
The Process of Explainer Video Production Services: A Complete Guide to Creating Videos That Convert
You have 8 seconds to capture someone's attention online. That's it. In a world drowning in content, businesses are turning to explainer video production services to cut through the noise and communicate complex ideas in ways that stick. But here's what most companies get wrong: they think any video will do. The reality? The difference between a video that gets skipped and one that converts comes down to process.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through the complete process of explainer video production services, from initial strategy to final delivery. Whether you're considering professional explainer video services for the first time or looking to understand what separates great video production from mediocre, you'll discover the proven framework that transforms abstract concepts into compelling visual stories.
What Are Explainer Video Production Services?
Explainer video production services encompass the end-to-end creation of short, engaging videos designed to explain products, services, concepts, or processes in a clear and compelling way. Unlike generic video content, professional explainer videos are purpose-built to simplify complexity, drive understanding, and motivate action within 60-90 seconds.
These services typically include:
- Strategic messaging and scriptwriting
- Visual concept development and storyboarding
- Professional animation or live-action production
- Voiceover recording and sound design
- Revisions and optimization based on your feedback
- Multiple format delivery for various platforms
The best explainer video production companies don't just create pretty visuals. They become embedded creative partners who understand your business objectives, audience pain points, and desired outcomes. This strategic approach is what transforms a simple video into a powerful conversion tool.
Why Businesses Invest in Professional Explainer Video Services
The numbers tell a compelling story. According to Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing 2024 report, 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. But the real impact goes deeper:
Conversion and Engagement Benefits:
- Landing pages with explainer videos see up to 86% increase in conversions
- Viewers retain 95% of a message when watching a video compared to 10% when reading text
- Social media posts with video generate 48% more views than those without
- 84% of consumers say they've been convinced to make a purchase after watching a brand's video
Business Communication Advantages: Beyond marketing metrics, explainer videos excel at internal communication. Corporate explainer video production helps onboard employees faster, explain complex procedures, and maintain consistency across global teams. Training videos reduce onboarding time by 60% and improve information retention significantly compared to traditional documentation.
Cost-Effective Scalability: While the upfront investment in quality explainer video production services may seem significant, these assets work 24/7 across multiple channels. A well-produced explainer video can serve your homepage, sales presentations, social media, email campaigns, and trade show booths simultaneously. The cost per impression drops dramatically over time compared to traditional advertising.

The Complete Process of Explainer Video Production Services
Understanding the explainer video production process helps you partner more effectively with your production team and ensures better outcomes. Here's the proven framework used by top explainer video companies.
Phase 1: Discovery and Strategy (Week 1)
Before a single frame is animated or filmed, successful projects begin with deep discovery. This phase separates amateur video production from strategic explainer video services.
Strategic Intake: Your production partner should conduct comprehensive discovery sessions to understand your business context, not just your video needs. Key areas include your unique value proposition, target audience demographics and psychographics, competitive landscape, specific business goals for the video, and existing brand guidelines and messaging.
Audience Research and Messaging: The best animated explainer video production starts by understanding who you're talking to and what keeps them up at night. Professional teams analyze your audience's pain points, objections, decision-making criteria, and preferred communication styles. This research directly informs the creative approach, ensuring your video speaks directly to viewer motivations rather than just listing features.
Creative Brief Development: This phase culminates in a comprehensive creative brief that outlines the video's objective, core message, tone and style direction, success metrics, and production timeline. This document becomes the north star for the entire project, ensuring alignment between your team and the production company.
Phase 2: Scriptwriting and Messaging (Week 1-2)
The script is the foundation of your explainer video. Professional explainer video scriptwriting follows proven frameworks that engage, educate, and motivate within 60-90 seconds.
Script Structure That Converts: Effective explainer video scripts follow a time-tested structure. They open with a hook that acknowledges the viewer's problem or desire, present the challenge or pain point your audience faces, introduce your solution in clear, benefit-focused language, explain how it works through simple demonstration, address objections preemptively, and close with a clear, compelling call to action.
The Art of Simplification: One of the most valuable aspects of professional scriptwriting services is the ability to distill complex concepts into accessible language. Corporate explainer video production often involves technical products or abstract services. Expert writers translate jargon into conversational language, break down multi-step processes into digestible sequences, and use metaphors and analogies that create instant understanding.
Voiceover Casting Considerations: During script development, your team should also consider voiceover needs. The right voice becomes the personality of your brand. Considerations include tone (authoritative vs. friendly vs. enthusiastic), demographic match to your target audience, accent and regional considerations, and pacing that allows for visual comprehension.
Phase 3: Visual Concept and Storyboarding (Week 2-3)
With the script approved, the visual storytelling begins. This phase transforms words into images and establishes the visual language of your video.
Style Selection: Explainer video production services offer various visual approaches, each with distinct advantages. 2D animation offers versatility and cost-effectiveness, perfect for abstract concepts and brand storytelling. 3D animation provides depth and realism, ideal for product demonstrations and technical explanations. Motion graphics excel at data visualization and modern, sleek presentations. Whiteboard animation creates an educational feel, excellent for training and complex explanations. Live-action with graphics combines human connection with informational overlays.
Your choice should align with brand personality, audience preferences, and message complexity. Affordable explainer video production doesn't mean compromising on style; rather, it means selecting the approach that delivers maximum impact for your specific needs.
Storyboard Development: Storyboards are the blueprint of your video, showing the visual flow frame by frame. Professional storyboards include shot descriptions and visual elements, camera movements or animation transitions, on-screen text and graphics placement, timing indicators for pacing, and notes on audio elements and sound design.
This stage is crucial for alignment. It's far easier to adjust concepts on storyboards than during animation or filming. Top explainer video companies build in revision rounds here to ensure you're 100% confident before production begins.
Phase 4: Production and Animation (Week 3-5)
This is where the magic happens. Depending on whether you've chosen animation or live-action, the production process varies significantly.
Animated Explainer Video Production: For animation projects, production involves several detailed steps. Asset creation builds all characters, backgrounds, and graphic elements. Style frames establish the color palette, typography, and overall aesthetic. Animation brings the storyboard to life with movement, timing, and transitions. Effects and polish add texture, lighting, shadows, and fine details that elevate production quality.
Professional 2D animation explainer video production typically takes 3-4 weeks for a 60-90 second video, depending on complexity and revision rounds. Custom character design, intricate movements, and detailed backgrounds extend timelines but create truly unique assets.
Live-Action Production: For live-action explainer videos, the process includes pre-production planning covering location scouting, talent casting, and shot list creation. Production day involves the actual filming with professional equipment, lighting, and direction. B-roll capture gathers supplementary footage to support the main narrative. Graphics integration plans for motion graphics and text overlays in post-production.
Corporate video production services for live-action require more upfront planning but deliver authentic human connection that animation can't replicate. The choice depends on your message and brand personality.
Phase 5: Voiceover and Sound Design (Week 4-5)
Audio represents 50% of the viewer experience. Professional sound design elevates good videos to great ones.
Professional Voiceover Recording: Quality explainer video production companies work with extensive voiceover networks. The process includes casting auditions with 3-5 voice options, directed recording sessions to capture the perfect read, timing adjustments to sync with visual pacing, and revision options if the initial recording needs tweaks.
Professional voiceover isn't just about having a good voice. It's about performance, bringing your script to life with appropriate emotion, emphasis, and pacing that guides viewer attention.
Music and Sound Effects: Sound design creates emotional resonance and enhances storytelling. Elements include licensed background music that matches your brand and message tone, custom sound effects that emphasize key moments and transitions, audio mixing that balances voice, music, and effects perfectly, and mastering for consistent volume across platforms.
The right music transforms viewer perception. Upbeat tracks create energy and optimism, while more subdued options convey professionalism and trust. Professional music licensing ensures you can use your video anywhere without copyright concerns.
Phase 6: Review, Revisions, and Finalization (Week 5-6)
Quality assurance separates professional explainer video production services from amateur work.
Structured Revision Process: Reputable production companies build revision rounds into their packages, typically offering 2-3 rounds of revisions at different stages. The first draft review allows for significant changes to animation, timing, and overall approach. Polish revisions address minor adjustments, text corrections, and fine-tuning. Final approval confirms the video is perfect before delivery.
Collaborative Feedback: The best video production partnerships involve clear, consolidated feedback. Rather than collecting comments from multiple stakeholders via email, professional teams often use video review platforms that allow timestamped comments directly on the video. This eliminates confusion and ensures efficient revisions.
Delivery and Formatting: Upon final approval, professional services deliver your video in multiple formats optimized for different platforms. Standard deliverables include high-resolution master file for archiving and future use, web-optimized version for website embedding, social media formats sized for Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and vertical versions for TikTok and Instagram Stories. You should also receive project files and raw assets for future edits (depending on your contract).
How to Choose the Right Explainer Video Production Company
Not all video production services are created equal. Here's what to look for when evaluating potential partners.
Portfolio Quality and Diversity: Review their previous work critically. Look for visual quality and production value, script quality and messaging clarity, diversity of styles and industries served, and videos that actually explain complex concepts clearly. A company might create beautiful videos that don't actually achieve business objectives. Ensure they demonstrate strategic thinking, not just design skills.
Process Transparency: Top explainer video companies clearly communicate their process, timelines, and deliverables upfront. Red flags include vague timelines, unclear revision policies, and lack of strategic discovery. You want a partner who asks probing questions about your business, not just someone who asks about your logo colors.
Client Testimonials and Results: Look beyond general praise. Strong testimonials mention specific outcomes like conversion improvements, engagement metrics, or business impact. Ask potential partners for case studies that demonstrate measurable results.
Pricing and Value: Explainer video production costs vary widely, typically ranging from $3,000 to $20,000+ depending on style, length, and complexity. Affordable explainer video production doesn't mean cheap; it means efficient processes and clear scoping that delivers maximum value. Be wary of extremely low prices, which often indicate offshore production, template-based approaches, or hidden costs for revisions.

Best Practices for Maximizing Your Explainer Video Investment
Once you have a professionally produced explainer video, strategic deployment multiplies its impact.
Strategic Placement: Place your video prominently on your homepage above the fold, embed it in key landing pages targeting specific audiences, include it in sales presentations and proposals, share it across social media with platform-specific optimizations, and incorporate it into email campaigns for nurture and onboarding.
A/B Testing and Optimization: Test different video thumbnails to improve click-through rates, experiment with placement on landing pages, try various calls-to-action, and analyze viewer drop-off points to identify opportunities for re-cuts.
Measurement and ROI: Track relevant metrics to demonstrate video ROI including view completion rates, conversion rate impact on pages with video, engagement metrics (shares, comments, likes), and lead quality and sales cycle impact for B2B companies.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Explainer Video Production
Learn from others' errors to ensure your project succeeds:
Skipping Strategy: Jumping straight to production without clear objectives, audience research, and messaging strategy leads to beautiful videos that don't move business metrics.
Overcomplicating the Message: Trying to say everything results in saying nothing effectively. The best explainer videos focus on one core message and one clear call to action.
Neglecting Mobile Optimization: Over 70% of video views happen on mobile devices. Ensure text is readable, visuals work on small screens, and your video loads quickly.
Choosing Style Over Substance: Trendy animation styles might look cool, but if they don't serve your message or resonate with your audience, they're just noise. Always let strategy drive creative decisions.
The Future of Explainer Video Production Services
The explainer video landscape continues evolving. Current trends shaping the industry include interactive videos that allow viewers to choose their own path, personalized videos that address viewers by name and company, AI-assisted production tools that reduce timelines and costs while maintaining quality, and vertical-first formats optimized for mobile and social platforms.
However, the fundamentals remain constant: clear messaging, compelling storytelling, and strategic alignment between your video and business goals. Technology changes, but human psychology and effective communication principles don't.
Conclusion: Transform Complex Ideas Into Compelling Stories
The process of explainer video production services is both an art and a science. When executed strategically, these videos become powerful assets that clarify your value proposition, engage your audience, and drive measurable business results.
The key is partnering with explainer video production services that prioritize strategy alongside creativity, offer transparent processes and clear communication, deliver measurable value beyond just pretty visuals, and act as embedded creative partners rather than transactional vendors.
Whether you need animated explainer video production, corporate training videos, or product demonstration content, the right process ensures you maximize your investment and create video assets that work for years to come.
Ready to transform your complex ideas into compelling visual stories? Contact The Aux Co to discuss your explainer video production needs. Our team combines strategic thinking with world-class creative execution to deliver videos that don't just look great—they drive results. Let's create something remarkable together.

Frequently Asked Questions About Explainer Video Production Services
How long does explainer video production take?
Professional explainer video production typically takes 4-6 weeks from initial kickoff to final delivery. The timeline includes discovery and scriptwriting (1-2 weeks), storyboarding and visual development (1 week), production and animation (2-3 weeks), and revisions and finalization (1 week). Rush services are available but may incur additional costs. The timeline can extend if complex custom animation, multiple stakeholders, or extensive revision needs are involved.
How much do explainer video production services cost?
Explainer video production costs typically range from $3,000 to $20,000+ depending on several factors. Basic 2D animated explainer videos with simple graphics start around $3,000-$5,000. Mid-tier custom animation with character design and detailed storyboarding ranges from $7,000-$12,000. High-end 3D animation or live-action production with actors can exceed $15,000-$25,000. Factors affecting cost include video length, animation complexity, revision rounds included, voiceover talent level, and turnaround time requirements.
What's the ideal length for an explainer video?
The optimal explainer video length is 60-90 seconds, which translates to approximately 140-200 words of script. Research shows viewer engagement drops significantly after 90 seconds, so brevity is crucial. However, length should ultimately be determined by message complexity and platform. Homepage explainer videos work best at 60-75 seconds, social media videos should be even shorter at 30-60 seconds, detailed product explanations can extend to 90-120 seconds, and training or internal videos may run longer when necessary.
Should I choose animated or live-action explainer videos?
The choice between animated and live-action explainer video production depends on your message, audience, and brand. Choose animation when explaining abstract concepts or services, demonstrating software or digital products, wanting complete creative control over visuals, needing easy updates and localization, or working with limited budgets. Choose live-action when building personal trust is paramount, showcasing physical products or locations, featuring customer testimonials, targeting audiences that prefer human connection, or when your brand personality benefits from real people.
What's the difference between 2D and 3D animation for explainer videos?
2D animation creates flat, illustrative visuals that work well for conceptual explanations, brand storytelling, and cost-effective production. It's typically faster to produce and easier to update. 3D animation provides depth, realism, and the ability to show products from any angle, making it ideal for technical demonstrations, product visualization, and creating premium brand perception. 3D animation requires more time and budget but delivers photorealistic results. Most businesses find 2D animation perfectly suited for their explainer video needs, with 3D reserved for specific product visualization requirements.
How do I measure the ROI of my explainer video?
Measure explainer video ROI by tracking conversion rate changes on pages featuring the video, comparing sales cycles for prospects who viewed versus didn't view, monitoring engagement metrics like completion rate and social shares, calculating cost per acquisition impact, and surveying sales teams about the video's usefulness. Use tools like Google Analytics event tracking, heatmaps showing video engagement, A/B testing comparing pages with and without video, and CRM integration tracking video views in the sales funnel. Most businesses see positive ROI within 3-6 months through increased conversions and reduced sales cycle length.
Can I update my explainer video after it's completed?
Professional explainer video production services should provide you with options for future updates. If you receive project source files (often available for an additional fee), you can work with your original production company or another agency to make updates. Common updates include text or data refreshes, new call-to-action changes, logo or branding updates, and minor messaging adjustments. Significant changes might require partial or full reproduction. When planning your initial video, consider creating modular designs that allow for easier updates, avoiding time-sensitive references that quickly become outdated, and negotiating source file ownership in your initial contract.
What information should I prepare before starting an explainer video project?
To ensure a smooth explainer video production process, prepare clear project objectives and success metrics, detailed information about your target audience, your unique value proposition and key differentiators, existing brand guidelines and visual assets, product or service details and key features, customer pain points and common objections, preferred examples from other companies, stakeholder availability for reviews and approvals, and any technical requirements for video delivery. The more context you provide upfront, the more strategic and effective your production partner can be in crafting a video that achieves your specific goals.