work easier? | The product in a real task, in plain words |
| The technical evaluator | Does it fit with what we already run? | How it connects to other systems, what it replaces |
| The budget owner | What problem does this solve, and what does it replace? | The problem and the outcome, without jargon |
| The executive sponsor | Is this worth backing? | The point in one sentence, a clear next step |
Pick the primary viewer, write the film for them and test it on someone from another role. If a colleague outside the team can explain it back to you, it’s ready. If you’d like the film to serve a technical evaluator and a budget owner at the same time, make two films from one story instead of one film that tries to do both.
Which style fits your product?
The right style depends on what you’re explaining. Here’s the shortcut we use.
| Product type | Style that tends to fit | Why |
| Software and SaaS | 2D motion graphics, UI-led or screen hybrid | Shows the interface and the workflow around it |
| Data, finance and fintech | Motion graphics, isometric or data-visualisation scenes | Makes flows of money and information visible |
| Industrial, hardware and infrastructure | Isometric or 3D | Shows a physical system at a scale a camera can’t |
| Services and consultancies | 2D characters or typographic animation | Turns a process or method into a story |
| Platforms and AI products | Metaphor-led motion graphics with UI | Explains something abstract without a screenshot tour |
| Customer stories and culture | Live action, or live action with animation | Real people carry the credibility |
Animation is often the better choice when the thing you’re explaining can’t be filmed. Live action is better when the point is a person. Our guide to live action vs animation goes through the trade-offs, and a hybrid of the two is common when you want real people and a product that can’t be filmed.
If your buyers are in a regulated or technical field, the same principles apply with more care over accuracy: our medical animation videos page shows how we handle detailed subjects.
Explaining AI and platform products
Abstract products are the hardest to film and the easiest to over-explain. The temptation is to show every screen. A better approach is to find the one problem the viewer already recognises and show how the product removes it.
Celigo’s film for its AI automation tools does this. It opens by saying that a business can adopt every AI tool and still end up with “intelligent fragments”, because each application only sees its own data, then introduces the platform as the thing that connects them. The story is a single idea: remove the walls between systems.
Why it works: it frames the product around a problem the viewer’s own team has lived with, so the product doesn’t need a long introduction.
How to plan a B2B explainer video
Most weak B2B films were weak before a script existed: the audience was vague, the goal was “awareness”, and the brief was a list of features. A short planning pass fixes most of that. Here’s the order we’d follow.
- Choose one viewer. Name the role and the situation. “Operations lead at a mid-sized distributor who has just heard about us from a colleague” is a brief; “decision makers” isn’t.
- Write the one question. What is that person stuck on? It should be the question from the table above, in their words.
- Choose one next step. Book a call, start a trial, watch the next film, forward it to a colleague. One, not three.
- Pick the format. Concept, product, feature or process, based on the question. If the answer is “all of them”, start with the product explainer and plan the others as a series.
- List what has to be true. The three or four facts that must come across, plus anything the film must not claim. Have someone in legal or product confirm any outcome you plan to state.
- Write the script, then the storyboard. The script comes first and is read aloud; the storyboard shows what each line looks like. Our guides to writing a video script and the storyboard stage cover each step.
- Agree the cut-downs now. Decide which shorter versions you’ll need before you animate, because it’s far cheaper to plan them in the storyboard than to cut them from a finished film.
The order of the film itself is just as simple. A structure that suits most B2B films:
- Hook. Start with the viewer’s situation, not your logo.
- Problem. The cost or friction they already recognise.
- Solution. What you do, in one clear sentence.
- How it works. Two or three steps, shown rather than listed.
- Proof. A credible reason to believe it, such as the type of customer it serves or a real, checked number if you have one.
- Next step. One call to action, matched to where the film sits.
If you’re deciding on a studio or partner for the production, our guide to choosing an explainer video company lists the questions worth asking.
Get more from one film: cut-downs and reuse
A B2B film isn’t a one-off. Because a purchase takes a while and several people, the same film gets used in more places than a consumer ad would. Plan these from the master:
- A 15 to 30 second cut for LinkedIn and paid social, which is usually the hook, the problem and the next step.
- A sales-email version, a 30 to 45 second cut that answers the question the email is about.
- A feature clip library, short films for individual capabilities that sales teams can send on request.
- A silent, looping version for a trade-show screen or a lobby display.
- A captioned version for people watching at their desk with the sound off.
Our 30-second explainer video guide covers when a short cut is enough, and our explainer video length guide covers how long each version should run.
Common mistakes in B2B explainer videos
| Mistake | What to do instead |
| Opening with the company history or logo | Open on the viewer’s problem |
| A feature tour of every screen | Choose the three things the viewer needs, and show them in use |
| Jargon that only your team uses | Write for a smart colleague from another department |
| One film for every stage of the buying process | One format per question, cut from the same story |
| Writing for “decision makers” in general | Pick one viewer and test it on another |
| No next step, or three of them | One call to action matched to where the film sits |
| Treating the film as finished on launch day | Plan cut-downs and a refresh when the product changes |
| Starting with the animation style | Start with the question, then choose the style |
What a B2B explainer video costs and how long it takes
At Animation Explainers, projects typically range from $6,000 to $35,000 and beyond, depending on length, style and complexity. Our cost guide explains what moves the price. A typical 60 to 90 second animated explainer takes about 4 to 6 weeks from kick-off to final delivery, and our production process walks through each stage.
You get three rounds of revisions, one at each stage, and you own the rights to your finished video. For more of our work, browse the explainer video examples or our portfolio.
Ready to plan your B2B explainer video?
We make explainer videos for B2B and tech brands, and we’ll tell you honestly which format fits your product and your buyers. If you’d like a second opinion on your brief before you commit to anything, get in touch and tell us who the film is for and what you want them to do next. You can also read our full explainer video guide for the production side.
FAQ
What is a B2B explainer video?
A B2B explainer video is a short, usually animated, film that explains a business product or service to a business audience. It’s built to make something complicated easy to understand and to give each viewer in a buying group a reason to take the next step. Most run 60 to 90 seconds.
How long should a B2B explainer video be?
60 to 90 seconds for a first-look film, and up to two minutes for a product explainer that has to show the product in use. Feature clips can be 45 to 90 seconds each, and cut-downs for social or email are 15 to 45 seconds. Our explainer video length guide has the reasoning.
What types of B2B explainer video are there?
Four main types: concept explainers, product explainers, feature or workflow films and how-it-works or process films. Each answers a different question a buyer asks as they move from first look to a decision. The styles they’re made in, such as 2D motion graphics, isometric or 3D, and live-action hybrids, are a separate choice.
What makes a good B2B explainer video?
One viewer, one question and one next step. It opens on the viewer’s problem, uses plain language, shows the product doing something and ends with a single call to action. It should also make sense with the sound off.
Is animation or live action better for B2B?
Animation when you're explaining something you can't film, and live action when the point is a person. Software, data, finance and industrial systems usually suit animation. Customer stories and company culture often suit live action, and a hybrid combines both. Our live action vs animation guide goes through it.
Where do B2B explainer videos fit in the sales process?
At every stage, with a different film each time. A concept explainer sits on the homepage and in ads, a product explainer in demos and sales emails, a feature film in evaluation and a process film in proposals and onboarding. Plan them as a set cut from one story.
How much does a B2B explainer video cost?
Animation Explainers projects typically range from $6,000 to $35,000 and beyond, depending on length, style and complexity. A typical 60 to 90 second animated explainer takes about 4 to 6 weeks. You get three rounds of revisions, one per stage, and you own the finished video.
How do you plan a B2B explainer video?
Start with one viewer, one question and one next step, then choose the format. After that, list the facts the film has to land, write the script, storyboard it and decide which cut-downs you’ll need before production starts. The planning list in this guide takes you through it step by step.
What is a B2B explainer video?
A B2B explainer video is a short, usually animated, film that explains a business product or service to a business audience. It’s built to make something complicated easy to understand and to give each viewer in a buying group a reason to take the next step. Most run 60 to 90 seconds.
How long should a B2B explainer video be?
60 to 90 seconds for a first-look film, and up to two minutes for a product explainer that has to show the product in use. Feature clips can be 45 to 90 seconds each, and cut-downs for social or email are 15 to 45 seconds. Our explainer video length guide has the reasoning.
What types of B2B explainer video are there?
Four main types: concept explainers, product explainers, feature or workflow films and how-it-works or process films. Each answers a different question a buyer asks as they move from first look to a decision. The styles they’re made in, such as 2D motion graphics, isometric or 3D, and live-action hybrids, are a separate choice.
What makes a good B2B explainer video?
One viewer, one question and one next step. It opens on the viewer’s problem, uses plain language, shows the product doing something and ends with a single call to action. It should also make sense with the sound off.
Is animation or live action better for B2B?
Animation when you’re explaining something you can’t film, and live action when the point is a person. Software, data, finance and industrial systems usually suit animation. Customer stories and company culture often suit live action, and a hybrid combines both. Our live action vs animation guide goes through it.
Where do B2B explainer videos fit in the sales process?
At every stage, with a different film each time. A concept explainer sits on the homepage and in ads, a product explainer in demos and sales emails, a feature film in evaluation and a process film in proposals and onboarding. Plan them as a set cut from one story.
How much does a B2B explainer video cost?
Animation Explainers projects typically range from $6,000 to $35,000 and beyond, depending on length, style and complexity. A typical 60 to 90 second animated explainer takes about 4 to 6 weeks. You get three rounds of revisions, one per stage, and you own the finished video.
How do you plan a B2B explainer video?
Start with one viewer, one question and one next step, then choose the format. After that, list the facts the film has to land, write the script, storyboard it and decide which cut-downs you’ll need before production starts. The planning list in this guide takes you through it step by step.
