VIDEOS - How Long Is Too Long?

I can comment only as a viewer of content, not a creator. When I watch sales videos, it would be nice if they could make their point within 10 minutes or so. If it's a really compelling sales video, I'd go approximately 15 min. Anything beyond that can be tedious.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Bambii,
This is a good question...

I think this depends quite a bit on the expectation of the viewer when they land on your site...

For instance, when I hit up Youtube, it seems that most videos I end up watching are quite short and to the point...

However, when I visit a site that tells me up front (first few seconds) what they are going to be teaching, if I'm interested and have the time, I'll stick around as long as it remains interesting and helpful.

I think the only way to really know for sure is to test though...

One way to test this beforehand to get a better idea is to use a tool like ClickTale to see how much your video is actually engaging the viewer...

What was quite surprising in my own tests, was how many people click the video play button, watch for a few seconds, and then leave the video playing while they start reading the salesletter.

So again, it's important to test to really get an idea of what is going on when the average visitor hits the site where the video is going to be played.

All the best,
Jack Duncan

Great question but really broad. Different types of videos have to be different length in order to "work". Some informational videos really do need to be as long as they have to be.

Broadcast design has a lot of rules when it comes to clip lengths and these rules work. For a teaser type video (a coming soon or a commercial spot) should ideally be between 15 - 20 secs, if not, it should not exceed 30 secs. For web this can be pushed to 40 - 45 secs but we are always told, "the tighter the better".

A teacher once told me that for web videos add 3 - 4 secs of video for every 10 - 13 words (a couple of sentences) of text will always be on the mark. It has worked for me. The script however, the copy needs to be tight, repetitions is what makes people turn the browser off. Personally, I'd rather be short and tight than going on too long.

Breaking tuts or information videos into 5 mins segments is an excellent idea. If you need to bounce off anything specific, i'm here.

Sam

For me, I think a normal squeeze page video must be around 60-90 seconds only. I mean shorter videos but with higher impact. Now use the longer videos for your website how to videos. I mean clients are already in your website, meaning they are interested in learning more about your service. So there is no way they will finish watching a 5-10min videos that will explain everything. on the other hand on squeeze pages or promo pages when you are trying people to go to your website. Make the videos shorter but with higher impact. Hope this helps

For you tube videos, I'd stick to 3 minutes or less and no more than 5 minutes. Any longer and you should split it up into 2 videos. Just like Jack was saying, sales videos are a bit different.

You tube is so cluttered and unfocused, that it allows people to have ADD. You are better off getting the point across and quickly shifting them somewhere else, either to another video or to your offer.

If you are doing a how to video, make your first video the teaser and then tell them to click below to see your video with the "how to" but make that video on your web page and not you tube. That's IMHO :-)

Yes. When I get bored.

If you make an engaging, entertaining, interesting video... I'll watch for an hour or more.

Make a boring piece of utter crap, and I'll be "gone in sixty seconds"

As a rule of thumb I try to stick to the following:

Squeeze page 1 minute - two if it's really engaging and compelling
Promotional videos for YouTube etc. : 5 minutes max
Instructional videos: 15 minutes is the optimum time. You can stretch it out to 20, but I find viewers' concentration starts to wander after that. If it's longer than 20 minutes, I try and break it down into Part 1, Part 2, etc. - each segment 10 – 15 minutes long.


I think a lot of people are used to the commercial breaks on TV, and that dictates their attention span. I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just something I try to keep in mind with my videos.

I think people are willing to watch for longer and longer.

I'd watch an hour if it was compelling.

People are swapping watching TV for the web, so rather than watching an hour of someone else building their dream house, they'll watch and hour of web Video teaching them how to build a dream business.

5 mins or I just won't watch it most of the time if you mean IM/MMO vids. Instructional vids can be as long as 15 minutes for me but it has to go straight to the point. Longer vids have to be really entertaining.

Just make sure it is actually a video. That's all I ask. Some IM people make a so-called video but it only has their voice and one static image.

AFAIK Youtube only counts views if the video is completely loaded.

So if your video is short it will get more views counted which for the user makes it seem more popular. If I found a 30 minute video with 0 views I would click away at once.

And for the love of Mike, will people at least write a good vid description? I'm sick of videos that just say "affiliate marketing tutorial" or some such and the dude is basically talking about one page site templates and how to install fonts.

Seriously, what use would that be to me when I already have tons of websites that aren't one page sales letters (i.e. real websites that don't suck!)?

As a viewer, it depends on the delivery.

If the content is delivered in a concise, to-the-point style, I may stay engaged longer. After 10 minutes, I usually lose interest if it is average.

I don't need to hear the same information explained three or four different ways to 'get it.' Respect my time and average intelligence, and I may be interested for a longer period of time.

lol

As a creator of over at least 500 videos online, I use 2-2.5 minutes as the magic number. If you can't say/show what you need to in 2-2.5 minutes, you quickly lose viewers. Take a look at your stats on youtube under the Insight tab. You can look at any of your videos and you'll see viewer attention drops significantly usually right around 2:20. I do agree that with engaging material or information videos you 'might' get away with 5-10 minutes. If there's something that long, we usually make a 2-2.5 minute long summarized version, offering the longer more detailed version somewhere on your site. This longer video on your site is the URL you put in your Youtube description box.

Intro / Teaser videos should be 1-3 minutes.

Sales page videos seem to convert best after 22 minutes.

If it's over 3 minutes, I skip chunks at a time to find something interesting.

It's been shown that if a video is more then 5 minutes, the watcher gets disinterested with the video.

Total running time is not the only consideration. Remember that an engaged viewer will perceive any video to be just the perfect length, irrespective of the actual running time of the video. So engage the viewer and keep their attention.

If it's a pure sales video or a "we're great" video, then SHORT, SHORT, SHORT. ... If you are teaching something or really giving something of value, however, then it can be much longer.

Still, "chunking" is a good idea. I'd say look for natural break points at the 2-3 minute marks, and then depending on the situation, try to decide if the next 2-3 minutes should be a completely new video or just the next section of the current video.

I say "2-3 mintues" because I've read that's about the average view time of web videos. Of course if someone is interested in the video, they will watch a much longer video without even noticing the time, but subconsciously they still have that 2-3 minute clock in their heads.

To help "chunk," think of it as you would writing: letters >> words >> sentences >> paragraphs >> sections >> chapters >> a book >> many books.

Most videos would probably range from a few paragraphs to a "section" (or possible a few sections). A very long video might amount to a chapter.

In any case, no matter the length, it's important to continually reset the viewer's attention with little tricks (movement, sound, etc.).