How to Make a Testimonial Video From Customer Clips

One customer video is a testimonial. Five short moments from five customers, cut together with captions, is a testimonial video people actually watch to the end. This guide shows how to make one in Akteora from recordings you already have, without writing or changing a single word anyone said.

1. Before you start

You need a few approved video testimonials. Each one needs to have finished processing and have a transcript, which happens automatically a little while after it arrives. If you don’t have any yet, start with how to collect video testimonials.

Reels are included from the Starter plan. See pricing for how many render minutes each plan has each month.

2. Pick your testimonials

Open Reels in the sidebar and choose New reel. Pick three to six testimonials. Then choose the Order:

• Let Akteora choose suggests the strongest few seconds of each testimonial and an order to play them in.
• In the order I picked keeps your order. Akteora only suggests where to cut each one.

Either way, the suggestions are just a starting point. A language model reads the transcripts and proposes start and end points. It never writes words, and every suggestion is checked against the transcript so a clip always begins and ends exactly on a word someone said.

3. Trim and reorder

The editor lists your Clips, in play order. For each one you see the words around it, with the chosen span highlighted. Trimming works a word at a time: move the start or end one word earlier or later until the clip says exactly what you want. Nobody is ever cut off mid word.

Drag clips to reorder them, remove the ones that don’t earn their place, or add another testimonial. A reel holds up to 12 clips, each between 1.5 and 30 seconds.

4. Captions, cards and music

• Captions come straight from the transcript, word for word. Choose Bold, Boxed or Minimal.
• Intro card opens the reel with your brand’s logo and a short title, like “Hear it from our customers”.
• Outro card ends it with a call to action, like “Find out more”.
• Music adds a track that is lowered automatically whenever someone is speaking.

Every clip is evened out to the same loudness, so a customer who recorded in a quiet office and one who recorded in a car sound like they belong in the same video.

5. Render and post

Choose Render reel. Akteora renders it in vertical (9:16), square (1:1) and widescreen (16:9), so you have the right size for Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, for LinkedIn and Facebook feeds, and for YouTube or your website. You can leave the page while it renders; you get an email when it is ready.

Download the sizes you need and post them. Because the captions are burned into the video, it works with the sound off, which is how most people scroll.

6. Tips for a reel people finish

• Aim for 30 to 60 seconds. Three to five clips of 6 to 15 seconds each.
• Open with the strongest line. You have about two seconds before people scroll on. Lead with a result, not a greeting.
• Vary the voices. Different people, different situations, so more viewers see someone like themselves.
• Keep it honest. Only use clips whose meaning holds up on their own. A clip that turns “it wasn’t bad” into “bad” misrepresents your customer, and the FTC rule forbids that.
• End with one clear ask. One call to action on the outro card, matching where you are posting.

Want better raw material? Ask questions that draw out a before and after. Our list of testimonial questions is a good place to start, and you can send customers our phone recording tips. Ready to try? Create your account.