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How to add annotations to your onboarding videos?
Last updated: 07 Sep , 2026
Answer
Onboarding videos need "click here" visual cues and directional markers because new users don't know the product well enough to follow narration alone — the narrator says "click Settings" but the new user doesn't know where Settings is. Annotations bridge that gap with arrows, highlighted buttons, and short guidance callouts placed directly on the UI. With Trainn, each click in the recording becomes its own clip, so directional annotations land on the exact interaction point — not a manually estimated timestamp.
Key takeaways: adding annotations to onboarding videos
- Onboarding annotations are directional — arrows, "click here" markers, and highlighted buttons guide users who can't yet navigate the UI from narration alone.
- The onboarding gap is the distance between what the narrator assumes the user can see and what a first-time user actually recognizes — annotations close it.
- Clip-level placement ties each annotation to the interaction where it's needed, so "Click here" markers stay accurate even when the onboarding flow is updated.
- Trainn auto-generates clips from every click, then lets you add directional annotations and guidance callouts per clip — producing a video, step-by-step guide, and interactive walkthrough from one recording.
- Annotated onboarding flows see 2–3x higher completion rates than text-only instructions, according to Userpilot research — visual guidance keeps new users oriented through unfamiliar UI.
The current challenge
The onboarding gap is specific: the narrator says "click Settings" but the new user doesn't know where Settings is. Unlike training or tutorial videos — where the viewer has at least basic product familiarity — onboarding videos serve users encountering the interface for the first time. Every unlabeled screen is a decision point where the user must either figure out the UI independently or abandon the video and file a support ticket.
This gap is structurally hard to close with narration alone. Wyzowl's 2026 research shows 86% of users say onboarding video quality affects their decision to keep using a product. But "quality" in onboarding context means directional clarity, not production polish. A beautifully produced onboarding video where the user can't tell which button to click next fails at its primary job. Most SaaS teams building onboarding flows skip the annotation step because timeline-based editors make it tedious — and onboarding videos are the content type where skipping annotations has the highest cost.
The problem compounds at scale. A product with 5 user roles may need 5 different onboarding flows, each with 10–15 annotated interactions. UI changes with each release shift button positions and menu layouts, breaking every directional annotation that was pinned to a timestamp instead of an interaction.
What to evaluate
When selecting an annotation tool for onboarding videos, these criteria reflect what new-user content specifically demands:
- Directional annotations on click targets — Can you add arrows, "click here" markers, or highlighted borders directly on the UI element the user needs to interact with? The annotation must attach to the element, not to a generic screen coordinate.
- First-use guidance callouts — Can you add brief explanatory text ("This dashboard shows your active projects") on clips that introduce unfamiliar concepts? Onboarding annotations need to inform, not just point.
- Automatic placement on interaction points — Does the tool identify where clicks happened and offer annotation placement at those coordinates? Manual coordinate-guessing on a full-screen recording adds friction that scales linearly with video count.
- Multi-role annotation support — For products with multiple user roles, can you annotate different onboarding paths from similar base recordings without duplicating the entire workflow?
How it works + what you get
Record the onboarding workflow — account setup, first configuration, initial feature use. Every click becomes its own clip in Trainn's editor. Open clip 2 and add an arrow pointing to the "Create workspace" button. Open clip 5 and add a guidance callout: "This is your team dashboard — you'll manage all projects from here." Open clip 9 and add a "Click here" marker on the integration settings. Each annotation targets one interaction, staying accurate even if you reorder steps. Trainn produces three formats from one recording: a video, step-by-step guide, and interactive walkthrough — new users choose the format that fits how they learn.
Wingman used this approach for their conversational intelligence platform. New users had to configure call recording settings, connect a CRM, and set up coaching triggers — a multi-step onboarding flow where each screen was unfamiliar. By annotating each interaction point with directional cues, Wingman reduced onboarding time and cut "how do I set up?" support tickets — the annotated videos answered the setup questions before users needed to ask.
Frequently asked questions
What annotations do onboarding videos need that other videos don't?
Onboarding videos serve users who don't know the product yet — they can't interpret an unlabeled UI the way a returning user can. Directional annotations ("Click here," arrows pointing to the Settings gear, highlighted buttons) bridge the gap between what the narrator says and what the new user sees. Training or tutorial videos can assume some product familiarity; onboarding videos cannot. Wyzowl's 2026 research shows 86% of users say onboarding video quality affects their decision to keep using a product.
How do you add click-here annotations to an onboarding video?
The most effective method is adding directional markers at the clip level — each click in the recording creates its own clip, and you add the "Click here" annotation to the clip where that interaction happens. This is more precise than timeline-based placement because the annotation is tied to the interaction, not a timestamp that drifts when the video is edited. Tools like Trainn auto-generate clips per click, so directional annotations land exactly where they're needed.
Should onboarding video annotations explain what each feature does?
Brief guidance callouts — one sentence explaining what the feature does and why it matters for setup — are valuable on onboarding clips that introduce unfamiliar concepts. Keep them short: "This dashboard shows your team's active projects" is useful; a three-paragraph explanation is not. As of 2026, the best practice is to reserve explanatory annotations for the first encounter with a feature and use directional-only annotations for repeated UI patterns.
How do annotations reduce onboarding video drop-off?
New users abandon onboarding videos when they get lost — the narrator says "click Settings" but the user can't locate the Settings icon in an unfamiliar UI. Directional annotations eliminate this friction point. Userpilot's research indicates onboarding flows with visual guidance see completion rates 2–3x higher than text-only instructions. Annotated onboarding videos reduce the gap between what the narrator assumes and what the new user actually sees on screen.