How Long should your Video Be?

Videos are popular. Super popular. So how long should your video be? The answer is—it depends. Statistics show that videos under 60 seconds have the highest probability of holding viewers all the way to the end, but there’s more to it than that. You can’t exactly tell a full-fledged story in 30 seconds.

But here’s where things get interesting. It turns out—and this is an important point—that more viewers will stick with a 2-4 minute video than a 1-2 minute video. That may seem counterintuitive on the surface, but not if you dig a little deeper.

The 1-2 minute variety falls in no-man’s land. It’s too long for a teaser and too short for a story. Any longer than 4 minutes and you risk losing your audience, but any shorter than 2 minutes and you can’t do your story justice. There simply isn’t adequate time to set the stage, introduce the characters, track them through twists and turns, and come to a successful, life-changing solution. Videos are a great medium for storytelling, but you need to hit the sweet spot on length.

So there’s your answer. As a rule of thumb, 2-4 minutes is a great length for storytelling videos.

Background information here.