Custom Explainer Videos: Formats, Benefits & How to Get Started

Introduction

We’ve all hit that moment when someone asks, “So what does your product actually do?” and you realize your deck won’t cut it. You’ve explained it a hundred times, yet the message still doesn’t land the way it should. That’s where custom explainer videos come in.

Unlike generic templates that feel off-brand, custom explainer videos are made from scratch to reflect your story, visuals, and goals. You’re not just showing what your product does. You’re making people care about it. In a market where attention is short and competition is loud, being clear and memorable is your edge.

Whether you’re a startup founder or a B2B marketer, a tailored explainer video solves the pain of trying to simplify something complex by meeting your audience where they are: visually, emotionally, and strategically.

This blog will walk you through the different types of custom explainer videos, what makes them effective, and how to choose the right production partner so that you can make smarter video decisions that align with your brand, budget, and growth goals.

Why Does Custom Explainer Videos Matter?

Custom explainer videos are tailored videos that simplify complex ideas using storytelling, animation, or live action. They are built from scratch to reflect your brand’s voice, message, and audience. Unlike templates, these videos include custom scripts, visuals, and voiceovers designed to drive conversions. 

Custom explainer videos help businesses communicate clearly, improve engagement, and boost ROI. They are used across platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, and websites for product demos, onboarding, and B2B marketing. Each video is designed to inform, persuade, and connect with viewers in a memorable way.

And here’s why that matters: 64% of B2B buyers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video that explains a product or service clearly and concisely. 

What sets them apart is the control you have over every element, from script to visuals to tone. Every decision is intentional and aligned with your audience.

Why Choose Custom Explainer Videos Over Templates?

Countless brands pour time and money into template-based explainer videos that may look polished but often fail to connect. They lack identity, context, personality, and brand alignment which makes your message forgettable.

Custom explainer videos give you full control over story, visuals, and tone. You’re not locked into generic formats. Instead, you create content that speaks directly to your audience.

Here’s the advantage:

• Relevant storytelling: Your real use case, not a forced scenario
• Brand consistency: Fonts, colors, tone, and design follow your brand
• Flexible scripting: Freedom to tailor, iterate, and pivot messaging
• Stronger impact: Videos designed to build trust and drive action

And the results back it up. 93% of marketers say short-form videos help them acquire new customers. 

Custom videos that reflect your brand and message work better. If your brand is serious about making a lasting impression and you’re unsure where to begin, a quick conversation with an expert can help you map what’s right for your goals. 

Types of Custom Explainer Videos

The explainer video format you choose should match your product complexity, audience, and goals. Custom explainer videos allow you to tailor every element to fit your narrative. Below are five high-impact formats that work across industries and funnel stages. 

1. 2D Custom Animated Explainers

2D animated explainers are a staple for a reason. They’re clean, cost-effective, and highly adaptable for early-stage products or startups in SaaS, fintech, and education.

Take Red Bangle’s Adobe eDAM explainer. It takes a cluttered, internal tool and turns it into a digestible visual story. Instead of listing features, it walks through the real-world problem of managing digital assets across teams and then shows how Adobe’s solution fits into that story. The animation keeps it simple. The narration keeps it human.

2D videos are also easy to update. You can tweak a character, revise a feature, or localize for new markets without having to reshoot anything. That makes them ideal for:

• New feature announcements
• Homepage explainers
• Social media launches

With custom animated explainer videos, you get to define the tone such as flat, hand-drawn, line-based, or kinetic, and build a narrative that explains your product the way you would in person. Clear, focused, and made to stick.

2. 3D Explainer Videos

3D explainer videos are ideal when you want to add depth, visually and conceptually. They’re often used for technical products, simulations, or workflows where surface-level visuals won’t cut it.

IBM’s “Rethink IT Spend with AI” does exactly that. By using 3D motion graphics, it breaks down the value of FinOps and how AI-driven budgeting can improve business decisions. There’s movement, dimensionality, and a sense of real-world application you wouldn’t get with static visuals.

This format is best when:

• You’re showcasing a physical product or infrastructure
• Your audience needs a guided walkthrough of a system
• You want to make a high-end visual impression

3D videos are more resource-intensive, both in budget and production time. But they deliver a premium feel that reflects directly on your product’s perceived value. That perception matters, especially in competitive B2B sectors where attention to detail signals reliability.

3. Live-Action with Custom Branding

When you want to put faces to your story, live-action explainers are the way to go. They build emotional resonance by showing real people in real situations, which is especially useful for industries built on relationships like HR tech, education, or healthcare.

Slack’s “So Yeah, We Tried Slack…” video is a perfect example. It plays out like a mini-documentary, with a team walking through how they adopted the tool. There’s humor, doubt, resolution, and clear product benefits, all in a format that feels unscripted and authentic.

The key with live-action explainers is relevance. Your visuals, setting, and cast need to reflect the world your audience operates in. If your goal is to build trust, humanize a product, or showcase customer transformation, live-action is your most direct route.

4. Hybrid Explainers (Animation + Live Footage)

Sometimes your story needs a bit of both. Hybrid explainers combine live footage with animated overlays, letting you blend emotional storytelling with clear product visuals.

Red Bangle’s Vymo for SME Banking explainer is a perfect example. It opens with a relatable scene with live actors about small business growth and gradually introduces animated graphics that explain how the product supports banking teams. It’s informative without being dry, and narrative without losing clarity.

This format is ideal for:

• Regional campaigns
• Customer testimonials
• Sales enablement content

The hybrid style lets you anchor your story in the real world while simplifying complexity through motion graphics. That balance helps you connect with both logic and emotion, a key advantage in B2B storytelling.

It’s especially useful for explaining how a product fits into an existing workflow. The live-action draws you in. The animation shows you how it works. The combination builds trust and understanding in one go.

5. Interactive Explainer Videos

If passive viewing isn’t enough, interactive explainer videos let your audience engage directly with your content. Think branching paths, embedded CTAs, clickable chapters, or in-video forms.

SLB sales digitization campaign explainer by Red Bangle transformed what would’ve been a long demo into a crisp, interactive experience. It introduced a new sales digitization toolkit in an exciting manner to drive technology user adoption. With simple language and clean visuals, the explainer led to stronger internal adoption.

This format works best for:

• Enterprise product rollouts
• Internal adoption
• Multistakeholder sales

The engagement data you gather is a bonus. You’ll know who watched what, when they dropped off, and where they clicked next. That kind of feedback loop is rare with traditional video formats.

Interactive videos also signal innovation. They tell your audience that you care about their time and attention and that you’ve built a solution worth exploring.

Also read → 3 video formats proven to drive customer acquisition across the funnel for B2B businesses.

Key Elements of an Effective Custom Explainer Video

A custom explainer video works only when every element aligns with your brand, message, and audience. Here’s what sets high-performing videos apart:

1. Tailored Scriptwriting

The script is the backbone of your video. It needs to be clear, brief, and structured to follow the viewer’s logic. The most effective scripts follow a problem–solution–impact flow:

• Start with a real problem your audience faces
• Introduce how your product solves it
• Show the result or transformation they can expect

Custom explainer video production starts with original scripting that reflects your product’s positioning, tone, and buyer journey. It avoids templates and instead builds a story that connects with your audience.

2. Visual Style That Reflects Your Brand

Design is not just about looking good. It must stay consistent with your brand and be instantly clear to your audience.

Your visuals should:

• Use your brand fonts, colors, and motion patterns
• Match your industry tone. For example, use flat design for tech, kinetic typography for creative sectors, or isometric visuals for data-driven brands
• Represent your audience through relatable characters and scenes

This consistency builds trust and recall. That’s what gives custom animated explainer videos their edge.

3. Voiceover and Audio Customization

Voice and sound shape how your message feels. A strong voiceover adds warmth and relatability, while the right background music enhances mood and flow.

You can choose:

• The tone, whether friendly, authoritative, quirky, or warm
• The accent, such as American, British, Indian, or another regional style
• The pace, whether slow and thoughtful or quick and energetic

For global audiences or diverse personas, these customizations make your message feel more personal and intentional.

4. Call-to-Action That Converts

The call-to-action (CTA) should be clear, direct, and placed with purpose. Whether it’s “Book a demo” or “See it in action,” it should guide the viewer naturally toward the next step.

CTAs can be placed:

• Early on to engage quick skimmers
• Midway during a key feature or benefit
• At the end once the message has landed

In custom explainer video production, CTA timing and placement are tested and refined to increase conversions. It’s not just an afterthought but a moment built into the story with strategy.

Step-by-Step Process: How Custom Explainer Videos Are Made

Creating a custom explainer video is a structured yet creative process. Each stage plays a role in shaping the final story and ensuring it delivers real impact.

Step 1: Discovery & Briefing

Before anything is designed, clarity is key. This stage focuses on aligning goals, audience, and message.

The discovery phase covers:

• What you’re trying to achieve, whether it’s launching, educating, or simplifying
• Who you’re speaking to and what they need to hear
• What your product stands for and how it’s different

It also defines tone, timelines, and deliverables so the team knows exactly what success looks like from day one.

How Red Bangle does it better:

At Red Bangle, this step acts as a creative strategy workshop. Clients don’t just share a brief. They walk away with mapped-out video formats, timelines, and clear solutions before making a commitment.

We use our proprietary Creative Cloud Platform, a secure and cloud-based collaboration tool that streamlines workflows, centralizes assets, and enables real-time feedback across teams.

Every creative input is stored on this platform to ensure nothing gets lost and collaboration stays on track.

Step 2: Script & Storyboarding

This is where your story takes shape. The script brings clarity to your message and typically follows this arc:

• Start with the problem
• Show the solution
• End with the outcome

The storyboard then maps each scene visually. This gives you a preview of flow, visuals, and pacing, making room for early feedback before animation begins.

The value Red Bangle adds here:

Red Bangle’s team focuses on strategic scripting that works across formats and platforms. Every storyboard is uploaded to our proprietary creative cloud platform for real-time feedback with frame-level comments. As Lakshmi Rebecca, Founder at Red Bangle, puts it:

“Clients never have to follow up on deadlines. We follow up because everything’s extremely well-organized at our end. Each storyboard goes through multiple quality checks before it reaches the client, ensuring both precision and polish.”

Step 3: Design & Animation

Design defines the look and feel. Style frames are created to lock in visual direction, including colors, typography, and character styles.

Animation brings the story to life:

• Smooth transitions keep viewers engaged
• Motion graphics simplify complex ideas
• Every movement supports the script

Red Bangle’s creative edge:

Red Bangle handles both animated and live-action videos at scale. From crew planning to animation design, everything is managed in one place. The team is matched to your brand and brief, ensuring the output reflects your tone and audience.

Step 4: Feedback & Revisions

Revisions help refine the final video. Most projects go through three structured feedback rounds:

1. Flow and messaging
2. Design tweaks and voiceover
3. Final adjustments like CTAs or music

The Red Bangle advantage:

Red Bangle simplifies this with timestamped comments added directly on video frames. No emails or slide decks needed. Just click, comment, and go. Producers track each version and notify you when updates are ready.

Step 5: Delivery & Optimization

Once approved, your video is formatted for every platform, including web, social, and internal tools.

You’ll receive:

• Aspect ratios for LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram
• Shorter versions for ads or teasers
• Captioned files for accessibility and localization

How Red Bangle executes this:

All video assets stored on Red Bangle’s platform such as thumbnails, cutdowns, and localized versions are ready to reuse or adapt. If you need 10 versions in a week, it’s already built into the workflow. Your explainer becomes a toolkit, not just a one-time file.

Also read → Master the entire video production process with this practical cheat sheet.

Best Use Cases for Custom Explainer Videos

Custom explainer videos are flexible and can be used across the funnel. Whether you need to simplify complex ideas, build trust, or train teams, here are four high-impact use cases:

1. Simplifying Complex B2B Solutions

Some products are too layered for static decks or long demos. A custom explainer video gets straight to the point and shows the real transformation your product offers.

Use them for:

• SaaS platforms with multiple workflows
• Enterprise tools that need demo clarity
• Products where key value lies in the details

Example: Red Bangle’s Infosys Equinox Studio explainer simplifies a no-code, cloud-native platform into a 90-second walkthrough that both marketing and digital leaders can understand quickly.

2. Brand Positioning in New Markets

When entering new regions or verticals, trust is limited and clarity is critical. A custom video helps you introduce your brand with confidence and purpose.

Use them for:

• Launches in unfamiliar markets
• Product pivots or rebrands
• Campaigns targeting new personas

Example: Dropbox’s early explainer used relatable visuals and analogies to explain cloud storage in a way that felt simple and clear. It introduced a new product category without overwhelming the viewer.

3. Internal Training and Onboarding

For global or fast-growing teams, consistent training matters. A custom video delivers repeatable, easy-to-access content that saves time and keeps the message aligned.

Use them to:

• Roll out new tools or systems
• Onboard distributed teams
• Reduce dependence on live sessions

Example: Deloitte’s Digital Bank Onboarding video shows both the employee and customer experience, creating a shared vision of what great onboarding looks like across the organization.

4. Turning Case Studies into Stories

Static PDFs often fail to capture real impact. A video lets you show the transformation with emotion, visuals, and real voices.

Use them to:

• Highlight customer outcomes
• Share internal success stories
• Build alignment among stakeholders

Example: Red Bangle’s Infosys x AI First explainer features team members explaining real AI projects. The animated format adds clarity, while their voices add authenticity.

Custom Explainer Video Cost: What to Expect

A custom explainer video costs depend on complexity, duration, and who you’re working with. But before locking in a number, you need to understand what drives those costs.

Here are the key factors:

• Script originality: Custom scripts based on research and storytelling cost more than templated ones
• Animation style: 2D is more affordable than 3D or hybrid formats
• Voiceover licensing: Union voice actors, multiple language versions, or custom music can increase cost
• Revisions and timelines: Tighter timelines and additional feedback rounds mean more hours for the studio

Think of it like this: you’re not just paying for a video. You’re paying for strategy, creative thinking, design, and performance outcomes.

And the ROI is there. 21% of marketers say short-form videos deliver the highest ROI, making them the top-performing content format in 2025. That kind of traction doesn’t happen with stock visuals or generic messaging.

Tips to Choose the Right Custom Explainer Video Production Partner

A great video doesn’t come from visuals alone. It comes from collaboration, strategic thinking, and a clear, repeatable process. That’s why choosing the right partner for explainers matters as much as the content itself.

Here’s what is recommended to look for:

1. Portfolio variety

The team should be able to show examples across 2D, 3D, live-action, and hybrid formats. This shows they understand different storytelling styles and won’t apply a one-size-fits-all approach to your brand.

2. Strategic approach

Good partners start with your audience, not your asset. If they talk about animation styles before asking what problem you’re solving, keep looking.

3. Clear feedback loops

Ask about how they manage revisions. Reliable partners will involve you at each step such as script, storyboard, design, and final delivery with built-in checkpoints.

4. Focus on business outcomes

You’re not commissioning a video just to look polished. You want engagement, clarity, and conversion. The best teams align visuals with performance goals like click-through rates, lead quality, or internal adoption.

If you’re looking for a studio that brings both creative thinking and marketing logic to the table, Red Bangle is worth exploring. The agency acts more like a strategic collaborator than just content producers. From brief to delivery, we help you get the story right.

Whatever vendor you choose, make sure they feel like a partner who understands your audience and your goals.

Also read → Why businesses choose to partner with a video production agency than opting in-house or DIY

Conclusion: Why Custom Explainers Are Worth the Investment

A custom explainer video is more than just a communication tool. It’s a way to connect with your audience at scale, tell your story clearly, and stand out in a world full of noise.

You get to decide how your product is introduced, what emotions it creates, and what action it inspires. That’s something a template can’t offer. And it’s exactly why tailored videos outperform generic ones in both engagement and ROI.

Beyond views and likes, custom explainers deliver real business impact, they reduce lead-to-close time, increase demo bookings, and boost click-through rates on product pages. When your message lands faster and clearer, your funnel moves quicker.

If you’re looking to create a video that’s not just well-made but made for your goals, we can help.

At Red Bangle, we partner with brands to craft explainer videos that are strategic, creative, and built to perform. Book a call to get expert consultation and let’s bring your story to life.