Make your video long enough to tell your message and not a second longer
At its conception, Jumpstart Video’s bread and butter was :15 and :30 second cable TV ads. Just a few moments to grab the attention of consumers in-between the morning news cast or your local sports game. Enough time to flash a company’s logo, show off the product or service, present a final call to action, and then back to the show. Social media however, brought on new avenues to reach your audience with less time restrictions and more direct targeting. But just because you can post longer videos, doesn’t mean you should. Therefore, this begs the question. How long does it take to get the attention of someone, and how long can you keep it?
Social Media posts are ads
Forbes says that people can be exposed to anywhere between 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. Billboards are ads and we only see those for a second or two as we glance up from our phones while getting on the highway. Almost any social media post could be considered an ad. Your video, whether it is a call to action for a potential consumer or just an update to your followers, has the opportunity to be engaging and entertaining enough to stand out among the others. It is important during the pre-production stage to consider what the necessary length is. Even the characters in Jurassic Park didn’t sit through the entire Dino DNA informational video. And they were watching one of the greatest animated explainer videos ever made. Moreover, your video is someone’s entertainment and almost everyone has the option to scroll past it or hit skip.
The best video length
I often tell clients that ask me how long their video should be that 1 minute to 1 minute and 45 seconds is the sweet spot. Of course the subject matter is always the biggest factor, but everything has its limits. Even training videos that are mandatory to watch can run the risk of being too long and losing the undivided attention of the viewer. Therefore, you as the creator, or the person hiring a creator, can utilize tools to meet your audience where they want to be. Script writing to make those first 5 seconds really count. Eye catching graphics to grab the attention of the viewer. Great voice over or on camera talent. Beautiful looking footage. These can make your video stand out amongst the other 9,999. Finally, this is all not to say that shorter is better. The take away from the phrase “leave the people wanting more” isn’t to make a TV show series finale 5 minutes long. Make your content entertaining, visually enticing, or so thought provoking that people were glad they watched the whole thing.
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
– Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park 1993)