Motion design video for SaaS: what an agency costs, and how to do without one

Why so many SaaS products still have no video

Price stops many founders. An explainer costs from $1,500 with a freelancer to $20,000 at a professional agency, and one minute of animation takes four to eight weeks of production.

The calendar is just as much of a problem. A SaaS product changes every month: new features, sometimes a new interface. A video that takes six weeks often lands after the announcement it was meant to carry, and already shows a screen that has changed.

So many products introduce themselves with a page of text and a few screenshots. Visitors have to read to understand what 30 seconds of video would have shown them.

What is a motion design video for SaaS for?

It answers one specific need, and that need shapes the video. There are five:

• Presenting the product on the homepage: what it does, who it is for, and why to pick it. On release day, that is the launch video.
• Explaining something that text makes abstract, such as an integration or a data flow.
• Announcing a new feature to customers and prospects, with a feature announcement video.
• Running an ad on social media, where the video has to stop the scroll within the first seconds.
• Backing an investor pitch, to show the product running instead of describing it.

A video that tries to do everything does nothing well. Pick one goal per video, and make another video for the next goal.

What a good SaaS video contains

• A hook in the first seconds: the customer's problem, in their own words.
• The problem, stated in one sentence. Viewers should recognize themselves.
• The product in action, with the real interface. An invented screen is easy to spot and breeds doubt.
• The benefit, with a number if you have a true one: time saved, errors avoided.
• A clear call to action at the end: try the product or book a demo.

As for length, 30 to 60 seconds covers most uses. On social media, many people watch with the sound off: the on-screen text has to carry the message on its own.

Four ways to make it

• A motion design agency builds a custom film, with script, storyboard and revisions, for a few thousand dollars, up to $20,000 at a professional agency, and four to eight weeks. It is the safe choice for a brand film.
• A freelancer costs less, around $1,500 per video, but you manage the brief and the schedule yourself.
• A template editor such as Canva lets you make the video yourself. Expect 10 to 20 hours of work if you are not a designer.
• An AI video generator does the work for you. They are not all equal: some invent the image, others animate your real content.

Detailed prices for each option are in our article on explainer video cost, and the tool comparison in AI video generator or motion design agency. To go further, see what AI motion design can do today and, if you run an agency, video production for agencies.

How to choose for your situation

Preparing your video: the checklist

Whatever the option, these save time and avoid back-and-forth:

• One goal, from the five above.
• The person the video speaks to, and the problem they have.
• One promise sentence you would say out loud to a customer.
• Up-to-date screenshots of the interface, or a page of your site that shows it.
• Your logo and your brand guidelines.
• The action you expect at the end, and the address it leads to.
• Where the video will be watched: homepage, LinkedIn, email, pitch deck.

Making your video with Genmotion.design

Genmotion.design works through this checklist for you. You paste your website address and pick the goal: the software reads your copy, colors, fonts and screenshots, writes the script, generates an English or French voice-over, adds music and animates it all. The video, about 30 seconds long in 16:9, is ready in under an hour.

Prices range from a few dozen to a few hundred dollars depending on the plan: one video at a time, or a subscription sized to the number of videos. To see a film made by the software, watch our generator versus agency comparison.

In short

A motion design video for SaaS does what a page of text does badly: it shows the product running, in a few seconds. An agency remains the right choice for a brand film. For everything that follows the pace of the product, a generator costs less and delivers the same day.