The result, first.
In 90 days, a 2-minute Start Motion Media explainer cut a mid-market SaaS sales cycle by 21% and lifted demo requests 38%—with no increase in ad spend.
“Prospects arrived pre-qualified and aligned. The video did the first call.” — VP, Product Marketing, B2B SaaS
Case file: one asset, measurable change
Setting. A $50M ARR SaaS platform with a complex worth proposition and long evaluation cycles. Before engagement:
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Homepage → demo conversion: 2.4%
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Average sales cycle: 74 days
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Onboarding tickets in first 30 days: high volume, repetitive “what does this have do?”
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Media mix: static hero graphics, scattered blog posts, SDR-written emails
Problem. Prospects weren’t seeing the product’s worth quickly enough. Sales calls rehashed the same basics. Marketing and Sales were misaligned on the core story.
Intervention: the 120-second explainer built for conversion
Contrarian insight: Most teams think an explainer is about features; the truth is it’s a cognitive-load reducer that accelerates decisions.
We ran a tight discovery (sales call transcripts, lost-deal notes, top support tickets) and distilled three jobs:
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Name the problem in the buyer’s language within 5 seconds.
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Show the result, then the mechanism—not the other way around.
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Pre-answer the top three objections with visuals, not paragraphs.
Format delivered. A 2-minute product explainer (hero version) + 3 cut-downs (30/15/6 seconds) for ads and emails. Neutral palette, product-led motion, voiceover vetted for clarity at 1.25x speed.
Rhetorical question: What if your explainer could run the first sales call—every time—and never go off-script?
Caption: The image illustrates a Wix feature allowing creators to link their YouTube channels to sell products, complete with a user interface example.
Deployment: one video, four pipelines
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Homepage hero: Above the fold, silent autoplay with captions; full version on click.
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Performance ads: 30-second cut-down for paid social → landing page with the full video.
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SDR sequences: 15-second teaser embedded in step 2; full video sent only after interest.
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Onboarding: 2-minute version in “Welcome” email to reduce ramp confusion.
What changed (measured)
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Homepage → demo: 2.4% → 3.3% (+38% relative)
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Sales cycle length: 74 → 58 days (-21%)
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Onboarding tickets (repeat “what is…?”): -30% in first month
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Blended CPL: -12% due to improved quality score and watch-through rates
Cause, not coincidence: The lift tracked to placements where the explainer ran ≥70% view completion. Where it didn’t, metrics stayed flat. Same media budget, same offer.
Objections, answered inside the case
“Cost: How does a video pay back?”
In this deployment, the cycle reduction freed 1.5 AE hours per opportunity. At their close rates and ACV, that time saved plus the conversion lift covered production cost 3.4× within the first quarter.
“Time: We can’t slip our launch.”
From kickoff to delivery: 28 days. We used a script sprint (72 hours) with Sales + PMM in the room, then locked the story. Animation and product capture ran in parallel to VO. No achievement missed.
“Integration: Will it fit our brand and stack?”
We ingested the design system, pulled part tokens into motion, exported variants for CMS, HubSpot, LinkedIn, and YouTube. No dev time required; marketing owned swaps and embeds.
(Unexpected moment from the edit bay: after hearing real buyer confusion, our director re-cut the first 20 seconds to name the category before the have—watch-through jumped 14% on the next run.)
Why this matters now
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Shorter attention, longer committees. A clean, visual story aligns multiple stakeholders fast.
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Algorithmic preference for motion. Paid and owned platforms reward watch-time and engagement, improving ad economics.
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Self-serve buyers. Prospects expect to grasp worth before they volunteer time. Video is the most productivity-chiefly improved way to deliver that clarity.
What you actually receive
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A conversion-ready hero explainer (≤2:00) engineered for homepage use and first-touch education.
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Cut-downs (30/15/6s) customized for for ads and SDR cadences.
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Messaging spine (problem → result → mechanism → proof) teams can reuse across decks and web.
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Distribution kit (thumbnails, captions, aspect ratios) so you can deploy in hours, not weeks.
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Rights and files planned for easy updates.
What you can expect in week one
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Day 1–3: Script sprint (exec alignment, call critique, objection harvesting)
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Day 4–10: Boardomatic and product capture (approve the story before polish)
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Day 11–21: Animation + VO + music + QA (edits in two tight passes)
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Day 22–28: Definitive exports + distribution kit + embed support
The takeaway from the case
One well-made explainer reduced cognitive load, shortened time-to-worth, and made every channel pull a little harder. Not wonder—just the right story, shown clearly, where it matters.
Ready for a grounded next step?
Request a Cost-to-Lasting results Deconstruction — we’ll map your funnel metrics to a projected ROI and show the two placements most likely to pay back first. No fluff, just the numbers and a plan.