Video Marketing: How to Determine the Ideal Length for Your Videos?
Are you familiar with the term “video marketing?”
Well, in case you are not yet aware of it, you should know it is incredible! And we are not just saying it; reliable data back this statement. You can look up the statistics on the web yourself!
Customers are increasingly purchasing from brands whose video ads they have viewed earlier. In fact, video marketers also agree that videos help them make their target consumers better understand their brand’s products and services.
When it comes to video marketing, businesses typically get stuck with two primary questions:
- What type of videos should we create?
- How long should our videos ideally be?
That is precisely what we will discuss in this blog to help you successfully make the most out of this incredible tool called video marketing.
Despite its effectiveness and immense potential to help generate brand awareness and drive conversions, many businesses are still not using this tool. So before we dive into the types of videos you should produce and the ideal length of your videos, let’s first take a look at why brands are afraid to do video marketing.
Why Are Brands Afraid to Do Video Marketing?
The reason is pretty straightforward here in reality. When it comes to doing video marketing, generally, brands make a very common mistake of assuming that their videos must have a very high-quality Hollywood movies type of video production.
Even before they could think of the benefits of video marketing, this thought holds them back from going any further. They remain stuck on the assumption that they need A1 video production, and that’s clearly very challenging as it requires plenty of resources.
This becomes such a significant barrier for them that they won’t ever think of doing video marketing. But like we said before – this is a significant yet common mistake.
You do not need to have a vast video production set and heavy equipment to produce good videos.
If truth be told, businesses who have already realized that this is just a misconception are successfully driving more conversions and making good money with videos that hardly take any time to create.
You can generate excellent results with even relatively simple videos.
Therefore the main takeaway from this is that do not allow the fear of video quality to prevent you from getting started with video marketing in the first place. In fact, most businesses can get away with recording videos from their smartphones directly.
What we are trying to say here is that focusing on the quality is a good thing but don’t make it that big a deal that it stops you from getting started only.
This brings us to our next point, i.e., how long should your videos ideally be when using them for video marketing.
What Is the Ideal Length for Videos When It Comes to Video Marketing?
The best way to determine your videos’ ideal length is to consider the problem you are trying to solve with it and the platform you will be uploading it to.
Let’s be really honest here. There is no one-shoe-fits-all type of length. What works for one brand might not work for yours and vice versa. The ideal duration of your videos should be determined by taking into account your specific problem and chosen platform.
When you look it up on the web, you will see a recommendation that the ideal length for your videos is two minutes or less. Now while this is a relatively decent suggestion, it fails to consider other crucial factors.
If you genuinely want to get the most out of this tool and your own efforts, don’t go with the generic video length limits. Take out some time and give it some thought to find out how long your videos should actually be for marketing.
Here’s a breakdown of the factors you need to take into account to determine how long your videos should be. Let’s dive in!
Factors to Take Into Account to Determine the Ideal Length for Your Videos
- Problem
Your video needs to align with the problem your target customers are experiencing because, just like in standard ads, the only reason that will motivate people to see your video is that you are either helping to resolve their issue or answering their questions.
What you really need to focus on here is the “why” the audience will watch your video.
Maybe they want to explore new products and services.
Or maybe they want to get to know new things.
Perhaps they just want to get some entertainment.
So, it all comes down to your understanding of your target audience. Think about what problem your audiences are facing currently, and then create a video around that topic while offering them a solution for that particular problem to encourage them to watch your video.
Next, the extent or intricacy of the problem will determine how long your video should be.
For example, let’s assume a customer is facing a problem and cannot decide what jeans he/she should purchase next.
Now, this is a much less complicated problem than a customer who is out in the market trying to decide which car he/she should buy.
The reason is fairly simple – first of all, there are so many brands offering numerous types of cars, and each of them has its own unique features and specifications. So it is evident that you’ll have to present more in-depth information in this case, meaning you will need to provide longer explanations. That’s why most car franchises have salespeople.
However, you can accomplish the same using video marketing.
Simply put; ideally, you should keep your videos just as long as it needs to be to convey your information to the viewers and not a second longer than that.
The time has changed now. People have shorter attention spans nowadays. However, by creating your videos to be useful throughout, you will most probably be able to keep the audience engaged.
This was the first factor, i.e., the problem you are trying to resolve that you had to take into account to determine the ideal length for your videos. So, that brings us to the next factor that you should consider: the platform where you will be uploading this video.
- Platform
Some platforms can keep the attention of the audience captured for longer than others.
For instance, people who use apps like Instagram and Snapchat will be habituated to viewing shorter videos.
On the other hand, users on platforms such as YouTube are accustomed to viewing videos for much longer.
Moreover, if you can get your audience to be dedicated to joining a webinar or live chat, then you can get them to stick around for a longer period watching your video.
Now let’s look at a few recommendations for ideal video lengths for popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Again, this depends on a couple of factors. Let’s start with the social media giant, Facebook, first.
- Facebook Organic Videos
Facebook organic videos are those videos you upload on your Facebook page without any advertising spend.
According to Facebook Insights recommendations, videos get displayed organically to more users when they are 3 minutes or more in length.
So the question is, should all your Facebook organic videos be at least 3 minutes long?
If you are hoping to present long-form stories or break down complex concepts through your videos, then probably yes.
If the primary focus of your business is to entertain and make videos that people can binge-watch, then creating 3 minutes or longer videos is probably a great idea.
But you must focus on the message you want to get across through your video instead of its length. In fact, the platform itself recommends doing this.
Posting a video that is at least 3 minutes long on Facebook does not inevitably mean that your content will get more reach because the platform’s algorithm rewards audience engagement over the video’s length.
Therefore, if your video keeps the audience engaged while also commenting and sharing, you will most probably get a boost from the algorithm and thus reach more users.
- Facebook Video Ads
If you are not entirely satisfied with your organic reach and want to boost it further, you can pay Facebook to promote your content.
Every time a user sees your video for at least three seconds or longer, the platform will charge you on a “per view” basis.
Remember, when advertising a video on Facebook, the key to success is to get to the point and convey your main message as early as possible.
Why? Because when you pay the platform to promote your video in the form of an ad, you will show up in users’ feeds who might not certainly be familiar with your brand or searching for your content.
So try and keep it as short as possible to get your message across.
- Instagram Videos
Le’s move on to the next popular social networking site Instagram. Here we will discuss feed and IGTV videos since, at the moment, the platform has certain time restrictions for Reels and Stories, forcing users to create shorter videos only.
For Instagram feed, your videos can be a minute or 60 seconds long before it converts into an IGTV video.
However, it is highly recommended to keep your videos less than one minute long. This is because, as per research, videos that got the most comments on the platform averaged about 26 seconds long in duration typically.
Wondering why?
First of all, Instagram users are accustomed to browsing through their feed quickly, and taking a pause to see a lengthy video kind of goes against their muscle memory.
In addition to this, since there is no option to rewind the video on Instagram, some users might move on in case they missed a part of it because waiting for the entire video to play again sounds like too much work.
Moving next to IGTV videos, let’s take a look at what is the ideal length for these videos.
The primary reason Instagram introduced IGTV was for long-form videos. They launched it as a platform where people can enjoy watching longer video content and build a deeper bond with their favorite content creators and brands.
Hence, in this case, we will again follow the thumb rule. Your IGTV videos should be just as long as it needs to be to convey your message to the viewers.
- YouTube Videos
The primary and most vital difference between YouTube and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram is that users come on YouTube to “watch” videos only.
On YouTube, they are actually looking for videos to watch rather than just scrolling rapidly through their social media feed. So here they come prepared with a mindset to see long-form video content.
You must also note that YouTube’s algorithm rewards videos that have more watch time by displaying them higher in search results and recommendations.
Therefore when it comes to the watch time, posting longer videos actually gives you a boost, but you need to ensure that your videos are engaging in order to make the audience stick around.
But undoubtedly, you have plenty of other opportunities for storytelling, jokes, or even merely entertaining acts on YouTube.
Keeping the audience engaged is the key to success on this most sought-after video-streaming platform.
More and more YouTubers are now producing and sharing long-form video content, and such videos actually tend to rank higher in YouTube search results.
However, don’t just stretch your content to make your videos longer. Try and avoid too many goofs.
- Twitter Videos
Twitter videos can be up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds long. However, since Twitter is more about short updates in the form of Tweets, people are used to seeing shorter content on the platform. So it would be best to keep your videos short too.
Initially, the social networking platform had a 30 seconds time limit for video posts.
Even though now this limit has been extended, we would still recommend you to keep your Twitter videos under 30 seconds only.
Many businesses leverage this platform’s nature by creating short teaser videos and attaching a URL to the tweet that directs people to their long-form content on YouTube or other platforms.
That was all – a few tips on ideal lengths of your videos for different platforms.
3 Bonus Tips to Help Your Video Marketing
Since you have stuck around for so long with us, we have some bonus tips for you to help you make the most out of your video marketing efforts.
As we discussed earlier also, the key to reaching more users on any platform is video engagement.
Keep in mind that video engagement is primarily calculated by considering how long users are watching your video and whether they’re generating conversions around it by commenting or sharing it with their peers and friends.
Check out these three bonus tips:
- Go Live
Going live with your audience immediately gives you a better opportunity for engagement because here, you can speak to your audience directly.
Instead of thinking about what they might find useful and then creating content around it, you can answer their queries and generate conversions in real-time here.
This is one of the best and easiest ways to boost audience engagement.
- Save the Best for First
People have shorter attention spans. Don’t make them wait till the end to get the best. That’s now how things work now. Place your best clips or screenshots at the starting of your videos to grab your audience’s attention and get them to stick around and watch the full video.
- Optimize Your Videos for Volume Off
Most users who watch videos on social platforms like Facebook are doing so with their volume off.
Maybe they are in a public place or feel like enjoying the video without any audio disturbances in between.
Either way, the best thing to do here is to include subtitles or closed captions to all your videos allowing the users to follow along with the volume off. For videos without any people, you can also do text stories. They are quite popular too these days.
Wrapping It Up
That was all about video marketing. With this information, you will be able to get started with it. Just make sure to invest some time into the process before jumping to the production process. Get to know your audience well and try to identify the problems they face every day, and make content around it. Taking into account their problems and the platforms where you are going to upload your videos, you can quickly determine the ideal duration of your videos that aligns with your target audience.
Remember not to stress the video quality too much. It is good to make quality videos but don’t let that stop you from utilizing this incredible tool – video marketing. Just keep the tips mentioned in this post in mind, and you will be all set to produce videos that will generate more brand awareness, help build better connections with your target audience, drive conversions, and boost sales.
Happy marketing!