Today’s internet-savvy audience prefers video content over others. Given that the typical human attention span is 8 seconds, it’s difficult to keep audiences’ attention for a longer time. But that’s where the disruptive power of explainer videos may be put to good use. Incorporating animated explainer videos in your marketing strategy could be the best move.
When you finally decide to do so, you’ll come across several challenging factors. One of which is the ideal explainer video length. How long or short should your explainer video be? How do you decide the ideal video length?
If you’re in the same boat, worry no more. We’re here with some great tips to tackle this for you. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll have a good idea about what works better in keeping your audience engaged and interested.
What is an Ideal Video Length?
The best tip ever: keep your videos as short as possible. Each explainer video you create must not be longer than 2 minutes. Social media marketing with short explainer videos has plenty of perks. However, the optimal video length depends on many factors. For example, the video format, the message, your target audience, and the platform you go for.
For your ease, we’ve come up with a rough sketch of different video formats and their ideal length.
- Explainer videos: the ideal video length ranges between 60-120 seconds
- Testimonial videos: the ideal video length ranges between 1-2 minutes
- Creative commercials: the ideal video length ranges between 16-58 seconds
- Crowdfunding commercials: the ideal video length ranges between 2-2.5 minutes
Short videos have gained traction over longer ones. These are great tools to engage audiences with shorter attention spans. Yet, the real question is, how short? If you’re stuck here, read on to know how to determine the ideal explainer video length.
Keep the Explainer Video Script Sweet and Short
A lot relies on how you draft your explainer video script. A high-quality script is crisp and concise. It is engaging and informative at the same time. However, do not try to cram everything into one video. Discover what your target audience likes and dislikes, and come up with a script that is worth investing in.
In short, convey a compelling story that hooks your audience in a few seconds. Also, make sure the intent is clear with the right call to action.
Consider the Explainer Video Platform
Audience preferences vary from platform to platform. Depending on the platform used to release the video, the ideal length can vary by up to 90 seconds. Why? Users have preconceived notions about the content they consume across multiple channels. Let’s explore how long the video should be for different social media channels.
Facebook videos
Users prefer to view short videos to get the gist and then decide whether or not to like or share before scrolling. As a result, the 90-second Facebook organic video receives the most views. In contrast, a video ad in the news feed should be no longer than 15 seconds. Here are a few Facebook video ad examples for you to see.
Instagram videos
For an Instagram post, the ideal video length is less than 30 seconds. A video of up to 15 seconds can be added to each Instagram story. You can use as many cards as you want to make a lengthier explanatory video. But it’s advisable to use less than 3. In short, the length of your video should not exceed 45 seconds.
Twitter videos
Twitter users prefer the video information to be kept to 140 characters or lower, with a video length of fewer than 45 seconds.
YouTube videos
The YouTube algorithm favors longer videos to keep people on the site longer. Thus, YouTube videos are now on average around 10 minutes long. This does not, however, require you to create a lengthy video.
Depending on the target audience and video type, the suitable timeframe varies from video to video. With the help of professional explainer video production companies, you can decide how long each video should be.
Make the Initial Seconds of a Video Count
Grab your viewers attention in the first few seconds of the video. Ideally, viewers are more engaged at the start. Moreover, it has been observed that the initial few seconds of a video are sufficient to convince viewers whether they want to watch it until the end or not. That’s when you must shoot your shot!
However, don’t overwhelm your audience with huge chunks of information right at the start. Instead, go into depth by utilizing the rest of the time.
Whether you invest in explainer video services for a 60-second or a 90-second video, remember there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. A lot goes into determining the right video length according to your brand message, audience, and platform.
To Wrap Up
To sum up, each video demands its analysis when deciding the ideal video length for better viewer engagement. However, the general rule is that the shorter the better. But that also doesn’t mean every explainer video has to be less than 120 seconds.
You’ll need to combine the best practices in the explainer video creation process, such as those discussed above, to get the best outcomes.
