Interactive demo glossary

An interactive demo is a clickable replica of a software product that people can explore on their own, without an account or a live presenter. It is built by capturing the real product as screenshots, HTML or video and adding guidance such as tooltips and hotspots.

Related: Product tour, Click-through demo, Demo automation

A product tour is a guided sequence of steps that shows how a product works. On a website it is usually an interactive demo; inside a live product it is an in-app walkthrough delivered by a digital adoption tool.

Related: Interactive demo, Digital adoption platform (DAP)

A click-through demo is an interactive demo where the viewer advances by clicking highlighted parts of the screen, following one guided path through the product.

Related: Interactive demo, Hotspot

Demo automation is software that lets teams build, personalize and share product demos without a live presenter, and measure how viewers engage with them. G2 uses 'Demo Automation' as the category name for interactive demo tools.

Related: Interactive demo, Presales

A screenshot demo is an interactive demo made of captured screen images, one per step, with hotspots and tooltips on top. It is the fastest type to build and works for any app, including desktop software.

Related: HTML capture, Video demo

HTML capture saves the page's actual HTML and styles instead of an image, so the demo stays sharp at any size and its text, numbers and names can be edited after capture. It is the usual way to personalize a demo for a specific prospect.

Related: Screenshot demo, Sandbox demo, Demo personalization

A sandbox demo is a set of connected captured pages that the viewer can explore freely, like a safe copy of the application, instead of following one fixed path.

Related: HTML capture, Interactive demo

A video demo is a recorded walkthrough of a product, often with narration and a camera bubble. Some demo platforms let you add chapters, zooms and calls to action to the recording.

Related: Screenshot demo, AI voiceover

A hotspot is a highlighted, clickable area on a demo step that tells the viewer where to click next, often paired with a tooltip that explains why.

Related: Tooltip, Click-through demo

A tooltip is the short text bubble attached to a step or hotspot in a demo. It explains what the viewer is looking at and usually has Back and Next buttons.

Related: Hotspot

A chapter is a named section of a longer demo. Chapters let viewers jump to the part they care about and let creators gate, reorder or branch parts of the story.

Related: Branching, Gated demo

Branching lets a demo take different paths depending on the viewer's choice, such as their role or use case, so each viewer sees the most relevant story.

Related: Chapter, Demo personalization

A gated demo asks for the viewer's details, usually an email address, before showing all or part of the demo. Gating later chapters lets visitors see value before they are asked for anything.

Related: Lead capture, Chapter

Lead capture is collecting a viewer's contact details through a form inside the demo and sending them, with what the viewer watched, to a CRM or marketing tool.

Related: Gated demo, Product-qualified lead (PQL)

A demo hub, also called a demo center or showcase, is one page that collects several demos, for example every feature tour for a launch or every demo relevant to one deal.

Related: Sales room, Interactive demo

A sales room, or deal room, is a shared page for one buying group that holds the demos, documents and next steps for a deal, so the champion can share it inside their company.

Related: Demo hub, Presales

Demo personalization tailors a demo to one viewer or account: their name, logo, industry data or use case. HTML capture makes this possible without capturing the product again.

Related: HTML capture, Branching

A step funnel is a demo analytics chart showing what share of viewers reached each step. It reveals where people drop off and which part of the story loses them.

Related: Completion rate, Demo analytics

Completion rate is the share of viewers who reach the last step of a demo. It is the most common single measure of whether a demo holds attention.

Related: Step funnel, Demo analytics

Demo analytics measure how people engage with a demo: views, unique viewers, completion, time spent, step drop-off, and which people and companies viewed it.

Related: Step funnel, Completion rate, Product-qualified lead (PQL)

A product-qualified lead is a prospect who has shown buying intent by using the product, or an interactive demo of it, rather than only by filling in a form.

Related: Lead capture, Demo analytics

Presales is the technical side of selling: sales engineers and solutions consultants who run demos, answer technical questions and prove the product fits before the deal closes.

Related: Demo automation, Sales room

AI voiceover turns written step scripts into spoken narration with a synthetic voice, so a demo can be narrated and translated without recording audio.

Related: Video demo

An AI demo agent is an assistant embedded with a demo that answers viewers' questions and plays the relevant demo steps, acting like a sales engineer that is always available.

Related: Interactive demo, Presales

A digital adoption platform shows guidance inside a live application, such as in-app tours, checklists and tips for signed-in users. Interactive demo tools instead show a captured copy of the product to people who don't use it yet.

Related: Product tour, Interactive demo