Product demo video script template

Most demo scripts fail the same way: too many words for the time. This template fixes the time first — seven beats in sixty seconds — and gives each beat a word budget, so the narrator never has to rush.

How many words fit in a minute

We measured how fast our narrators actually speak, across every voice we ship. The rates are words per second of speech, before any pauses:

Write about 10–12% under the spoken rate. Scene changes need a beat of silence, and a narrator who never pauses sounds like an ad read. Spanish and Portuguese pack more words into a second than English, so a translated script usually fits — but check the count instead of assuming.

The 60-second template

Seven beats. Times are for English at the word budgets above; scale them for a 30-second or 90-second cut.

Copy and fill in

1. Hook (screen: the finished result). “[Audience]: [outcome] in [time or effort].”
2. Problem (screen: the old way, or the empty state). “Right now, [task] means [painful step] and [second painful step].”
3. Feature one (screen: the main action, close-up). “With [product], you [verb] — [what happens automatically].”
4. Feature two (screen: the differentiator). “[Feature] [does the hard part], so you never [old chore] again.”
5. Feature three (screen: the result). “When it’s done, [result] is [ready / shared / in your inbox].”
6. Proof (screen: numbers or logos). “[Specific fact: teams of N / X minutes saved / free to start].”
7. Call to action (screen: end card). “[Verb] at [address].”

Worked example: a SaaS dashboard

An invented invoicing tool, eight screenshots, English, about 135 words:

1. “Freelancers: get paid in days, not months.”
2. “Chasing invoices means spreadsheets, reminder emails and checking your bank every morning.”
3. “Ledgerline creates the invoice from your tracked hours — client, rate and due date already filled in. Review it, press send.”
4. “Reminders go out on their own schedule, politely, until the invoice is paid. You don’t write a single follow-up.”
5. “Payments land on the dashboard the moment they clear, matched to the right invoice.”
6. “Freelancers using it are paid [X] days sooner on average.” (use your own measured number)
7. “Send your first invoice free — the link is below.”

Note what is missing: no feature list, no “powerful” or “seamless”, no settings screen. Every line describes the screen it plays over. (The proof line must be true for your product — never invent a number.)

Worked example: a mobile app

A 30-second vertical cut for an App Store preview, about 65 words — half the template, with features two and three merged and the proof beat dropped:

1. “Your plants, watered on time.”
2. “Forgot again? Most houseplants die of guessing.”
3. “Snap a photo — Sprig knows the plant and sets its schedule.”
4. “A nudge when it’s thirsty, and a log of every watering so you can see what works.”
5. “Download Sprig free.”

Vertical frames are narrow, so every feature line should play over a close-up, not a whole screen. See the gallery for vertical and square cuts made from the same screenshots as the landscape version.

Editing the draft

• Read it aloud with a timer. If you have to speed up, cut — do not shrink pauses.
• Delete adjectives first. “Powerful”, “easy”, “seamless” and “intuitive” carry no information.
• Say numbers the way you speak them. “Eleven days”, not “11d”.
• Match the screen. If the narrator says “invoice” the viewer should be looking at one.

Letting the studio draft it

In DemoScreen the Script step reads the text on your screenshots and drafts one line per screen in this shape. You set the audience and the length (0:30 to 3:00, depending on plan) and the draft is written to fit the measured rate for the narration language — then you edit any line, or rewrite one at a time. Try it on a sample project in the sandbox.

Not sure whether you need 30 seconds or 90? Read how long a product demo video should be, or the full walkthrough on how to make a product demo video.