Before 2005 the most you could watch a video was probably on Television. But in the last decade, things have changed exponentially. Videos have become easily accessible. Every time you open a social media platform, you are bound to come across a video post. Marketers have acknowledged that video is an integral part of marketing in the 21st century.
However, with the increased watch time of video content, the patience of people is dwindling. Yes, someone can binge-watch a whole season of Friends in a night, but watching a 5-minute long video on Facebook while scrolling through social media? Naaah! That's not going to happen. That's why video marketers are focusing on video length. It is not just enough to create catchy videos now, you need to know how long should videos be. Various social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have different optimal video lengths. Below we have mentioned, what the ideal length of the video on every social media platform.
It was around 2008 -2010 that Facebook actually gained popularity. Since then the platform has only grown through the years. Currently, Facebook has 2.85 billion monthly users. The fun fact is it generates most of its revenue from advertising. It means businesses can use the largest social media platform to advertise and reach a larger audience. There are thousands of businesses that post videos on Facebook every day. If you want to reach the target audience you can also post videos on Facebook. The attention spans of people are reducing day by day. Some scientists even say that the attention span of humans is lesser than a groundhog.
So, the optimal length for a Facebook should be anywhere between 1- 2 minutes. According to HubSpot, the audience engages the most with videos right under 1 minute. And according to Wistia Facebook videos should be no longer than 2 minutes. There is data from other researchers, where the results vary.
The Daily mail believes the average length of the Facebook video should be 90 seconds while The Guardian trusts 54 seconds is the ideal length. No matter what the data, the common conclusion is FB video length should be capped at 2 minutes and lower. It keeps the viewers interested in watching the videos. If it is anything longer than that, users will just scroll down without watching it.
While on Facebook you have the liberty of posting longer videos, that's not the case with Instagram. The photo-sharing app that launched in 2010 became insanely popular for its photo-sharing ability. It also revolutionized the square format. But in 2021, over 10 years later Instagram has grown and updated. It now has a variety of features you can use.
Instagram has many video formats marketers can exploit.
There are a variety of formats you can choose from. However, all of the Instagram videos have different ideal lengths.
Instagram is fast becoming a favorite social media platform for GenZ and Millennials alike. If your target audience is young, then Instagram is the best place to start. The good news is Instagram has come up with Instagram Ad Reels Idea, so now you can share your ads as reels. These ads are going to be placed in the Reels section of Instagram and appear to the audience who scroll through the feed. Isn't it amazing? Here is your chance to create an attractive, compelling, and dynamic short video ad for your brand. Try Offeo Online Videomaker
As of now, Twitter has become a hotbed of discussions. May it is about Messi leaving Barcelona or Climate Change, Twitter is the place to make an impact. Many brands overlook Twitter in their video marketing strategy. But they shouldn't underestimate the power of Twitter. Research by sprout social says that Tweets with videos have 10X more user engagement than posts without videos. So, if you want to reach a larger audience then as videos to your Tweets.
The maximum video length of Twitter is 2 minutes 20 seconds. But the ideal length is much shorter. HubSpot says that 44-45 seconds is the best length of Twitter videos, 2060digital says your Twitter video length should be no more than 30 seconds, and Sprout social recommends the length be 15 seconds or less. The difference in data doesn't break away from the fact that Twitter needs shorter videos. Anything within 15-45 seconds could do great on the platform.
On other social media platforms, viewers find your video content through chance but in YouTube the search is intentional. It means that your video lengths on YouTube should be exactly what the user needs. If it is longer than what the viewer wants then they will skip to a similar video of shorter length.
Ideally, YouTube is a video platform. Out of all social media platforms YouTube is solely dedicated to videos. Non verified accounts can upload videos up to 15 minutes long, while verified accounts can share videos as long as 12 hours.
But that doesn't mean you are required to upload hour-long videos on YouTube. The optimal length of a YouTube video according to HubSpot is 120 seconds or 2 minutes. But Visme says the length should be 10 minutes, while Animoto believes the video should be 6-8 minutes long. None of these claims are wrong. Any videos within 6- 15 minutes perform better. Here are some tips to create an effective short YouTube Video
Youtube videos are the backbone of video strategy. So make sure you follow the tips and use them for good. You can also refer to our blog post A Beginner's hide on How to Create a Video for further information.
LinkedIn is catered mostly to B2B businesses. So the videos here have to be more professional and elegant. By the rule of thumb, the video on the LinkedIn feed can be 10 minutes long. But if you want to list a video longer than that you can use LinkedIn Ads. Video ads on LinkedIn can run for as long as 30 minutes. However, the ideal video length, best practice for LinkedIn is to keep the video under 30 seconds. LinkedIn recommends it, furthermore, Videos that meet upper-funnel marketing goals should stick to a 30-90 second video length.
Pro Tip - You can share videos longer than 10 minutes by using a third-party video platform like YouTube. You can embed videos in your post, and these can be as long as you want. Just copy your YouTube URL and paste it into your post. Job done!
Pinterest is just like YouTube when it comes to the audience. People come to Pinterest to discover answers. It is a great platform to build brand awareness. Here the maximum size of a file can be 2GB and the duration of video can be anywhere between 4 seconds to 30 minutes. However, that doesn't mean you should keep your video lengths long. The attention spans of viewers remain less, so the optimal length should be 15 to 30 seconds unless they’re an explainer or demo.
We have mentioned before that the attention span of the audience is decreasing day by day. If you do not catch the eye in the first 3 seconds of the video, users are just going to scroll down. All your efforts will go down the drain if you do not know the sweet spot that is the optimal length of a video on specific platforms. The point is you need to optimize according to social media sites. Tailor your ads accordingly. Want to share teaser videos? On Instagram the length can be 15 seconds, on YouTube it can be 1-2 minutes. A lot of posts on social media go unnoticed because they are too long.
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