So, you want to reach out to a professional video production company to produce a marketing video, but you’re not sure how long your video should be. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Video marketing is one of the most effective methods of digital marketing, but there is a right way and many wrong ways to go about promoting your marketing videos online.
One of the key components to video marketing is the length of your videos; this is because people on the internet have very short attention spans. So, in this article, we will look at a few of the studies done with respect to engagement rates compared with video length and see what conclusions we can draw, if any. We will then try to determine what the perfect length for a marketing video is so that you can act on this insight to generate more interest in your products and services.
K eep reading to learn:
- If short marketing videos perform better than long ones
- What people think about marketing videos of various lengths
- The perfect length for your marketing videos
- And much more
Do Short Marketing Videos Perform Better Than Long Ones?
Studies have shown that shorter marketing videos perform much better than longer videos. There are a few reasons for why this is the case. The main reason is that people have short attention spans, especially concerning their online viewing habits, which makes sense because people are constantly bombarded with advertisements online and have by and large learned to simply block them out consciously.
That said, video marketing is absolutely still effective, but there are a few key factors to consider when creating your ads so that people will be drawn in and watch them to the end. First and foremost, the length of the video is absolutely critical. If the video is too short, then people won’t even notice it. On the other hand, if the video is too long, then people will stop watching it, X out of it, or otherwise, ignore it. So, the logical question becomes how long is too long for a marketing video. The answer might surprise you.
How Long is too Long for a Marketing Video?
On average, the perfect length for a video ad is between 15 and 20 seconds for pre-roll ads and only about six seconds for bumper ads. Twitter video ads work best when they’re between 20 and 45 seconds long. While on Pinterest, you should aim to keep your ads between 15 and 30 seconds in length. For Snapchat, you need to keep your video ads under 10 seconds, and for YouTube ads or webpage ads, 30 to 60 seconds works best, but it’s a good idea to err closer to the 30-second mark.
Facebook (Meta) recently shared that 15 seconds is the perfect length for ads on their platform. Interestingly, Meta also noted that their users report that 47% of the value of a video is delivered to them within the first three seconds of the video, meaning that if you want to succeed with your video marketing efforts, then you need to capture the audience’s attention immediately, demonstrate value, and then make a call to action. Anything more or less than this will result in your viewers ignoring your ad.
When to Use Longer Marketing Videos?
Although the average marketing videos should be kept short in almost all situations, there are a couple of exceptions to this rule. For example, explainer videos that go over how to use a product or service should typically be in-depth, and a video of this sort between 10 and 20 minutes can work well, especially when the traffic to that video is organic, meaning that people are searching for the content rather than having it advertised directly to them.
Also, if you are putting videos up on your YouTube account that people are directly searching for themselves, then 10-20 minutes is a good length. The overall theme here is that if people are searching for your videos, then you can get away with longer video lengths, as this is in the name of good content. Whereas, if people don’t know who you are, and you are advertising to them unannounced, then you want to keep your videos short and to the point. Again, marketing videos aim to capture the audience’s interest, demonstrate what it is that you can do for them, and make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Why Use Marketing Videos in the First Place?
Despite the fact that most people will ignore your marketing videos no matter their length, video marketing is still one of the most effective methods of spreading brand awareness and growing your audience. Video marketing offers many benefits to businesses. Some of the many benefits that a well-made video ad can offer your business include increasing conversions, generating more traffic to your landing page, helping you rank higher in search results, and helping you build more backlinks to your website, and all of these things make a noticeable difference in terms of your revenue, so don’t be discouraged by the numbers listed in some of the above-referenced studies.
Reach Out to A Digital Marketing Agency
If any of this still seems confusing to you, or you just want the very best odds of having a successful video marketing campaign, then your best bet is always to have your videos created by a creative video production company that understands the data and knows what it takes to produce a viral video campaign. Once you have the video, you can then speak with a digital marketing agency, which will be able to help you implement the best strategies for promoting the video online.
That said, the above-mentioned guidelines should serve you well when deciding the perfect length for your marketing videos, so keep these timeframes in mind when planning your content, and you’ll have a much better chance of generating the response you’re hoping for.
