App Preview Video
An app preview video is a short, auto-playing (muted) video on the App Store product page and in some search placements, used to demonstrate the app in action and improve conversion.
Preview videos autoplay without sound wherever they appear, so the visual alone has to carry the message. The first two to three seconds are the effective window before most viewers have already decided whether to keep watching or move on, which makes the opening shot as important as any single screenshot.
A preview video is a conversion asset, not a discoverability one — it has no direct effect on keyword ranking. Its value shows up in the tap-through and install rate from people who already see your listing, whether from search, browse, or a paid placement.
Because it's one of the few elements testable through Product Page Optimization, the honest way to know whether a preview video helps your specific app is to run it against a strong static-screenshot-only treatment rather than assume video always wins.
Frequently asked questions
- Does having a preview video help my search ranking?
- Not directly. It affects conversion once a user sees your listing, not whether the listing appears for a given search term.
- How long should an app preview video be?
- Apple allows up to 30 seconds, but the meaningful conversion window is much shorter. Front-load the app's core value in the first few seconds rather than building up to it.
Related terms
- Product Page Optimization (PPO)Product Page Optimization is Apple's native App Store Connect A/B testing tool, letting you run up to three alternate treatments of your icon, screenshots, and preview video against your default page for up to 90 days.
- Feature Graphic / Preview Assets (ASO)Preview assets — screenshots and app preview videos — are the visual elements that appear in search results and product pages, directly affecting the conversion rate from impression to install.
- App Store Conversion RateApp Store conversion rate is the share of users who see your app's listing in search or browse and go on to install it, and it now carries as much ranking weight as metadata relevance in most categories.
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Put this into practice
Score App Store keywords by popularity and difficulty across 109 storefronts — the numbers behind app preview video.
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