Whether you’re a digital Marketing expert or a regular consumer that likes to indulge in binge-watching aesthetically pleasing videos into the wee hours of the night, video content has gradually taken its place as the king of digital content.
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From the plethora and movies on Netflix to Instagram’s IGTV and Tik Tok, videos are becoming ubiquitous across the major social media platforms. Easy to consume and with high entertainment value, videos have become the preferred way of content consumption among consumers and digital marketers alike, especially as they get more engagement than text and image content combined.
On a trajectory of growth
With the exponential growth and popularity of apps like Vine, Musical.ly, and not Tik Tok, it’s pretty clear that this trend is going to continue being relevant. In fact, a Cisco report published in 2019 suggested that 82% of the global online traffic by 2022 will come from videos.
With considerable influence on consumer and target audience behavior, we can see why marketers at a Digital Marketing agency would flock to integrating videos in their digital marketing strategies.
Decreasing attention spans and video marketing
However, one of the things that come as a challenge is the Length of the videos. The abundance of content available online and its rapid consumption, while great for grabbing people’s attention, is also the cause of dwindling attention spans.
How does a digital marketing agency not only capture their target audience’s attention but also keep them interested for the entire length of the video?
This is where the question about video length comes up. Since video marketing is a part of most social media platforms, the optimal format and length will vary. You can’t exactly post an entire 10-minute makeup tutorial on Twitter. Similarly, posting individual Tik Toks, which are often under 30 seconds, on YouTube won’t get as much attention as they would on the right platform.
Video marketing in 2021: how long?”
The platform you’re posting the video on is the main factor influencing its length. But that’s not all as there are various other factors that help determine the optimal length of your video content.
- The Message. In most cases, the videos you share on social media will have a specific message to get across to the audience. Videos are storytelling tools. The length should be enough to tell that story – not one second more.
- Your Audience. If your target market includes doctors and other medical professionals, short, quick-paced videos might perform better than 10-minute features. Market research that explains your target market’s lifestyle will help you determine their video-viewing habits.
- What You Want the Video to Achieve. Your digital marketing strategy will help you determine what you seek to accomplish with the video. Is entertainment the goal? Or is the video meant to drive donations?
As for the social medial platform, you will be uploading the video, there will be different algorithms for you to appease to drive more views and increase engagement. This is why there is no one standard length for video marketing.
Below we discuss video lengths for the most used social platforms.
YouTube
The Mecca of video content, YouTube is versatile. From hour-long documentaries to 3-minute long trailers, you can play around with the video length to find the sweet spot that works for your digital marketing strategy.
Optimal engagement on YouTube comes on videos that are either under 3 minutes or above the 10-minute mark. Most experts suggest 6-8 minutes the ideal length for a YouTube video. If your message can’t fit into a 6-minute video, it may be best to break the video up into two parts.
If you’d like, you can upload a video on Facebook 4 hours long. However, this doesn’t mean that your videos need to be that long.
While long-form videos have been performing well on Facebook for a couple of years, shorter videos have been rising in importance. Both organic and paid video posts under the 1 to 3-minute mark tend to perform better.
Short, snappy, and visually pleasing videos with closed captions get more engagement. Also, native content directly posted on the platform instead of YouTube is deemed to perform better as the algorithm is designed to favor it.
How long should Facebook videos be?
Ideally, between 1 and 2 minutes. However, the video marketers at a digital marketing agency should consider the factors mentioned above.
You can post and share video content on Instagram in three different ways; a. on Insta Stories, b. on IGTV, and c. your post feed or timeline.
With Instagram stories, you are stuck with a 15-second format and 60 seconds for Instagram feed videos. As for IGTV, it’s meant for long-form content.
According to a Hubspot report, videos on Instagram feeds perform when the length clocks in at 26 seconds or lower. As for stories, 3-part posts i.e. 45-seconds are most engaging.
You can post long-term videos directly on the IGTV feature. If you post IGTV videos on the feed, make the first one minute the hook as it will play on the feed, and watchers can tap through to watch the rest if they’re interested.
Originally, the micro-blogging social media platform had a 30-second limit on videos. Much like its text post limit, Twitter ended up extending its video length limit to 140 seconds (2 minutes and 20 seconds).
Regardless of this update, 30-second videos are received better among users. The whole point of Twitter is to say things in fewer words.
With these insights in your digital marketing strategy playbook, you can map out the right length for your video marketing content. Just keep in mind that the average consumer’s attention span is decreasing. Short videos that manage to grab the watcher’s attention within the first three seconds are a good place to start.
If you need further help standing out from the crowd and gain traction through your video marketing efforts, Business Marketing Solutions Group is a digital marketing company that can guide you to the right path.
Talk to us about your marketing needs and create a blueprint with the video content driving success for your brand.
The post Video Marketing 101 – How Long Should Your Videos Be? appeared first on Business Marketing Solutions Group.
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