Explainer Video Updates: 10 Signs It’s Time to Refresh

You should update your explainer videos when they no longer reflect your current product, brand, or messaging. 

After producing explainer videos for 16 years, we’ve seen approximate performance data from hundreds of videos and found that the majority require updates within 24-36 months due to product evolution. 

We’ve seen clients outgrow their original videos as soon as they pivot their offering, update their logo, introduce a new feature, and also to explain their growth to potential investors for the next funding round. 

If your video feels outdated, misaligned, or fails to engage your audience as it once did, it’s probably a good time to consider a refresh.

What Is the Average Shelf-Life of an Explainer Video?

An explainer video’s shelf-life is the length of time it stays relevant and effective before it needs an update due to changes in your product, branding, or audience needs. On average, this can range from 2 to 3 years, depending on industry and growth.

Explainer videos are often seen as a one-time investment. Make it, put it on your website, and let it do the talking.

But in reality, they work best when treated like any other part of your marketing strategy: dynamic, evolving, and closely tied to how your business grows.

Think about how often your product changes, how your brand voice sharpens, or how your audience’s expectations shift.

What felt fresh and compelling a year ago might now be visually outdated or misaligned with your messaging. 

And while explainer videos are built to simplify and clarify, if what they’re explaining is no longer accurate, they can do more harm than good.

From experience, I’ve seen that even high-performing videos can start to quietly lose impact if they’re not revisited regularly. Updating them means that you keep your communication sharp, relevant, and trustworthy.

What Are the Risks of Using an Outdated Explainer Video?

An outdated explainer video can be misleading and drive away potential customers by showing inaccurate information, misrepresenting your brand, and hurting conversions.

It Creates Confusion

When your business evolves (it can be a rebrand, a product update, or a new launch), your old explainer video can quickly become a liability.

The story, visuals, and even the tone no longer reflect who you are today. This disconnect leaves viewers confused: Is this the same company? Am I looking at the right product?

For example, 360 Hoops had just launched a completely refreshed gameplay experience with a new look and feel. When they came to us, they wanted a new way to communicate the excitement of their game.

We worked closely with their team to capture the high-energy atmosphere of the rebrand: dynamic visuals to showcase the new court layout, sharper graphics to highlight the rule changes, and a bold color palette that echoed their refreshed identity.

Here’s the video we created:

They put it seamlessly on their homepage, so the first thing visitors saw was the new look, the new energy, and the new story behind 360 Hoops. It instantly set the tone and removed any confusion from the old brand identity.

It Damages Your Credibility

People expect your branding, messaging, and visuals to be consistent across platforms. If your explainer video still shows your old logo, brand color, or even screenshots, it creates a disconnect. 

That disconnect can make your business feel unprofessional or behind the curve. First impressions matter, and an outdated video may send the message that your company doesn’t pay attention to details.

One notorious example is from Pepsi, starring Kendall Jenner.

This infamous ad tried to lean on outdated “unity through branding” tropes but completely missed the cultural pulse.

Instead of resonating, it trivialized social movements and damaged the company’s credibility.

While not an explainer video, it’s a clear warning: when your storytelling feels tone-deaf or stuck in the past, audiences notice, and the backlash can be swift.

In the same way, an outdated explainer video risks sending the wrong message.

Rather than presenting your company as fresh, innovative, and trustworthy, it can anchor you to a version of your brand that no longer represents who you are today.

It Misaligns With Your Current Funnel

Let’s say your product used to target startups, but now you’re shifting toward enterprise clients. Or you’ve moved from self-serve to high-touch onboarding. 

If your explainer still pitches your “old” offer, it could bring in the wrong audience.

Or worse, distracting the perfect ones. This kind of misalignment lowers your conversion rates and weakens the flow of your funnel.

It Wastes Opportunities

A well-crafted, current explainer video can increase engagement, reduce bounce, and drive conversions. But when the video is out of date, you’re not just missing out on these benefits.

You’re actively turning people away. If it doesn’t reflect what you actually deliver, it’s not doing its job. That’s wasted visibility, wasted traffic, and wasted ROI.

At Breadnbeyond, we’ve worked with clients under our Flexi Retainer model who understood the value of keeping their video content current. 

One SaaS client, for example, commissioned an explainer video in the first month, internal training videos in the second, and short campaign-focused videos in the third. All as their messaging evolved. 

That kind of proactive content is strategic.

When you keep your video assets aligned with every product iteration and marketing push, you maximize visibility and minimize missed opportunities.

How Can You Tell If Your Explainer Video Is Still Performing Well?

You can tell your explainer video is still performing well if it’s consistently driving engagement, conversions, and positive feedback from your target audience. 

After our experience working with several dozen clients, I’ve found that the best measure should be beyond just “views”.

The more important metric is whether the video is still moving people to take the next step you want them to take, like signing up, booking a demo, or making a purchase.

Track Engagement Metrics

Over 60% of video marketers say engagement rate is their top KPI, with conversion rate (56%) and click-through rate (52%) coming in close behind. (HubSpot State of Marketing Report, 2023)

High view counts are nice, but they don’t mean much if people aren’t watching all the way through. Look at average watch time and completion rates.

If viewers are dropping off early, your message may not be as relevant or compelling as it used to be.

Take Bulky, for example. They had a steady stream of traffic coming to their homepage, but analytics revealed a problem: most viewers bailed out halfway through their explainer video.

We stepped in to help them create a new homepage video with tighter pacing, cleaner transitions, and visuals that mirrored their updated UI design.

We don’t front-load too much detail. The new version should introduce information in smaller, digestible chunks that build up naturally as the video progresses.

We also wove in more dynamic character animations and on-screen cues to keep attention high.

Read more about our Bulkly Case Study: How Our Explainer Video Boosted Trial Sign-Ups by 280%

Monitor Conversion Impact

An explainer video can be regarded as a conversion tool. If your sign-ups, demo bookings, or sales from pages featuring the video have dropped, it’s a sign the content no longer resonates, or worse, is setting the wrong expectations.

Listen to Customer Feedback

Sometimes your audience will tell you directly when a video feels off, through support tickets, sales calls, or even social media comments. 

Pay attention to questions like, “I didn’t see that option in the app,” or “The dashboard looks different now.” These are red flags that your video needs an update.

Compare Against Benchmarks

If your video used to outperform your industry’s average click-through or retention rates but now lags behind, it may be time for a creative or informational refresh. 

Tools like Wistia, Vidyard, or YouTube built-in analytics make it easy to track these numbers over time.

Looking for an exact point where viewers are dropping the video can be a good hint that specific parts of the video need to be updated.

When to Update Your Explainer Video?

You don’t need to update your explainer video every few months. But there are clear moments when a refresh becomes non-negotiable. 

These moments usually happen when your video no longer reflects your brand, your message, or your audience’s needs.

A TLDR table, first, just in case you need something quick to scan, and we elaborate on it:

1. Your Branding Has Changed

A brand update (whether it’s a new logo, a refined color palette, or a complete visual overhaul) shouldn’t stop at your website and marketing materials. 

Your explainer video is often the first (and most engaging) piece of content potential customers see, so if it’s still rocking your old look, it can feel disconnected from your current identity.

We’ve worked with clients who underestimated this.

One had a sleek, modern rebrand with bold typography and colorful gradients, but their main explainer video still featured the old pastel colors and outdated font. 

Visitors noticed the mismatch, and it subtly undermined the perception of their professionalism.

Updating the video to align with the refreshed brand not only created visual consistency but also gave them an excuse to re-promote it, drawing fresh eyes and engagement. 

A cohesive brand experience builds trust, and in today’s market, trust converts.

2. Your Product or Service Has Evolved

Your business might stay steady for a while, but more often than not, things change as you grow.

The famous article The Five Stages of Small Business Growth by Neil Churchill and Virginia Lewis describes five typical stages of small-business growth: Existence, Survival, Success, Take-off, and Resource Maturity. 

Each stage brings new challenges and opportunities, and knowing where you are can help you make smarter decisions, just like when to refresh your explainer video to keep up with your evolving business.

If your explainer video still describes features you no longer offer, you’re essentially marketing a version of your business that no longer exists. 

Even small changes, like new pricing models, updated UI designs, or added functionalities, can make a video feel out of date.

This is especially common in fast-moving industries like SaaS, where product updates roll out every few months. An updated explainer makes sure your audience is getting the most accurate picture of your offering, which helps them understand its value faster.

3. Your Target Audience Has Shifted

If your target audience has shifted, your current explainer video might be speaking to the wrong people.

When you first made the video, you probably had a specific customer persona in mind. The tone, visuals, examples, and even pacing were crafted to resonate with that audience.

But over time, businesses evolve.

Netflix, for example, started out targeting DVD renters in the U.S. who wanted a cheaper, more convenient alternative to Blockbuster.

As streaming took off, their audience shifted to mainstream entertainment seekers worldwide — from families to binge-watchers to global cinephiles.

Their messaging had to evolve from “skip late fees” to “watch instantly,” and today it’s all about “exclusive originals” and “stories for everyone.”

Here’s one of Netflix’s explainer-style ads from 1998, back when DVDs were still the focus.

A few years later, after gaining traction and shifting its model, they released another video in 2005 that reflected their growth and new direction. And after that, the rest is history.

That same kind of audience shift often means your explainer video needs a refresh, so the language, visuals, and scenarios reflect the people you’re actually trying to reach now.

You may have started selling mainly to startups, but now your biggest clients are enterprise companies. Or you were targeting a tech-savvy Gen Z crowd, but your product is now gaining traction with busy parents in their 40s.

If the audience changes, so should the message.

This could mean adjusting the language (less jargon or more technical detail), swapping out examples to fit their day-to-day reality, or shifting the visual style to match their preferences. 

4. Your Audience’s Expectations Have Changed

It’s not just that competitors are getting better. It’s that people’s standards for what counts as “good content” are way higher now.

It only takes 2-3 seconds for them to decide whether they should watch the entire thing or just scroll past it.

With so many brands producing polished, engaging videos, your viewers have been trained to expect snappy storytelling, clear visuals, and a professional finish.

Anything less can make your message feel outdated or less credible, even if your product or service is excellent.

Audience expectations aren’t limited to the quality of the content itself. They’re also about format. Short-form videos dominate, especially among younger viewers.

2025 NuVoodoo reports that 92% of Gen Z and 90% of Millennials watch short-form videos frequently or sometimes. Even older generations engage, with 58% of Boomers tuning in at least occasionally. 

Knowing who is watching and how they consume video helps you decide when and how to refresh your explainer content.

5. The Video’s Performance Has Dropped

Over time, audience expectations shift, competitors raise the bar, and even the best videos can start feeling stale.

Performance dips could mean the content no longer resonates, the pacing feels slow compared to modern standards, or the visuals just don’t grab attention like they used to.

It might also be a sign your messaging isn’t aligned with your current offers or priorities.

6. You’ve Expanded Into New Markets

When your business grows into new regions or industries, your explainer video needs to grow with it. A video that worked perfectly for one audience may fall flat with another.

Different markets often have their own cultural cues, preferences, and even humor styles.

Language is another factor. If your current video is only in English, you could be unintentionally shutting out large segments of your new audience. 

Even if it’s translated or subtitled, you may need to update on-screen text and make sure culture-appropriate jokes are being used.

7. Industry Trends Have Changed

What felt fresh and relevant a year ago can quickly start to look dated. Animation styles, visual metaphors, and even the way information is presented evolve over time. Sometimes a lot faster than you’d expect.

Updating your video to reflect current industry trends shows that you’re paying attention, adapting, and staying competitive. This is how you can maintain credibility and appeal in your market.

So if your explainer video still references outdated processes, uses old visual clichés, or simply doesn’t match the design and brand storytelling standards your audience now expects, it can make your brand seem behind the curve.

8. The Visuals or Animation Style Look Old

Design trends don’t stay still. What once looked sleek and modern can now feel clunky or outdated. 

Colors, typography, and animation styles evolve quickly, and your audience subconsciously notices when something feels “last decade.”

This is a video we made 15 years ago using the quite popular 2D animation style at that time:

Aside from the nostalgic charm, it’s clear that animation styles have evolved significantly since then. The rubber hose animation technique, characterized by flowing, unarticulated limbs, was once a staple in early cartoons. 

While it has seen a resurgence in certain contexts, such as the video game Cuphead, it is generally considered outdated for modern explainer videos. 

Modern audiences expect clean, dynamic visuals with smooth transitions and contemporary design elements. Using current animation trends can boost viewer engagement and convey a more professional image.

9. Regulations or Compliance Requirements Changed

When laws, industry standards, or government guidelines shift, your video content may no longer accurately reflect the latest rules. 

This is especially important in regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, education, or food production, where outdated information could mislead audiences or even create legal liabilities.

Updating your video makes sure that your messaging is always relevant, as well as keeps your organization in good standing with compliance bodies, avoids penalties, and maintains audience trust.

10. You Have a Major Company Milestone

Milestones are proof of your growth, resilience, and success. Whether you’re celebrating your 10th anniversary, hitting a record-breaking sales goal, expanding into new markets, or unveiling a new headquarters, these moments deserve more than a press release or social post.

Videos made before this milestone may still be good, but they likely don’t showcase your latest accomplishments, updated branding, or refined messaging. 

If you keep using outdated visuals, you risk sending the wrong message: that your company hasn’t evolved.

By updating your videos during a milestone, you can:

• Showcase growth. Share before-and-after stories or highlight progress since the company’s early days.
• Reinforce credibility. Milestones build trust, and fresh videos amplify that trust.
• Strengthen your brand narrative. Tie your success story to the products or services you offer today.
• Engage your audience emotionally. Milestones are moments people want to celebrate with you; new videos give them a reason to join in.

Wrapping Up: Keep Your Videos All Fresh, Ahead of the Rest

A well-made one can have a long shelf-life, but it’s not immortal. Most of our repeat clients came back because they knew their industries changed fast. 

Their products evolved, their brand got a glow-up, and their audience’s taste shifted. And they understood that an outdated video, no matter how well it performed in the past, can start to feel like last season’s fashion.

So, the quickest way to spot all these signs would be to compare them with recent campaigns and see if they still resonate.

And remember: keeping your video up to date doesn’t always mean starting from scratch.

Often, a few tweaks to visuals, messaging, or pacing can make your existing video feel brand-new while keeping all the value that already works.

Mini FAQ: When Should I Update My Explainer Videos?

Can changes in industry trends affect my video?
Yes! New animation styles, storytelling techniques, or popular formats can make your video feel dated if it doesn’t keep up.

Does platform matter for video updates?
Definitely, videos designed for websites may not work as well on social media or mobile-first platforms. Adjusting format and aspect ratio can improve reach and engagement.

Should I create my explainer video in vertical or horizontal format?
It depends on where your audience watches. If most viewers come from mobile-heavy platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts, vertical videos are more effective. For websites, presentations, or YouTube’s main feed, horizontal is still the standard. Some brands even produce both versions to maximize reach.

Is it better to make a 30-second explainer video or a longer 5-minute one?
Shorter videos (around 30–90 seconds) usually perform best because they hold attention and encourage viewers to watch until the end. Longer 3–5 minute explainers still have their place, especially if you’re walking through a product demo, tutorial, or investor pitch. Keep them as engaging and concise as possible.

What about seasonal or campaign-driven updates?
If your business runs promotions, launches, or seasonal campaigns, refreshing your video to tie in can boost relevance and viewer attention.

How can analytics guide updates?
Watch for patterns like drop-off points, low clicks, or shares. Even if the video content is accurate, behavior signals can indicate where tweaks are needed.

Should team or company changes trigger updates?
Yes. New leadership, spokespeople, or company culture shifts can affect tone and messaging. Updating your video helps reflect who your brand is today.