How to Determine the Best Video Length
How long should an online video be? There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but there are several key elements to balance. Each video length should take into account: 1. Your budget, 2. Your platform and 3. Your goals.
Budget is obvious. If you are hiring a professional videographer, a longer video is typically going to cost more to produce, or if you're DIY-ing it, a longer video will take more of your time. Platform is also relatively straight-forward. Some social media channels limit the video length: Twitter cuts off videos longer than 2:20, LinkedIn has a max of 10 minutes, Facebook Stories must be less than 2 minutes, Instagram profile posts must be under 60 seconds, Instagram Stories are chopped into 15 second segments. Other channels reward longer videos: The Facebook newsfeed algorithm currently favors videos longer than 3 minutes. But the biggest, and most overlooked, factor should be the goal of your video.
#ProTip: Use short videos for awareness, long videos for engagement
If you are trying to get your message out, or trying to fill the top of your sales funnel, shorter is better. About 68% of people will finish a video if it's under 60 seconds. However, relatively few people will act after watching a short video - videos under 2 minutes only have about a 15% engagement rate. Make the video a little longer, and the engagement rate dramatically increases -- it is between 20-25% for videos between 2-5 minutes. And studies have shown that videos over 15 minutes account for about 50% of audience engagement. That makes perfect business sense, if a person is willing to spend time on your video, you have brought them farther down the sales funnel - they just need more information before they commit. So ask yourself first what your goal is: Where does this video fall in your sales funnel? Would you rather have more views or more clicks? Then you are well on your way to a perfect length.
Katie Rutter is the executive producer of Thing in a Pot Productions. She has received multiple awards for her videos and the overall quality of her work, including being honored as Video Producer of the Year in 2018 by the Catholic Press Association. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our video ProTips in your inbox every month!