What’s the best duration for an effective video?

29th March 2017 by CH

One of the most important things to consider when planning a video campaign and creating the video brief is the best duration for your video. This is inevitably influenced by w hat kind of video you’re creating and who your target audience is but it’s a good idea to also think about video duration independently.

Keep it short and simple…

You’ve probably heard this advice a million times but with attention spans declining and so much video content available online these days, there is a reason why many video agencies recommend this.

At CH we normally encourage our clients to keep their videos under 2 minutes , unless the style of the video demands otherwise. Furthermore, recent research conducted by Wistia across hundreds of thousands of videos has discovered that video engagement rates start to drop significantly if the video is longer than 2 minutes, so that’s another incentive to keep things short and sweet.

If you’re planning to share your video on social, then you should reduce the duration even more and start thinking in seconds, not minutes. Facebook videos should be no more than 60 seconds and you can go as short at 15 seconds on Instagram.

It might seem like a challenging task to convey everything you want to say in just a few seconds but as an experienced video agency, we would be able to help you achieve that by suggesting the best approach and suitable style. And remember, the first 10 seconds are crucial to capture attention and encourage viewers to watch the whole video!

…but not always

The same research from Wistia also uncovered that videos between 6 – 12 minutes achieve a similar engagement rate, which is surprising, although long videos only work for a specific type of content and a willing audience.

To ensure viewers click to watch a longer video, you’ll need to set the expectations from the beginning. The video title is a great indication that they’re about to watch a longer video and you can also showcase and distribute longer videos on YouTube, where people will be more receptive towards lengthier videos, compared to Facebook.

For more advice regarding the best video duration for your project, get in touch with the CH team. Meanwhile, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get inspired and discover useful tips or subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our latest videos.