The Product Hunt launch video: what to show, how long, where to put it

On Product Hunt, the video is the first thing in the gallery and often the only thing a visitor watches before deciding whether to scroll on. A good Product Hunt launch video is short, readable with the sound off, and honest about what the product does. This guide covers what to put in it, how long to make it, where to upload it, and how to produce one without an editor.

Everything below applies to a launch on Product Hunt, and most of it also holds for Show HN, a Reddit post, or a launch tweet. The common thread is that the viewer owes you nothing: they will give you three seconds, and you have to earn the next ten.

The first three seconds decide the rest

Most people see the video on mute, in a feed, next to other launches. The first frame has to be a sentence that a visitor recognises as their own problem, not your tagline and not your logo. Write it the way the viewer would say it, keep it under eight words, and put motion in the first half second.

• Good: "Two hours of recording, one sentence I need."
• Weak: "Introducing Acme, the next-generation platform for teams."
• Also weak: an intro animation that spends two seconds on a logo before anything is said.

What to show, in order

A launch film does not explain the product; it shows three concrete things the product does and then says where to find it. The structure that holds attention is short and repeats across good launches:

1. Hook (0 to 3 s): the problem in the viewer's words.
2. Reveal (3 to 8 s): the product name, your real logo and one line on what it is.
3. Three beats (8 to 24 s): one feature per shot, each on a real piece of your interface and with one caption.
4. Close (24 to 30 s): where to go, with the address on screen, and what the launch is.

You can see this laid out second by second in the product launch video template. Order the three beats by how often a user needs each feature, not by how hard it was to build.

How long should it be?

About 30 seconds is the sweet spot for a gallery video. Shorter leaves no room for three beats; longer starts to look like a demo, and a visitor who wants a demo will click through to your site anyway. If you want to go deeper, make a second, longer video for your own page and keep the Product Hunt one tight.

Where to put it

Product Hunt takes the video as a link in the gallery, so the usual route is to upload a 16:9 file to YouTube and paste its address. Put it first, ahead of the screenshots. For the maker comment and the launch post on X, cut a short version in 9:16 or 1:1 so it plays natively instead of as a link. LaunchReel produces short cuts of 5, 6, 8 and 10 seconds in 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1 with safe margins for each platform.

Making one from a URL

If you do not want to open an editor, LaunchReel AI starts from your site's address. It reads the home page and up to three inner pages, answers six questions about your product with sources, and writes a brief and a storyboard. A code-based engine then draws a film of about 30 seconds from your real colours, type and logo, and rebuilds your interface elements for the frame. Text is drawn as real type, so it stays sharp at feed size.

The page LaunchReel for a Product Hunt launch walks through this flow for a launch day. The practical point for makers is the chat: pin one shot, say what you want changed, and only that shot is redrawn, which is what you need at eleven at night the day before the launch.

What to leave out

Most weak launch videos fail by including too much, not too little. A visitor does not need your founding story, your roadmap or a tour of the settings page in the first thirty seconds. Leave out anything that does not help someone decide to click through, and put the rest on your own site, where the visitor who wants it will go looking.

• Claims you cannot back up: a number or a comparison that your site does not state today will be the first comment under the post.
• Jargon from your own team: use the words a customer would type into a search box.
• Stock footage of people smiling at laptops: it says nothing about your product, and viewers have learned to skip it.

The thumbnail and the maker comment

The video is not the only thing that gets a first look. The thumbnail frame, the tagline and the first lines of your maker comment are read together, so make them say the same thing. If the film opens on the viewer's problem, the comment should open on the same problem, then name the product, then say what you would like feedback on. Visitors who come from the video should recognise the first sentence of the comment.

Launch-day checklist

• The first sentence of the film is the viewer's problem, not your name.
• Every number in the film is one your site states today.
• The film is 16:9 for the gallery, with a short cut ready for X.
• Captions are burned in, because the sound will be off.
• The address on the last frame is the one you want people to type.

For other kinds of products, the use-case pages show how the same structure changes for a SaaS, an app, a developer tool or a shop.