by Usman SheikhTestimonial Videos – Ultimate Guide
A testimonial video that says “they were great to work with, I would recommend them to anyone” is worth nothing. Everybody has one of those. The viewer discounts it before it finishes, because they know it was selected, edited and approved by the company paying for it.
The testimonial that works admits something.
It says what the customer was worried about before they signed. It says the part of the project that went badly. It says what they would do differently. A customer who volunteers a problem is a customer who is clearly not reading a script, and everything else they say becomes believable because of it.
Why the admission is the whole mechanism
Your viewer is not trying to find out whether you are good. They assume your customers will say you are good. They are trying to find out what you are like when something goes wrong, because they already know something will.
That is especially true if they are buying something expensive, long-running, or hard to reverse. Forrester’s 2026 study of nearly 18,000 business buyers found an average of 13 internal stakeholders plus 9 external participants on a purchase. Somebody in that room is personally exposed if this goes wrong. A polished testimonial does nothing for that person. A customer saying “month three was rough and here is how they handled it” does everything.
How to get a real one
Interview, do not script. Send themes, never questions with suggested answers. The moment someone prepares, the value evaporates.
Ask the uncomfortable questions. What almost stopped you signing. What went wrong. What you would warn someone about. Who internally was against it and what changed their mind.
Ask for numbers, then check them. A specific figure with a named source beats an adjective. If the customer cannot give you a number they are able to share, ask for a before-and-after description instead.
Keep it short and let it look real. Ninety seconds. Their office, not a studio. Over-production reads as advertising, and advertising is discounted.
Get written approval for the exact cut. Not the interview, the final edit. This protects them and you.
If you are in a regulated industry, read this part carefully
Testimonials are one of the most heavily restricted things you can publish in financial services, and the rules differ sharply by jurisdiction and by registration category.
In the United States, testimonials and endorsements by investment advisers are permitted under SEC Rule 206(4)-1(b), but only with conditions. You must disclose, clearly and prominently and at the time it is disseminated, whether the person is a current client, whether they were compensated in cash or otherwise, and any material conflicts of interest. A written agreement with the promoter is required unless compensation is de minimis. You may not compensate a disqualified person.
The SEC’s Division of Examinations published further observations in December 2025 on what firms are actually being cited for. The most common failure is putting the required disclosure behind a hyperlink. A link is not clear and prominent. Others include disclosure in a smaller or lighter font than the testimonial, disclosure placed away from the testimonial on the page, gift cards given to clients in exchange for reviews, and compensation that was wrongly classified as de minimis when it exceeded 1,000 dollars over twelve months.
In Canada the position is different and less written down. There is no single instrument that says testimonials are permitted or prohibited. What applies to every registrant is NI 31-103 section 13.18, which prohibits holding yourself out in a way that could reasonably be expected to mislead about your proficiency, experience, qualifications or registration category, or about the nature of the relationship with the person. A carefully selected testimonial can fall foul of that without any specific testimonial rule existing. Mutual fund dealers face an additional constraint under CIRO Mutual Fund Dealer Rule 2.7.2, which prohibits unrepresentative statistics suggesting exaggerated conclusions.
None of this is legal advice and your compliance team has the final word. The practical point is that in a regulated firm, the testimonial video is a compliance artifact before it is a marketing asset, and the approval path should be agreed before you book the camera, not after.
Where to use them
Not the homepage carousel, where they are ignored. Put them where the specific doubt lives: on the service page that addresses the thing that customer was worried about, in the proposal, and in the follow-up email after a first meeting. One relevant testimonial at the moment of doubt beats twelve on a wall.
Sources
- 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1, SEC Marketing Rule. Adopted 2021, amended 2022.
- SEC Division of Examinations, Additional Observations Regarding Advisers’ Compliance with the Advisers Act Marketing Rule, 16 December 2025.
- National Instrument 31-103, section 13.18, Misleading communications.
- CIRO Mutual Fund Dealer Rules, Rule 2.7.2.
- Forrester, The State Of Business Buying, 2026.
Last reviewed 19 September 2026. Regulatory requirements change, so confirm the current position with your compliance team before publishing.
Oil and gas. Manufacturing. Retail. Private equity.
Qualified as a CPA in Canada and the United States. Twenty years across financial planning and analysis, agency ownership and marketing leadership. Previously Senior Director of Performance and Growth at Equiton, a private equity real estate manager with nearly $2 billion under management, running both the retail and the wholesale channel. Earlier, oil and gas, and campaigns across pharmaceutical, insurance and industrial manufacturing.