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12 Types of Explainer Videos + Examples (2026)

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12 Types of Explainer Videos with Examples
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Contents

What kind of videos help the audience understand the product/service better and start their journey through the marketing funnel?

It is through explainer videos. They are short, intriguing, and explain about a product or service. They are usually 60-180 seconds long. They use a conversational tone and are popular for marketing purposes.

Explainer video services can help make core information digestible through creative and engaging visual elements. It also captures attention and maintains interest. They give introductions to products/services, detailing their functionality, offering overviews, and simplifying user interface.

According to HubSpot, 96% of consumers watch explainer videos to learn more about a product.

Before creating an explainer video for your marketing needs, here are a few questions to ask.

  • What type of explainer videos are best for explaining software functionalities and capabilities?
  • What kind of various business processes can explainer videos be used in?
  • How can explainer videos help reduce the number of support calls?

Let us explore the reasons for their effectiveness and the various types of explainer videos you can try out.

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12 Types of Explainer Videos

Below are a few different types of explainer videos that you can use for your business.

1. Whiteboard Explainer Video

Whiteboard explainer videos explain how the “scribe-ology method” is used to make messages more attractive through hand-drawn animation.

Use: They are best used for simplifying complex concepts, product walk-throughs, and step-by-step explanations.

Benefits: These videos make it easier to understand complex concepts.

2. Motion graphics Explainer Video

This video uses motion graphics and smooth transitions to explain subscriber acquisition, personalized communications, and automated invoicing.

Need something like this for your product?

Use: They are best used for showing stats, charts, data-driven facts, and trends.

Benefits: These videos are visually appealing and if by any chance you are looking for a creative production partner, read more about our motion graphics animation services.

3. 2D Animation Explainer Video

These types of explainer videos use 2D animations and characters to show how to order food and track it using a mobile phone application.

Use: They have a story or character-focused approach to explain a product or service.

Benefits: 2D explainer videos are versatile. This increases brand recognition and helps businesses convey a specific message.

4. 3D Animation Explainer Video

The video uses 3D animations and visual storytelling. It explains how the product helps in simplifying SEO workflow for businesses.

Use: Best explainer videos for presenting complex workflows, products, or services in an engaging format.

Benefits: These videos excel at immersive storytelling, making them futuristic and visually impactful. For more inspiration, check out our curated collection of the best 3D explainer videos.

5. Live-action Explainer Video

This video has actors and a storyline explaining why and how HubSpot’s CRM can be used to analyze a client’s history, pending tasks, sales forecasts, etc.

Use: Best used to effectively show emotions and human elements, using relatable stories involving real people, settings, and objects to explain products/services.

Benefits: They are Relatable and memorable, Increasing authenticity and creating an emotional connection. See more such examples in our curated collection of the best live-action explainer videos.

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6. Screencast Explainer Video

This video shows Notion’s user interface to explain how you can use the platform for organizing, managing projects, and creating to-do lists all in one place.

Use: They are best for creating tutorials and how-to videos for the product/service, explaining UI, and Communicating software updates and upgrades.

Benefits: They easily communicate the software functionalities and capabilities.

7. Infographic Explainer Video

This video uses infographics, icons, arrows, and bold text. It explains how the product can be used for precise targeting and customer acquisition.

Use: They help simplify complex data or research with charts, maps, icons, and graphics.

Benefits: Effective for presenting data-driven content.

8. Typography Explainer Video

This video uses contrasting colors, shapes, logos, and bold text. It explains how Apple will make all its products carbon-neutral by 2030.

Product launch next month, but your design team is already at capacity?

Use: These types of explainer videos are effective for brand introduction, and communicating brand values, and culture.

Benefits: They grab the attention of prospects with powerful words/phrases and clear, bold facts.

9. Stop-motion Explainer Video

This video uses stop-motion techniques and simple backgrounds. It uses cutouts of simple drawings to explain how businesses can easily do invoicing.

Use: To creatively explain product/service and for brand recognition.

Benefits: These videos stand out with their unique style, making them memorable.

10. Cut-out Style Explainer Video

This video uses cut-out images and graphics to explain product features such as automated recording, personalized feedback, and seamless integration to improve the hiring process.

Use: These types of explainer videos create a narrative, highlighting key features and functionalities of the product/service.

Benefits: These videos have a unique visual appeal, making them suitable for businesses that want to stand out with a distinct and creative style.

11. Stock Footage Explainer Video

This video uses stock footage, bold text, and the product’s UI to illustrate booking classes, reserving tables, checking menus, and storing cards for easy payments.

Need something like this for your product?

Use: These types of explainer videos are used for narrating the story of a product or service and explaining its use cases.

Benefits: They can be easily combined with motion graphics and are cost-effective. Get more product video inspiration from our collection of best product explainer videos.

12. Mobile App Explainer Video

Mobile app explainer videos highlight the mobile app UI and have stock videos in the background. This video helps new users understand a broad content library without making the app feel dense or difficult to navigate.

Use: These types of explainer videos show the user interface. Also, they provide instructions for performing specific tasks on mobile apps.

Benefits: They improve users’ grasp of the software’s features, making it easier for them to use the app

Brands utilize diverse types of explainer videos to engage audiences and deliver information effectively.

Various types of explainer videos cater to different communication styles and preferences. Before choosing the style that suits your business:

  1. Identify the types of explainer videos your target audience watches.
  2. Research competitor video styles.
  3. Where will your video be primarily showcased and what style of videos are popular on that platform?
  4. Consider cost for explainer video production.
  5. Identify types of explainer videos that can highlight your brand personality and values.

The scriptwriting process becomes faster and more focused when guided by a clear explainer video brief that outlines tone, audience, and objectives.

Conclusion

Explainer videos can effectively communicate the brand’s solutions and keep the prospects interested. They are highly beneficial for SEO, are affordable, and subtly persuade the prospects to make a purchase.

They simplify complex ideas through visual storytelling. Different types of explainer videos can be used for business processes, including brand introduction, product explanations, employee onboarding, and training.

Explainer videos are flexible and can be used at various stages of the funnel. The top is for building brand awareness, the middle is for communicating the brand’s value proposition, and the bottom is for addressing FAQs.

Looking for an explainer video company for ongoing production? ContentBeta provides a dedicated Creative Director, defined turnaround times, and asset-based credits for teams producing explainer videos regularly.

You can review our service engagement model to see how we handle requests, revisions, delivery timelines, and recurring creative needs.

Read the ABBYY case study to see how ContentBeta created explainer videos for ABBYY that translated complex AI topics such as LLM integration and Agentic Automation into visual stories for technical and enterprise audiences. The engagement included product explainers alongside product launch videos, case study videos, and other video assets.

See how our video production services can support your team.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How long should a typical explainer video be?

A typical explainer video should be 60-120 seconds long.

The cost range for producing different types of explainer videos is for:

  • Whiteboard animation: $2000 to $5000,
  • 2D animation: $2,000 to $5,000, 
  • 3D animations: $5,000 to $10,000.

You can choose the right type of explainer video for your business according to the target audience, budget, and goals.

The turnaround time for creating an explainer video is 4-8 weeks.

Common mistakes to avoid in explainer video production are missing out on CTA, focusing too much on product features, not using clear audio and underusing visual elements

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Rishabh Pugalia

Rishabh Pugalia, CMO/Co-founder, ContentBeta. He advises B2B SaaS companies on brand visibility & product adoption through video & design. He believes in AI-assisted, human-in-the-loop workflows for scaling marketing ops.
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