It’s no secret that our attention spans are dwindling.
Hands up if you scrolled to the end of this article to decide if you had time to read it?
Social media is continually presenting us with short, snappy content designed to stimulate and sell on mass… and it works.
Figures released in 2018 showed that 75% of videos published in the previous year were less than 2 minutes long.
Similarly, videos under 90 seconds see an average retention rate of 59% but videos over 30 minutes retain only 14%.
So how long should your video be?
Platform matters
Making a catch-all piece of content to share across all channels is unlikely to work because users expect different video lengths on different platforms.
Odds are, they’re more willing to watch a 2-minute long video on YouTube than on Twitter.
HubSpot discovered that Instagram videos that received the most comments (a good indicator of its success) averages 26 seconds.
READ MORE: Video content ideas for Instagram
We scroll faster on Instagram than any other app so videos should definitely be short and impactful.
On Facebook, audiences engaged the most with minute long videos.
Some marketers discovered that 95% of viewers watch videos on mute.
This means that content needs to be clearly understood in silence as well as with the sound on.
The longest pieces of video content are best suited to YouTube where uploads of about 2 minutes are most popular.
What about longer videos?
With that said, people tend to visit places like YouTube with a specific requirement in mind (e.g. how to change a lightbulb) and will happily watch more in-depth videos if they offer more value.
Don’t worry if you feel like you’ve got too much to say to squeeze it into a succinct clip for social media, there is still a place for longer types of video. The trick is using them correctly.
FREE GUIDE: 5 Types of Video to Improve Your Business
Training videos, for example, will differ in length depending on how much information you need to get across to the viewer.
Particularly lengthy videos can be chopped up into smaller, more digestible videos.
In fact, studies show that students retain more information when learning in bitesize chunks.
If you’re discussing a complex issue then, of course, the video should accommodate that.
We wouldn’t expect you cover the entire work of Shakespeare for example, in a minute-long video.
In fact, the length of a video can be an indicator of value.
For example, you would have different expectations about how much information you might glean from an hour-long TEDTalk over a 15-minute TEDTalk.
It takes time to really tell a story, but if you’re worried about keeping the viewer interested right up until the last moment then you probably need help with the process.
Luckily, we have plenty of expert script-writers on hand to help plot out an effective video no matter how long you want it to be.
Still not sure?
Don’t worry, we have years of experience working with creatives and businesses and have a pretty good grasp on what video lengths pack the biggest punch depending on the audience, topic and delivery methods.
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