CEO @ Conversion House 🏠 | On-demand design for small SaaS marketing teams so they can launch faster, position better and convert more.

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Joe Wheatley

We make fcking awesome SaaS product videos.
Formerly a competing powerlifter (RAW, sq 282.5kg, b 180 kg, dl 300 kg, bw @-90).
I lead the team of 13 talented Ukrainians (scriptwriters, designers, animators, sound producers, etc).

Hlib Trazanov

Founder @ Astra Motion | Video Marketing for SaaS/AI

AI generated shots in product videos.
I LOVE IT. 

I've seen big brands like Zapier, Perplexity, Base44 do it.

They add AI gen shots to the animated product videos:
- 10% AI gen
- 90% motion graphics

Just as a small touch. And it works like magic. It "sells" the vibe. 

Because solo animation can become boring, indifferent. Every product video looks the same these days. 

So, now we're testing this approach in 2 of our new projects, too :)

I'll show you soon!

What do you think about this trend? Worth a try?

"Do you even lift??!"

Our style explorations for one of the projects.

Just making sure the client has something to choose from :)

I couldn't miss that!!!
The newest video by Base44.
Let's break it down.

First of all, kudos to the Wix Studio's amazing talents for creating this masterpiece (credits here - https://lnkd.in/e5UEsKkw). The quality is unbeatable. And I mean it. 

It really became an industry North star.  

(some clients already came to us, sending this video as a ref, and I'm like "come ooon, we can't beat that", hahah)

About the video:

You can see the structure below, it's super simple - [Hook], [Solution], [Demo], [Features], [End result], [Outro].

This time even shorter than before, just 50 seconds.

Unique angle of this video: they showed how the platform works, based on ONLY 1 USE CASE (a bicycle online shop), from start to finish. 

Also they spent a bit more time on the [Features] block: Github, security check, etc, which I don't remember in the past videos. There's gotta be something new after all! :)

No, really, I'm impressed how they can make new videos every month about the SAME THING, but differently. They never run out of ideas.

Just be prepared, because soon they're gonna:
- run it in YouTube ads (as they do with all their videos), 
- pour 100-200M views on it (I'm not joking), 
- and follow you everywhere you go online, hahah :D

But I'm okay with that, because such a video is always nice to watch!

p.s. I'll make a whole another post about Base44's video marketing funnel. Stay tuned!

New project we did for GetFocus.
62 seconds, 
done in 3 weeks. 

We also delivered an extra 30-sec cutdown version, for socials.

The client also received:
- Editable Figma file
- After Effects project file (animation)
- DaVinci Resolve file (SFX)

Happy to finally share it with you guys, as we finished it almost 2 months ago :)

Our studio's video brief:
(a checklist on steroids)
I'm giving it away.

Product marketers, before you hire a studio or a freelancer, fill this out first. This brief will set them up for success. 

Earlier, we used to have an "open-ended questions" brief too...

But then it was OUR JOB to recommend to our client:
- the right video type
- the right structure
- how to use it
- hooks, etc. 

But what if they're coming to a less experienced studio/freelancer? -> More chances to spend money on the wrong video in the first place.

Soooo, I combined it with the checklist (based on my "Product video playbook").

Now it's a brief on steroids :)

If you fill it out and give to ANY freelancer/studio, you're gonna most likely get:
- the right video, 
- for the right buyer journey stage, 
- in the right place,
- with nice hooks, etc. 

Comment "brief", and I'll send it over!

p.s. connect first, so I can DM you.

My 5-step "Video marketing funnel".
(cold -> warm -> $$$)

This post is gonna be more strategic. No video tips, but rather a bigger picture. 

After making 100+ videos in 2025, we've seen that not every video works "everywhere" the same way. 

- a dynamic promo video with a [Problem] hook won't work on the website, for a warm audience.
- a long 90 sec demo video with no hook won't work in socials/ads, for a cold audience.

Buyer journey stage dictates a lot (context, intent, trust levels - it's all different).

So, we found that we need different types of videos for each stage. 

The logic is this:
(cold -> warm)

1. You make a set of promotional videos, just for awareness campaign. It's usually 30-45 sec. With a hook (because the audience is cold, needs a scroll stopper and some context). With a [demo] block of your product (you need to show your UIs), but very quick, more like a teaser. Add [social proof] too. 3-4 extra hooks, different BG music tracks, Bg colors in the first scene.

2. You run it in Youtube ads (like Base44, Monday com, Lovable, etc). The cheapest traffic for a video. People get on your website, pixel tracks them. They usually leave and don't convert much at this stage. But now they know you exist.

3. You do retargeting campaigns on LinkedIn and Meta, using the pixel data. Semi-warm campaign. Using the "video testimonials/ case studies / customer stories", as a social proof. At this point you're just breaking the ice. 

4. They land on your website again. There, you meet them with 60-90 sec [Demo] videos, with no hooks, just straight product in action (promise -> result). They convert at this stage, and become paying users. 

5. So they stick around longer, you give them first quick wins. Show them onboarding videos (3-5 mins each), how to get started, how to get first results asap. The goal here is to reduce the churn rate and make them more loyal.

Takeaway:

People expect one product hype sizzle reel will do all the job promoting the product, but in reality it takes a whole "ecosystem" (or a funnel), so you're chasing your prospects at the right stage with the right assets, based on how much they know/trust you. 

___________
I'm gonna be making more of such strategic posts, instead of just endless "video tips". Do you like this format?

After breaking down 40+ videos
(Google, Lovable, Base44, Zoom...)
I've found the BEST structure.

[Hook] -> [Solution] -> [Demo] -> [Features] -> [CTA]

It's completely fail-safe.

After publicly breaking down 40 viral videos, plus making 200+ our own videos, I can definitely say this is the simplest, the clearest, the most “generally accepted” product video formula you can ever use… especially for your first video!

[Hook]: 
Example: “Turn this... into this (unstructured doc -> nice presentation)”

(btw, here's the top 10 hooks we've tested: https://lnkd.in/euJukKWN) 

[Solution]:
Example: “Introducing XYZ, end-to-end platform for securing Gen AI apps…”

[Demo: how it works]:
Example: “XYZ scans your website, understands your tone, prepares a list of leads to review. then crafts personalized emails… etc etc” 

(don’t forget to actually show the UIs and how it all happens on your platform)

[Features]: 
Example: “Plus, multiple integrations, easy reporting, supports 80 languages, etc etc”

[CTA]: 
Example: “Run at full capacity with XYZ. Try 7 days for free.”

Steal it.

I compared the engagement % of our videos.
15s / 30s / 60s.
Here's what I found.

Overall engagement went up since I did it last time 8 months ago (we learned how to make better videos).

Video length | avg engagement:
15 seconds  | 87% -> 93%
30 seconds | 65% -> 74%
60 seconds | 48% -> 56%

But the tendency is the same:

- shorter videos -> higher PROPORTIONAL watch time. 
- longer videos -> higher ABSOLUTE watch time.

(It kills the myth of a "fixed" 15s attention span, because people can easily sit for at least 30 sec when watching a 60s video). 

So, the biggest difference: 
*the AMOUNT OF INFORMATION delivered in one sitting.*

What does it mean for us marketers?

Longer videos can include more elements like [social proof], [problem-solution], [how it works], [features], etc.

Longer videos = more nurturing 
↳ less effort for the landing page to convert.

Shorter videos = only tease 
↳ the landing page does all the heavy lifting.

Does it mean we need to make only longer videos?

Ideally. But the downside is cost.

Longer videos cost x3, time to produce x3, and fatigue out in ads just as fast.

And with shorter ads, you can test out more messaging angles and find a winner faster, less ad fatigue etc. 

The TAKEAWAY:

Weak landing page -> need longer ads to compensate.
Strong landing page -> can get away with short ads.

Limited budget -> 3-5x short ads to test -> 1-2x longer videos.
Unlimited budget -> multiple longer videos + extra hooks.

Of course, there are nuances, but I tried to simplify it for you as much as possible :) 

I hope it was useful!

Framer just poured 1M views
(on this ad, in 2 weeks)
Here's why it's a good strategy.

In this case, they had only 1 message that needed to be communicated:
"Free domains, on any paid plan"

- They created a series (5-6) of 15-sec videos
- And started blasting views on them: Youtube, Meta, LinkedIn
(on Youtube it already got 1M views in just 2 weeks)

But what I like the most about these ads: it's just 1 idea per video. 

And if your product has more than 3-4 use cases, just make 3-4 short videos, instead of 1 long one. 

Video 1: "with Framer, free domains on any paid plan"
Video 2: "with Framer, you can make serious m*ney as a creator"
etc. 

So, you can list out ALL YOUR FEATURES (or use cases, or personas), and make lots of short videos, 1 idea per video, 15-20 sec. 

And then you rotate them in ads evenly, so the same viewer gets to see all the videos in a week or two.

- he will get the full picture anyways
- the info is delivered portionally
- more touch points, more reminders

I see only benefits from this strategy. 

And cost-wise, 4x * 15 sec = 1x * 60 sec (it's the same).

________________
p.s. DM me if you want a similar package of product ads.

I almost closed Astra Motion…

to start an outreach agency. 

Approx 1 year ago. 

It was my 2nd month of LinkedIn. 

At the time it wasn’t our main channel as it is right now. (In fact, it didn’t bring a single lead in the first 2.5 months)

But, after 5 years in business, after ups and downs (mostly downs), the only thing that was keeping our business afloat was email outreach. 

I thought I was a better expert in email outreach than in videos (which was probably true). 

- Fancy loom tactics
- Lots of tested hooks, subject lines
- I found a really working formula
- Complex infrastructure (150 email accounts) etc.

And maybe I should do that instead?

I was like, “why do I even bother selling 1 video at a time, to a small startup who mostly can’t even afford it, and need to find new clients from scratch every month?? 

While outreach agencies stack clients on a recurring basis, can bring actual results (and I already knew how)… 

I can do a lot of good content, give away my scripts etc. I think it can work out.”

So, exactly 1 year ago, my thoughts about closing Astra Motion were actually real and serious. 

I’m glad I didn’t. 

Because my LinkedIn started to kick in. 

Boom, 
- March: 2 leads.
- April: 10 leads.
- May: 16 leads. 
- August: 24 leads. 
- Signed Zoominfo, Gainsight, Spellbook, Trip com. 
- Bigger projects, better clients, started charging more (2x). 

Everything turned 180 degrees. 

Right after the darkest moment. 

The moment of weakness. 

Fast forward to today, I made so much content about video marketing at this point (so many breakdowns, playbooks, giveaways…), and made 100+ videos for 50+ clients in 2025 alone. 

So now I FINALLY have more expertise in videos than in outreach, haha :)

And I wouldn’t trade places with anyone.

Stick to what you do. 

Don’t let the shiny object syndrome win. 

Stay focused, and sooner or later you’ll win.

No alternative text description for this image

Before: a simple gif...
After: a full video (script, music, designs)
Made by our team, Astra Motion.

We tried to keep the original "vibes" from the gif reference, but make it much more alive.

I enjoy it so much! :)

See the full video here: https://lnkd.in/ecwNBdCD

Is motion design dying?
(soon to be replaced by AI)
Here’s my POV:

I’ve been in the industry for about 7 years now. 

Witnessed how it transformed from flat 2D cartoonish explainers, to todays SaaS boom. 

I thought we were safe for now. 

But 2 weeks ago I saw Seedance 2.0 first attempts to animate product UIs (video here https://lnkd.in/ed9Ah24H).

Now I’m not so sure anymore :)

Obviously, it’s not on the expected level yet, but it’s the worst it’ll ever be!! It’ll only get better from here. 

So, I think we have around 1 year until “average working hands” are replaced. 

My predictions:

1. SaaS niche will continue to grow. Thanks to vibecoding and AI in general. 

2. Startups will be out of market for motion graphics needs. They will do it themselves with AI. 

3. Only mid size companies (50-200 employees) or enterprises (1000+) will continue to work with professional studios like us, for some time. They are ready to pay extra for the best brand image.

4. 3D motion design is gonna be “cool” again. Seeing how trends are coming back from flat 2D to volumetric 3D (glass, etc) - those who master 3D will be more in demand than ever. 

5. Just “making videos” will be a commodity, even more than now. 

6. If everyone is able to make good-looking videos with AI, it won’t be “cool” anymore, just a new baseline. But some will always be better than everyone else. The most creative, the smartest, the deapest. I wanna be one of them. It’ll be the first way we can stand out. 

7. The second way to stand out is OWNING the strategic part: knowing which videos to create in the first place, in which order to show them to viewers, how to apply them in the funnel, how to A/B test, track performance, etc. If you’re expert in that, you’ll be 100x more valuable than those who “just make videos”. 

MY TAKEAWAY.

We need to:

- Keep building our unique narrow expertise in the SaaS niche.
- Add more 3D to our workflow gradually.
- Dig in the performance marketing direction (ads tracking, a/b testing, hooks, engagement etc).
- Go upmarket, focus resources on finding bigger size clients. 

That should be enough to stay relevant for another 1.5-2 years. 

What’s after that - nobody knows…

Enterprises VS startups, as clients.
(worked with both)
My experience:

Enterprises -

- 45-60 net payment terms (so, from the start of the video project, till money received, it can be 3 months). 
- 15-20 decision makers (and sometimes you get to know 3-4 whole different departments)
- Strict guidelines, less of creative freedom
- Expect the best from you, don’t accept anything less

Enterprises +

+ Higer ticket size (usually order multiple videos at once, packages)
+ Higer LTV (return for more videos for other features/products)
+ Have really good products, that are easy to sell (and thus, videos are performing better)
+ Have Figma files, and can share a lot of internal assets that help in our work
+ I usually work with their whole marketing departments, where solving a problem TOGETHER is much easier.


Startups - 

- Low LTV (most of the time, it’s a one-time project for a product launch or an event)
- Lower ticket size (asking for a discount, or ordering a shorter video. Usually no extra hooks, resizes etc)
- No branding guidelines (we provide 3-4 style options, redesigning all the UIs ourselves, etc)
- They are in a super hurry all the time (and I can understand that)
- Sometimes the product itself is “not ready”… (and it affects video performance too)

Startups +

+ Make decisions fast, approve things fast👍
+ Trust on you completely, give you full creative freedom (you can do lots of experiments and not be punished for that)
+ Easy communication, just 1 founder in Slack
+ More unique and varied portfolio for us 

If I had to choose one, I’d ALWAYS go with enterprise. 

I love working on packages, I don’t care about post-payment delays, I love working with smart people (whole teams) to promoting really amazing products. 

But! 

There’s always a sweet middle — a well-funded startup :) Usually around series B, or higher A. 

- They have the budgets for packages and multiple ads/videos, 
- the product is already proven and tested, 
- and they have high chances to become a good long term client. 

What is your experience?

Astra Motion is now 6 years old. 

I remember how on 20.02.2020 I came to the tax service here in Ukraine to register a business. 

(yes, this young guy from the photo)

I didn’t know sh* about f*. 

Taxes? Marketing? Sales? Hiring/training? 

I got very lucky my first business didn’t die the first year, and we even managed to grow to 10 employees due to referrals.

Exactly 2 years (-4 days) from the “founding date”, the war started. 

We had no job for 6 months straight. 

Had to let go of all my team, and start from scratch in the foreign markets (US, EU). 

3 years of grinding. 

Finally something clicked in early 2025. 

And now, early 2026, were at our full capacity, running 14 videos in parallel, growing faster than ever.

Talent is our new bottleneck. 

But I can’t be happier about having “problems” like this after so much. 

Let’s see what’s next in 2026!

P.S. If you’re a really good Ukrainian motion designer, worked on SaaS videos, and open for projects, DM me.

Zoom released the "Zoom Phone".
This is the launch video.
Let's break it down.

Zoom's marketing team seems to be working on steroids :) 

Each of their product (Zoom docs, Zoom phone, Zoom companion, etc) have not one but MANY videos:

- short use case videos (1 use case per video, pure demo)
- short announcement ads ("we've launched X, it does Y")
- even "long" 1:30 min promo videos like this below.

Heck, the Zoom companion has its own youtube playlist of 86 videos(!!!)

So, as I can see, their strategy is volume. Not super creativity, not super fancy animation techniques. Just brutal volume, made of simple videos with simple structures. 

But it works!

So, let's dive into this one as an example.

- Type: promo video (that's why there's almost no demo in action, and just a lot of features)
- Duration: 85 seconds (a bit too long for a promo video)
- Style: Combination of stock footage + motion graphics
- The hook was probably inspired by the Monday com ads (https://lnkd.in/eYJqKWzi)

It reminds me so much of the Monday com videos, but with one major difference: Monday had a lot of humor and actual demo, so it was fine to be 90 sec long. Humor holds attention, while demo blocks were the "meat" part. 

Here, we're a bit losing momentum. Probably because it feels like a wall of features, but no actual use case examples shown. 

But maybe it's just the part of the strategy. And if they retarget the viewers with small use case videos too (which I've seen they produce a lot as well), it's totally fine. So, in this case, the video might be just for "awareness", and I'd cut it down just a bit to become perfect! :)

what are your thoughts?

_________________
P.S. if you need a product launch/demo video strategy pack too, DM me.

How Base44 acquires users.
(spoiler: videos)
$100M ARR, in 1 year.

In contrast to Zoom (which made 85 videos for Zoom Companion alone), or SalesForce (all in on testimonials and social proof ads), Base44 chose a different path:

"What if we invest into ONE best video, and then run like 300M views on it from paid traffic?"

I call it a "blockbuster" strategy.

You can love it or hate it, but now EVERYONE knows Base44 exists. 

And $100M ARR is a proof (5 days ago, their founder shared this milestone https://lnkd.in/eN_mdH_4).

So, I sat down and researched their LinkedIn, Meta and Google ad libraries. 

Here's what I saw:

1. They make a video SO GOOD, noone could match it.

WixStudio. One of the strongest video teams in the world. Cooking. In-house. 

All their ads have a [Hook] 
(obv, because it's a mostly cold audience, duh)

- "Teaser" hook (https://lnkd.in/et7xpaAE)
- "Dream outcome" hook (https://lnkd.in/d3uyvW7M)
- "Challenge" hook (https://lnkd.in/eYEJEPY2)

Typical video structure: [Hook] -> [Solution] -> [Demo] -> [Features] -> [End result] -> [CTA]


2. Paid traffic from YouTube

Out of all platforms, YouTube provides the cheapest traffic for video views. If awareness is your goal, and you got a great video, there's NOTHING better.

They get 100-300M views per video. When it's "fatigued", they make a new one. Rinse-repeat.

The better the quality of the video is, the longer it can run in ads.


3. Retarget on Meta, LinkedIn

I saw they're running Youtube straight to website. 

But most of this cold traffic doesn't convert from the first try. So they track these visitors with a pixel and run static ads on Meta and LinkedIn, as a retargeting layer. Just to ALWAYS stay top of mind. They lead to the website as well.

As a result, there's basically NO CHANCE you can escape them. 

You're chased forever!

Some people hate it, but this strategy is one of the few that actually makes marketing efforts pay off. 

Only if you can make such brilliant "blockbusters" first.

________
p.s. look, I can't guarantee the same level of quality, but we make product ads, you can check them out on my page. And if you need one, DM me :)

A 30-sec ad our team made for Personio.
Done in 2 weeks.

We love what Personio is building, and we saw they mostly use static ads and testimonials, but lack of product videos of the actual platform and its capabilities.

So we made it as a test to see if it can outperform other ads.

What I personally LOVE the most here is the [Hook].
1. We start with the close up of a human face (that usually catches attention well)
2. Then zoom out a bit, and see the 'HR manager' title (it's a hidden persona callout, without even saying it). 

I love it! Something fresh, new approach 🙂 

Credits:
Concept and creative direction: Hlib Trazanov
Storyboarding: Viktoriia Moiseeva
Voice-over: ElevenLabs
Animation and SFX: Nazar Butolin

taplio

The Battle

Joe Wheatley

Hlib Trazanov

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The Battle

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Hlib Trazanov

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

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