How Long Should a Promotional Video Be?

The most common question clients ask about creating a promotional video production is how long it should be. This can be a difficult one to gauge.

You don’t want to your video to be so short that you don’t get your point of view across. Neither do you want it to be so long that your audience gets bored and switches off.

You’ll see a lot of advice online about this very subject but here’s our take on it.

Where You Show the Video is Important

If you are showing your promotional video at an exhibition or conference, you can afford for it to be longer. You generally have a ‘captive’ audience – literally, they’re sat in their seats watching and they don’t have access to the pause button.

Video that is playing on social media benefits from being a lot shorter. There’s a lot vying for the audience’s attention here so you don’t want to keep them too long. On your website, you can get away with longer but that doesn’t always mean that you should.

Type of Promotional Video Production

The type of promotional video you’re planning to make will also be important. If you have a slick, creative commercial that is designed to get the audience to find out more about your product, you want it to be short and punchy. 15 to 30 seconds is okay. Anything over that and you risk losing the plot and your viewer before the end. On the other hand, if you’re telling a compelling story you may have a chance to draw the video out but this can be a risky strategy.

Talking head videos, particularly when they’re giving a review of your product or service, can certainly work being a little longer. Your audience is trying to discover more about you and whether they want to buy from you or hire you. You can liven the video up with several people talking about your business but one or two minutes is about the optimum time.

Tutorials and explainers can vary considerably and it all depends on what your sector is and whether your audience likes to spend a lot of time viewing this type of content. As a promotional video production, it can work pretty well but you need to put the right amount of thought into what you are trying to achieve and who you are talking to.

Audience Behaviour Counts

When it comes to video length, one thing that should influence your decision is your audience.

Who are you trying to connect with? Younger audiences may have shorter attention spans than older viewers and different sectors tend to benefit from certain types of video. If you’re target audience hang out on Facebook, that’s going to dictate the sort of video you go for though there is some scope for longer content. On Twitter, you video should be much shorter.

Thumbnail and Length

One thing people tend to look at first before they decide to play a video is the thumbnail image and the length. If the image is unattractive or looks unprofessional and the counter says it goes on for too long, your potential viewer will most likely pass you by. It’s an important thing to consider before you push ahead.

What You Want to Say

Finally, how many points do you want to get across? Are you telling a story or do you want to be more direct? What is your audience expecting when they click the play button? It’s important to know what you want to say from the outset.

How Long Should a Promo Video Production Really Be?

You video should be as short as possible to get your point across and not so long it risks boring your audience. According to Wistia, the sweet spot for video is 2 minutes. The longer your video goes on, the more likely people are to drop out. But that’s not a hard and fast rule.

If that sounds vague, it’s intended to be. Nailing down the pre-production process should ensure that you consider things like length and there will be a number of factors that affect this.

At Pulse, our team are here to help you create a promotional video production that takes your marketing to the next level.

Get in touch with our friendly team today, or check out our video production prices.