The landscape of explainer videos is evolving rapidly as we approach 2026. Video marketing is becoming increasingly important for brand engagement, SEO benefits, and meeting audience expectations across various platforms, making it essential to integrate explainer videos into your overall strategy. To succeed next year, focus on crafting explainer videos that are clear, engaging, and tailored to your target viewers’ needs.
Choosing the right explainer video style—such as animation, live-action, or other creative concepts—and leveraging modern video creation tools are key to simplifying complex messages and maximizing viewer engagement.
By focusing on these strategies, you’ll be well-positioned to create fantastic explainer videos that drive results in 2026 and beyond.
Top 10 Best Explainer Video Examples of 2026
Session AI
Created by Levitate
- Purpose & Context: Session AI uses this 2D animated explainer video to showcase how its e-commerce behavioral AI predicts customer purchase intent in real time. The video simplifies a highly technical process—analyzing behavioral data—to demonstrate how brands can personalize experiences and increase conversion rates through AI-driven insights.
- Why It Works: It takes a complex SaaS concept and turns it into a clear, visual story, excelling at breaking down complex ideas into easily understandable visuals. The clean 2D animation, friendly icons, and fluid motion guide the viewer through abstract ideas like machine learning and intent prediction without jargon. This balance of clarity and sophistication helps position Session AI as both innovative and approachable—a must for tech audiences evaluating AI solutions.
Certainly.io
- Purpose & Context: Certainly.io’s 2D animated explainer video introduces its AI-powered chatbot for e-commerce sales teams, showing how it automates customer interactions and boosts conversions. In just over a minute, it clarifies what the product does, who it helps, and how it stands out from other chatbot solutions in the market.
- Why It Works: The hand-drawn animation and dynamic motion graphics give the video a distinct creative edge, while the sound design—specifically the use of sound effects like browser clicks and checkout tones—immerses viewers in the online shopping experience. The voiceover and script directly address common e-commerce pain points, creating empathy and understanding. This mix of relatable storytelling, thoughtful pacing, and brand personality makes the explainer both engaging and memorable.
Closet Factory
Created by Levitate
- Purpose & Context: Closet Factory’s mixed media live action explainer video introduces viewers to the company’s custom home organization services, highlighting how they design personalized storage solutions for every room. The goal is to give potential clients a quick, engaging overview of the brand’s craftsmanship, design process, and range of offerings.
- Why It Works: By combining live action video elements of real homes with motion graphics and text overlays, the video creates a polished yet approachable tone. This mixed media approach helps humanize the brand and showcase real results—turning what could be a simple service overview into a visual proof of quality and customization that builds trust with homeowners.
Klaviyo
- Purpose & Context: Klaviyo’s product tour explainer video gives marketers a clear overview of how its marketing automation platform works. The video walks viewers through the interface, demonstrating how brands can build personalized campaigns, automate customer journeys, and analyze results—all in one place.
- Why It Works: The bright, on-brand visuals and well-synced voiceover make a complex platform feel simple and inviting. By showcasing the actual computer screen with real product screens and adding social proof through recognizable brand logos, Klaviyo builds instant trust and credibility. Showing the computer screen helps viewers understand the platform’s features more clearly. The pacing ensures the viewer absorbs key features without feeling overwhelmed—turning a software demo into a confident, conversion-focused explainer that speaks directly to its marketing audience.
HID
Created by Levitate
- Purpose & Context: HID’s 2D isometric explainer video simplifies the complex world of identity and access management technology. The goal is to clearly communicate how HID’s secure solutions protect data, devices, and digital identities across industries, making it easier for IT decision-makers to grasp the platform’s full value.
- Why It Works: The isometric animation style effectively visualizes multi-layered digital systems, showing data flows and security checkpoints in a clean, intuitive way. The video avoids technical jargon, making the cybersecurity concept accessible to a wider audience. By blending technical precision with visual clarity, the video turns an abstract cybersecurity concept into a digestible narrative, reinforcing HID’s expertise and reliability in the identity technology space.
Airbnb
- Purpose & Context: Airbnb’s animated explainer video introduces its Co-host program, which allows property owners to share hosting responsibilities with trusted partners. The video’s goal is to clarify how the system works, who can participate, and how it helps hosts manage their listings more efficiently.
- Why It Works: The simple animation and clear narration make the concept immediately understandable, even for new users. By focusing on real hosting scenarios and showing how co-hosting lightens the workload, the video delivers a practical and reassuring message. Its clean visual style and approachable tone align perfectly with Airbnb’s brand, making the program feel trustworthy and easy to join.
Digital Realty
Created by Levitate
- Purpose & Context: Digital Realty’s mixed media explainer video highlights the company’s data center connectivity and cloud solutions, showing how they enable seamless data exchange across global digital ecosystems. The video aims to clarify Digital Realty’s role as a foundational infrastructure provider for cloud and enterprise networks.
- Why It Works: By blending isometric 2D animation with live-action elements, the video makes the invisible world of data flow and interconnectivity feel tangible. The mix of technical clarity and visual storytelling helps audiences quickly grasp how Digital Realty bridges the gap between cloud providers, enterprises, and end users—positioning the brand as both innovative and essential in modern digital infrastructure. The video uses effective video storytelling to make complex technical infrastructure concepts relatable and engaging for viewers.
Shopify
- Purpose & Context: Shopify’s live action explainer video breaks down exactly what Shopify is and how it works, walking viewers through the platform’s core features—from website themes and inventory management to payment processing and business funding. By using live action explainer videos, Shopify demonstrates its platform with real people and scenarios, helping aspiring entrepreneurs understand how Shopify simplifies launching, managing, and scaling an online business.
- Why It Works: This short video nails a top trend in SaaS communication: educating through clarity and simplicity. The plainspoken voiceover, paired with real interface visuals, makes the platform’s capabilities easy to grasp for beginners while reinforcing credibility for seasoned business owners. Its short, structured timeline and feature highlights align perfectly with how modern audiences learn online—visual, modular, and value-first. Shopify’s piece stands out as a benchmark for clear, conversion-focused SaaS education videos.
Detechtion Technologies
Created by Levitate
- Purpose & Context: Detechtion Technologies uses this video to showcase its oil and gas field operations and asset management solutions. The video illustrates how the company’s technology optimizes equipment performance, enhances safety, and reduces downtime across remote industrial sites.
- Why It Works: The 3D animation brings complex field environments and machinery to life with impressive animation, helping viewers visualize how Detechtion’s software integrates with physical assets in real-world conditions. By combining technical accuracy with cinematic visuals, the video makes an otherwise specialized product feel accessible, efficient, and indispensable to energy sector decision-makers.
Honda x SiriusXM
- Purpose & Context: Honda and SiriusXM’s screencast explainer video walks viewers through the entire process of setting up SiriusXM in Honda vehicles. The video’s purpose is to provide clear, step-by-step instructions for new car owners, reducing confusion and support requests while improving the onboarding experience.
- Why It Works: The screencast format is perfectly suited for a “how-to” tutorial, showing exactly what users will see in their dashboards. Its straightforward pacing, on-screen guidance, and concise narration make the process easy to follow. By pairing functional clarity with brand consistency, the video delivers practical value while reinforcing Honda and SiriusXM’s commitment to a seamless driver experience.
What Makes Explainer Videos Effective in 2026
Successful explainer videos balance entertainment and education, meeting higher audience expectations for production quality and personalization. Engaging animation and a well crafted explainer video are essential for capturing attention and delivering educational videos that resonate.
Important trends:
- AI-Powered Personalization: Dynamic content adapts to viewer demographics and behaviors, increasing click-through rates by 67%.
- Micro-Interaction Design: Subtle animations and interactive hotspots keep viewers engaged and improve retention.
- Multi-Sensory Storytelling: Spatial audio, haptic feedback, and synchronized cues create immersive experiences, enhancing brand recall.
Great explainer videos and engaging videos balance entertainment and education to meet audience expectations. These innovations strengthen emotional connections and improve conversion rates, evolving beyond traditional animated video formats.
Trending Explainer Video Formats in 2026
Popular formats reflect changes in content consumption, especially mobile-first viewing. Choosing the right video type—such as animations, live action, or AI-generated content—is crucial for audience engagement:
- Vertical-First Mobile Explainers:
- Optimized for 9:16 aspect ratio on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts
- Length: 45-60 seconds with hooks in first 3 seconds
- Text overlays and captions for sound-off environments
- Concise video formats are especially effective for mobile audiences, delivering clear information quickly and holding attention.
- Interactive Branching Narratives:
- Choose-your-own-adventure style with multiple story paths
- Higher completion rates due to active viewer participation
- Incorporate interactive elements such as synchronized voiceovers, illustrations, and social proof badges to boost engagement and persuasive impact.
- Analytics track viewer choices for conversion optimization
- Augmented Reality Product Demos:
- Visualize products in real environments via smartphone cameras
- Effective for furniture, fashion, home improvement
- Reduces return rates by 64% through accurate visualization
- Whiteboard Animations:
- A popular video type for explainer videos, whiteboard animations effectively communicate complex ideas in an engaging and visually appealing way.
Creating High-Converting Explainer Videos for 2026
Video production has evolved with new tech and audience expectations. Businesses can now easily create explainer videos using accessible video creation platforms, allowing them to quickly produce their own explainer video tailored to their brand and audience. Modern tools make it simple to create explainer videos that are both effective and affordable.
Key focus areas include:
- Script Development and Storyboarding:
- A well-written video script is the foundation of any successful explainer video, helping to communicate complex ideas clearly and engage viewers.
- AI-assisted scriptwriting and collaborative storyboarding streamline creation
- A/B testing scripts improves performance
- SEO keywords and brand voice integrated naturally
- Production Technology and Tools:
- Cloud-based animation software enables remote collaboration
- AI voice synthesis for consistent narration in multiple languages
- Automated subtitle generation for global reach
- A dedicated production manager coordinates the project, schedules next steps, and facilitates communication between the client and the production team throughout the explainer video creation process.
- Post-Production and Optimization:
- Automated video compression maintains quality while reducing file size
- Multi-platform export optimizes for social media algorithms
- Analytics track viewer behavior for continuous improvement
- The goal is a seamless process from creation to delivery, ensuring convenience and efficiency for all stakeholders.
Platform-Specific Optimization Strategies for 2026
Tailor your video content to each platform for maximum impact and ensure you produce high quality videos. Investing in high quality explainer video production helps your brand stand out, while well-structured video stands are essential for showcasing products effectively through engaging and accessible content.
- YouTube and Long-Form Content:
- Maintain a dedicated YouTube channel for explainer and marketing videos to build your brand and reach a wider audience
- Use Shorts alongside full-length videos for wider reach
- Include chapter markers and timestamps for navigation
- Organize content with playlists and consistent branding
- Enhance viewer engagement by incorporating background music and upbeat music that complement your visuals and voiceover
- LinkedIn and B2B Targeting:
- Emphasize business value and ROI metrics
- Native uploads outperform external links
- Maintain professionalism with engaging emotional and intellectual appeal
- TikTok and Viral Potential:
- Use trend-jacking, popular sounds, and hashtag challenges
- Balance education with entertainment
- Strong hooks in first seconds are critical
The evolving explainer video landscape demands both creative excellence and technical sophistication. Staying informed about trends and best practices will help you capture attention and drive conversions in 2026.
The above examples and strategies offer practical guidance to create next year’s best explainer videos. Embrace AI, personalization, and interactivity while keeping communication clear and results measurable for business growth and customer education.
FAQ
What video length performs best for explainer videos in 2026?
- Optimal length: 60-90 seconds; vertical videos 45-60 seconds perform well on social platforms.
- Content complexity should guide length decisions.
How much should companies budget for professional explainer video production?
- Basic animated videos: $5,000-$15,000
- High-end custom productions: $25,000-$75,000+
- AI tools enable quality videos under $3,000 using hybrid approaches.
Which animation styles work best for B2B vs B2C audiences?
- B2B: Clean, professional animation, data visualization, whiteboard styles
- B2C: Colorful, character-driven, emotional storytelling
- Industry and audience matter more than B2B/B2C distinction.
How can small businesses compete with large corporation budgets?
- Focus on authenticity, niche targeting, AI-powered tools
- Use simpler styles or hybrid screen recordings with animation
- Leverage trending formats like vertical videos and interactivity.
What metrics should be tracked to measure explainer video success?
- Completion rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, engagement (shares, comments)
- Advanced tracking of viewer behavior and attribution to conversions
- For B2B, also track lead quality and sales cycle impact.
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