By now, you probably already know that creating videos for marketing purposes is an effective way to inform potential customers about your product or service. One downfall of video marketing, however, is the drop-off rate of viewers—how soon someone clicks away from your video. There are different idea regarding how long the perfect marketing video is, but the general consensus about length is that you should keep videos short and tight – use information that is absolutely essential, and edit your script down to the minimum it can be while still getting your idea across. We’ve all seen marketing videos that are several minutes long, and unfortunately, the longer a video is, the more people will click away. Sometimes, a visitor will look at the length before even clicking play, and if it’s too long, they may write off the video entirely and find something shorter that still conveys the information they are looking for. So what’s the best way to engage your potential customers with a marketing video, and what’s the perfect length?
These days, all of our time is so limited that we look to get things done in the smallest amount of time possible. While in the big picture, ten minutes isn’t much time, a ten-minute video feels like a feature-length movie when we just want the key information quickly. When a video is more than three minutes long, statistics show that people start dropping off 10 times more than they do during videos that are 90 seconds to three minutes long. Think about it this way: when you’re at a trade show or even browsing the internet, how likely are you to watch a 9 or 10 minute marketing video? Probably pretty unlikely. People want the maximum amount of information in the minimal amount of time, so put in the effort to make sure your video is as compact and helpful as possible. Even if people do stick around to watch a long video, the chances of them absorbing all of the information presented are slim. This is especially true for first-exposures to your company—if someone is not familiar with your brand, they are even less likely to hang around for the entire video. Longer videos may be beneficial for later on in the conversion process, but upfront they are just too much to digest for the first-time viewer.
Of course, you to ensure your videos aren’t too short, either. If you are trying to get people to click onto your website, you need to give them a reason to do so. Think of most of the advertisements you watch on YouTube – granted, you’re sitting through these ads to get to the video you really want to see, but the most effective ads are the ones that say what they need to in about half a minute. Thirty seconds should be the shortest your videos ever are, since that’s time for about four sentences. If you’re simply showing off a single product, that’s a perfect amount of time to describe it, however if you’re marketing a more complex concept or product(s), you’ll need a bit more time. The ultimate goal is to get people onto your website—once they click through, they can click around and find out more regarding exactly what they’re looking for.
So what’s the ideal length for your video? For a first time viewer, aim for 30 to 90 seconds, or three minutes if you are marketing a more complex product or service. Once your prospective customers are on your site, remember to keep things simplified, yet informative. Don’t inundate visitors with long videos—find ways to make a shorter video or simply print the additional relevant information beneath a short video, in order to keep things concise.
Creating effective marketing videos doesn’t have to be a puzzle—present information that is relevant and engaging, but make sure to do so in a way that is clear and concise and makes the viewer want to know more. Too long of a video and your viewers will get bored, but too short and they may feel like there’s nothing more to learn if you were able to keep your video so short. Aim for 60 to 90 seconds for the first-time-viewer videos, and entice them to become second-, third-, and regular viewers.
