Do you need a video?
Not strictly. Product Hunt's own launch guide says that about 53% of products that reached Product of the Day since 2021 included a video, and that videos help depending on the product but are not always necessary. Put the other way, nearly half of the day's winners had none.
A video earns its place when your product is easier to understand in motion: a workflow that takes several steps, a tool whose value appears only once data flows through it, an interface with a clever interaction. If your product is a single page whose value is obvious from one screenshot, a strong gallery of images may do as much.
If you make one, keep your expectations sensible. A video will not rescue a launch nobody knows about, but it can turn a curious visitor into someone who signs up, which is the point of the day.
What Product Hunt accepts
These are the rules from Product Hunt's own launch guide, which are easy to get wrong the night before:
- Only YouTube links are supported for the gallery video. You cannot upload an MP4 file.
- The video must not be private. Public or unlisted both work; unlisted is handy if you do not want it on your channel before launch.
- Use the full URL. Shortened links will not load.
- Gallery images: at least two, and the recommended size is 1270 × 760 pixels. Animated GIFs can be used in the gallery too.
- Thumbnail: a square image, 240 × 240 recommended, under 3 MB.
- Tagline: up to 60 characters. Description: up to 500 characters.
Because the video lives on YouTube, the picture people see before they press play is your YouTube thumbnail. Set a custom one that shows the product, not the first frame of a logo animation.
What to put in the video
The gallery video plays when someone clicks it, with sound, inside a page full of other things to read. That shapes what works:
- Show the product in the first five seconds. Not your logo, not your face, not a slow reveal. People came to see the thing.
- Aim for 45 to 90 seconds. Long enough for the core idea and two or three moments, short enough to finish while deciding whether to upvote and comment.
- One story. The problem in one line, the product solving it in a few screens, then the call to action. The script guide has a template.
- End on what to do next. On launch day that is usually "try it free" with your address, or the launch offer if you have one.
- Captions anyway. Some visitors will watch muted at their desk, and captions make the video usable for people who cannot hear it.
A face can help. Many makers add a few seconds of themselves at the start or the end, which fits Product Hunt's community feel. Keep it short, and let the product take most of the time.
Make a launch-day set, not one video
The gallery video is only one of the places your launch will be seen. The same day, you will probably post on X and LinkedIn, email your list and update your website. Each of those wants a different shape:
| Where | Shape | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Product Hunt gallery (via YouTube) | 16:9 | 45 to 90 seconds |
| Your website's launch banner or hero | 16:9 | the same video, muted with captions |
| X and LinkedIn posts | 1:1 or 16:9 | 15 to 45 seconds |
| Instagram and Facebook feeds | 4:5 | 15 to 30 seconds |
| Stories, Reels, Shorts and TikTok | 9:16 | 15 seconds |
| Email to your list | a thumbnail image linking to YouTube |
The easiest way to get there is to plan the full video and a fifteen-second version together and export both in every shape. ShotDemo does exactly that from one project: the full tour and a fifteen-second cut, in 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 and 4:5, with captions, a subtitle file and a thumbnail for each. Our video sizes guide has the pixel sizes if you are exporting from somewhere else.
A timeline for the week before
Seven days out: write the script and the tagline together; they should say the same thing. Capture clean screens with realistic sample data.
Five days out: make the video and watch it on a phone, muted, then with sound. Ask someone who has never seen your product what it does.
Three days out: upload to YouTube as unlisted. Set the custom thumbnail. Copy the full URL, not a shortened one, into your draft launch.
Two days out: export the social cuts and schedule or draft the posts. Prepare the maker's first comment.
The night before: check that the video is not private, the link opens in a private browser window, and the gallery order is right, with the images that explain the product most clearly first.
Launch copy often changes until the last minute. If your video is built from screenshots and a script, a changed line or screen can be re-rendered in minutes rather than re-recorded.
The maker's first comment
Product Hunt's guide also notes that 70% of products that achieved Product of the Day, Week or Month included a first comment from the maker. The comment and the video work together: the video shows what the product does, the comment tells the story of why you built it, who it is for, what it costs and what feedback you want. Point to the video in the comment if it shows something you describe.
After launch day
The video keeps working after the launch ends. Make the YouTube video public if it was unlisted, add it to your website's home page, put the short cut in your welcome email, and pin a post with it on your social profiles. Keep the Product Hunt page current too: people still find launches through search months later, and a gallery video of an old interface sends them to a product that looks different from the one they sign up to. When the product changes, update the video and swap the link.
Mistakes that are easy to avoid
- A private YouTube video, or a shortened link, which leaves an empty space in the gallery.
- A long branded intro before the product appears.
- Music louder than the voice, or music you do not have the rights to; YouTube may claim or mute it on launch day. See music for product videos.
- A video of an older version of the product, so what people see is not what they get when they sign up.
- Only one shape, so the posts on X, LinkedIn and Instagram show a small wide video with bars around it.
- No captions, so muted viewers see a silent screen tour with no explanation.
Launch day is busy. A little preparation on the video, a week out, is one less thing to fix at midnight.