How to make a promo video for your mobile app

What should an app promo video show?

• The problem, in your customer's words.
• The first screen: what someone sees when they open the app.
• The main action: send, buy, book, track. Shown being done.
• The result, and how it feels to have it.
• Your name and where to get the app.

How to keep phone screens readable

A whole phone in a video is small, and its text is smaller. The fix is to keep the phone whole but bring the part a line talks about off the screen: the balance, the button, the card, larger than the phone itself, then back into place.

One idea per screen helps too. If a screen needs explaining, it needs its own moment.

Tall or wide?

Tall (9:16) for Reels, TikTok, Stories and Shorts, where people watch on their phones. Wide (16:9) for your website, YouTube, X and LinkedIn. With Van-Goh you choose the shape on the form, and the same app becomes a film made for that frame.

Voice or no voice?

Most people scroll with the sound off, so a tall ad usually works best with words on screen and music. A voice suits a longer explainer on your website. If you're not sure, leave it on Auto and Van-Goh chooses from what the video is for.

How to make it with Van-Goh

1. 1Write one prompt. Say what the product is, who it's for and the one thing the video must show. One line is enough.
2. 2Add your pictures. Add four to eight screenshots of your app, taken on a phone. Clean, full-size images work best; the video is built around them, in their colours.
3. 3Read the plan. Van-Goh shows you the style, the shape and the music before anything is made. Change it, or press Start: it shows the price first.
4. 4Watch it and ask for changes. Say what to change in plain words, like "slower" or "show the price earlier". Each new version takes 10 credits. Then download the MP4.