Video Marketing How-To: How Long Should Your Videos Be?

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Video Marketing How-To! You’ve probably heard us joke now and then that human beings have a shorter attention span than most goldfish, and sadly it’s not far off. If your content can’t capture your viewers interest in the right amount of time, they’ll bounce off to something else.

So with that in mind, today we want to talk about the best lengths for your video content at every stage of the funnel. These are all best practices – and your audience may vary – but let’s dive in.

Starting at the top of the funnel, educational, fun content that’s designed to get people excited about your industry should be kept short. TV commercials are generally 30 seconds in length for a reason, and you can apply the same ideas to your online video. For social content, keep it short—Instagram will cap you at 15 seconds, and while you can post long content to Facebook, people’s attention spans are short. For YouTube you can go a bit longer, but we don’t recommend going much past a minute and 30 seconds. You won’t see many people getting to the end of your video unless it’s truly memorable.

Moving through the funnel to the learning and evaluation stage, you can start to get a bit longer for this content, as people are already interested enough in what you do to want to interact with your video. Demo videos can be a few minutes long, and your content can start to talk a bit more about why you, specifically, can solve your prospects’ problems. Don’t go much past 5 minutes though – try to focus your videos on one aspect of your product, or bundle them based on your personas, but don’t hit people with a full 45 minute demo yet.

Now, I said yet there because there is a time and a place for your full demo, and it’s the last stage of the funnel. When people are at the point of purchase, your video’s job is to give them all the tools they need to succeed, and all the info they need to convince their superiors that your product or service is right for them. Take as much time as you need, but keep it personal – a generic 45 minute demo video won’t carry the same value as a customized 20 minute demo that touches on the specific pain points you’re solving for that specific customer.

So, that wraps up this week’s tips – I hope this has answered your questions around video length, but if not tell us in the comments! Stay tuned in another few weeks for a new episode of Video Marketing How-To!

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