Does the length of a video really matter? The quick and easy answer to this is yes, it does matter. It is quite common for businesses to see the value of using video in their business but hard to grasp what to include, how long to make it, and when to update it. If you are creating a corporate video, length does matter for a variety of reasons. The easiest rule to follow is to create a video that is no longer or no shorter than it needs to be. Not so clear? Here’s a bit more to help you with this decision.
How Much Will People Watch?
Ultimately, people have short attention spans. They have so many touchpoints of information and streaming media available to them, it is hard to hold attention long term. In one study, conducted by Wistia that looked at millions of data points, the goal was to see the difference in the average time watched of a video based on the length of that video. It found that videos that were 30 seconds in length saw viewers watch about 80 percent of the video. If the videos were longer, say about an hour in length, the percentage consumed by the individual fell to about 25 percent. Here, it is clear that short videos are best, but that’s limitedly accurate. After all, you have time constraints and information to share to balance.
The study also looked at how much people engaged with the video based on various lengths. It found that audience engagement dropped significantly when videos were longer. After an initial drop point though, the amount of decline is at a much slower rate. This indicates that people react quickly – usually in the first few seconds – to determine if they want to watch the video. And, if they do, they stick around for it and engage with it longer.
You can consider other studies such as one conducted by PEW Research that found the median length for the most popular videos placed on YouTube was 2 minutes and 1 second. Less than 3 percent of videos that are over 15 minutes were considered popular in this study.
What To Keep In Mind
There are many other factors that should play a role in your decision on length of your corporate video.
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Are you creating a training video? If this is the case, the length has to be long enough to convey the tasks necessary. Sometimes, length cannot be limited in these situations.
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Your goal when creating a video is to design a video that gives your viewer key information in the right manner. You want them to receive as much information as possible and retain it.
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If creating a customer testimonial video, for example, keep these to about 60 seconds. Longer testimonials are not necessarily longer.
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If you are sharing videos on your social media sites, shorter is better. Focus on the standards here of about two minutes for YouTube videos. These typically are shared longer.
