Ideal Length of Internet Marketing Video

Sixty to ninety seconds. Anything longer and their attention wanders.

The general rules for video are snackability, relevance and value add. I would say it depends on your content and audience. If you can create the video around the suggestion above
(70s) and then test the video on a few people that represent your audience. Then observe their reactions to the video and ask them questions about it. This will reduce the need for assumptions (we all know what happens when we assume). You can always edit the video afterwards to suit.

I target 2 to 3 minutes for review videos.

4 to 6 minutes for tutorial videos.

Totally depends on the content. I mean, If I were teaching a complex real estate investing formula... there is no way I could get it all out in 2 min video.

But if I was just teaching my favorite free traffic tip, could be easy enough to explain in 30 seconds.

The right answer is, however long it takes to give the reader the most value for their time

Less than two minutes, otherwise it's proven that watch rate will drop off.

Have you guys run a lot of traffic?

Do you have real data on viewer retention?

There isn't a "right" answer because it depends on the purpose of your video and the viewer source.

Here's what I've seen from my own experience.

A couple months ago I went to Youtube and reviewed the statistics of all my top viewed vids. Took about an hour. Here's what I found:

The first 15 seconds are critical. I have screwed this up many times by having my intro segment right up front. You need a hook there. Once the viewer is settled in to watch the rest, then you can put the intro animation in. But you need that interesting hook.

You see TV shows doing this. An intro scene to bait the hook before the title credits run.

Fix that one thing and you'll see an improvement in retention.

Then I see a dropoff at four minutes.

And another at around seven.

Here's the interesting thing: if they last beyond seven minutes, they're likely to finish the video...no matter how long it is.

Yes, there will be more dropoffs at regular intervals, and especially within a couple minutes of the ending. My suspicion is the viewer feels they "got the good stuff" and can leave now. Maybe I should start adding in a "You should stick around until the very end to hear this latest and greatest tidbit" line. But for the most part they will stick around.

Which means you should segment your videos by how much qualification you've done on your viewers.

Show the three minute interest/lead catchers to the people who just found you. Like a headline in written copy, concentrate your effort in that first 15 seconds.

Have the 40-minute content ready for those who have already seen a couple of your shorter vids.

The truth is: if a viewer is really interested in your content, they will watch it all the way through and want more. And at that point, you really ought to have a lead capture device on the end, right? After all, they just demonstrated how badly they need your help.

Last night I happily watched a 38-minute video from someone I've never seen before. The topic was something I have a high emotional interest in. While the presenter and speaking audience (it was a sort of round robin Q&A panel) weren't the most engaging, I didn't mind because the information was good. I "consumed" the whole thing.

According to my clients I worked for (creating whiteboard videos), usually....

--- 60-90 seconds - for internet marketing purposes.
--- 3 minutes - for company branding or awareness.

And certainly I don't know how it result in the fact. That's what was they order me to create it.