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The do’s and don’ts of making a video trailer for your app

Advertising has traditionally revolved around the 15 or 30 second spot. You have to grab their attention in that brief window. That's now changed with advertising on the web. Specifically, video. You no longer have 15 seconds to capture your audience's attention. You have about 5 seconds or less. The do's and don'ts of creating an app trailer highlight the now common countdown when watching a video on YouTube.

You’ve probably seen YouTube pre-roll ads before. At the bottom-right, there’s a “Skip in 5… 4…” button that acts as gatekeeper until the timer hits zero. For mediocre ads, this wait time is excruciating. Every once in a while, you might run across a commercial that’s so interesting, so weird, so mysterious… you just have to keep watching.

The people who made these commercials knew they were battling the 5-second skip countdown, and you should think the same way. The rule of TV and YouTube ads definitely apply to app trailers: whatever you make, it needs a strong hook within the first 5 to 10 seconds.

And for the love of god, stop using a jingle/guitar loop for your music.