SaaS Onboarding Videos: Types, Examples, and What to Make First

Quick answer: A SaaS onboarding video helps a new user reach their first real result in your product without waiting for a call. Start with a 60 to 90 second welcome video, then a short walkthrough of the one workflow that delivers value fastest. Add feature how-tos and admin setup videos after that.

Most SaaS products lose new users in the first few sessions. They sign up, look around, and can't tell what to do first. A help center won't fix that on its own, and your customer success team can't sit beside every new account.

A good SaaS onboarding video closes that gap. It shows a new user what the product is for, where to click first, and what "working" looks like. It answers the same questions your team answers on every kickoff call, so the team can spend its time on the accounts that need a person.

This guide covers which onboarding videos to make first, how long each should run, which production style fits, where the videos should live, and what they typically cost. If you're also planning sales-side video, our product demo video production page covers how pre-sale demos differ from onboarding.

What is a SaaS onboarding video?

A SaaS onboarding video is a short video that helps a new customer or user set up the product and complete their first meaningful task. It sits after the sale, not before it.

That difference shapes everything. A demo video persuades a buyer that the product is worth evaluating. An onboarding video assumes they already bought it and helps them get value from it quickly. The viewer is less skeptical and more impatient. They want the shortest path to "this works."

Onboarding videos usually come as a small library rather than one video. Each one answers a single question a new user has at a specific moment.

Video is also how most people want to learn a product. In Wyzowl's 2026 State of Video Marketing survey, 63% of people said they would most like to learn about a product or service by watching a short video.

Which SaaS onboarding videos should you make first?

Start with the videos that remove the most common reasons new accounts stall. For most B2B software, that order looks like this.

1. A welcome and orientation video

This is the first thing a new user sees after signing in. It explains what the product does for them, names the two or three areas they'll use most, and points to the first task. Keep it about the user's outcome, not a tour of every menu.

Created by Levitate. VIZIO: a getting-started explainer that combines live action and motion graphics to guide users through setup and key features. Notice how it moves from setup straight to what the user can do next.

2. A "first win" walkthrough

Pick the one workflow that delivers value fastest, such as connecting a data source, sending a first campaign, or inviting the team. Walk through it step by step. If a new user only watches one video, this should be it.

3. Feature how-to videos

Short videos on the features people ask about most. Your support tickets and onboarding call notes will tell you which ones. One feature per video keeps them easy to find and easy to replace.

4. Admin and setup videos

Many B2B products have a separate admin who handles permissions, integrations, and billing. Give that person their own short track so the end-user videos stay simple.

5. Feature release and update videos

Onboarding doesn't end after the first week. When you ship a meaningful feature, a short update video re-onboards existing customers to it. This overlaps with product launch video work, and the same assets can often serve both.

Created by Levitate. Digital Realty: a mixed media feature-update video that shows existing customers what changed in its data center customer portal and where to find it. It isn't first-time onboarding, but it's the format to use when a release means existing users need to relearn part of the product.

Created by Levitate. Conductor: one video from a series of mixed media product release videos for its SEO platform. A short release series like this keeps existing customers up to date as features ship.

How long should a SaaS onboarding video be?

Shorter than most teams think. A new user is trying to get something done, not watch a film. These are the lengths we plan around:

• Welcome and orientation: 60 to 90 seconds.
• First-win walkthrough: 2 to 4 minutes, split into chapters if it runs longer.
• Feature how-tos: 30 seconds to 2 minutes each.
• Admin and setup: 2 to 5 minutes, since admins expect detail.
• Feature updates: 45 to 90 seconds.

If a video needs to run longer than five minutes, it usually covers more than one task. Split it.

Planning an onboarding library? Levitate for Tech produces onboarding, demo and launch videos for B2B software teams, and we can help you decide which videos to make first.

Animation, screen recording, or live action: which style fits?

Each style does a different job. Most onboarding libraries mix them.

• Screen recording: Best for click-by-click how-tos. It shows the real interface, it's quick to produce, and it's easy to redo when the UI changes. It works best with a clear voiceover and zooms on the parts that matter.
• Motion graphics and UI animation: Best for the welcome video and for concepts a screen can't show, such as how data moves between systems. You can simplify the interface to what matters, which also hides customer data and unreleased features. Our guide to animated product videos covers when animation beats filming the real product.
• Live action: Best for a welcome message from a founder or customer success lead, or for hardware that ships with software. A real face makes a new account feel looked after.
• Mixed media: Real UI footage combined with animated callouts. This is often the right choice for the first-win walkthrough, because users see the actual product with the important steps highlighted.

What do strong SaaS onboarding video examples have in common?

Across the onboarding and product videos we produce for software companies, the ones that get used share a few traits.

• They start with the user's goal: "Here's how to send your first report" beats "Welcome to the dashboard."
• They cover one task: A video that tries to show everything gets skipped. One task per video also makes the library easy to search.
• They match the product: The visuals, labels, and button names on screen match what the user sees when they log in. Mismatches create support tickets.
• They end with the next step: Each video points to the next one, or to the action the user should take now.
• They have captions: Many people watch with the sound off at work. Captions also help non-native speakers and anyone using assistive technology.

From our production notes: On a recent developer portal walkthrough, our animator worked through the voiceover script line by line and checked each line against the product screens before animating. The check turned up a button the script named that wasn't on the screens we had, and features that still needed a screen recording. Questions like that take minutes to answer before animation starts. After launch, they become confused new users and a re-edit.

For more examples of how software teams make complex products clear, see our roundup of the best tech explainer videos.

Where should onboarding videos live?

An onboarding video only works if a new user sees it at the right moment. Put each video where the question comes up:

• Inside the product: The welcome video on first login, and how-to videos next to the features they explain.
• In the welcome email sequence: One video per email, matched to the step the user should take that day.
• In the help center: Embed each how-to video at the top of the matching article, so people who prefer to read and people who prefer to watch both get an answer.
• In customer success handoffs: Send the first-win walkthrough before the kickoff call so the call can start further along.
• In support replies: Common questions get a link to the video that answers them. Our guide to FAQ videos covers how to build a library for this.

How do you keep onboarding videos current when the product changes?

This is the biggest worry teams raise, and it's a fair one. SaaS interfaces change often. Plan for it from the start:

• Keep videos short and single-purpose, so one UI change means redoing one video, not the whole library.
• Animate the UI where it changes often. A simplified animated interface can be updated without reshooting, and it doesn't break when a button moves a few pixels.
• Separate the voiceover from the visuals in your project files, so either can change without starting over.
• Approve the master before you translate. On one onboarding series we produced German and Mandarin versions of each video, and we updated them only after the English edit was approved. That way each round of changes happened once, not three times.
• Review the library every quarter against your release notes, and retire videos that no longer match.

How do you know if your onboarding videos are working?

Tie each video to the behavior it's meant to change, then watch that behavior. Useful signals include:

• Completion rate for each video, and where viewers drop off.
• How many new accounts finish the "first win" task, and how quickly.
• Support tickets on the topics your videos cover, before and after launch.
• Questions that still come up on kickoff calls, which point to the next video to make.

If a video gets watched but the task still doesn't get done, the video probably explains the feature instead of the steps. Rewrite the script around what the user does, one step at a time.

What does a SaaS onboarding video cost?

Cost depends on style, length, and how many videos you make at once. Producing a library together usually costs less per video than making them one at a time, because the script work, design system, and voice casting are shared. Levitate's typical ranges for the formats onboarding libraries use most are:

• 2D animation and explainers: typically $5,500 to $20,000+.
• Product demo videos: typically $5,000 to $25,000+.
• Training and internal communications videos: typically $5,000 to $20,000.

Screen-recorded how-tos cost less per video, especially when they share a script template and branded intro. For a quick estimate based on your scope, use the video pricing calculator.

Start with the video that removes the most friction

You don't need a full library on day one. Look at where new accounts stall, make the video that gets them past that point, and measure what changes. Then make the next one.

If you're also working on the customer stories that help new prospects trust your product, our customer proof videos page shows how we approach them. For explainers that sit earlier in the journey, see our technology explainer videos.

Ready to plan your onboarding videos? Contact Levitate for Tech. New clients can get up to $1,000 toward a first video project, and you can plan now and produce in 2027.