How Long Should Your Marketing Video Be?

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Why Are You Making This Video?
• What Budget Are You Operating Under? 
• How Will You Be Distributing This Video?
• Examples
• Conclusion

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Introduction

There are many important questions to ask yourself as you begin to make your marketing video. Why do you need a video? What is your budget? How will you distribute this video to your target audience? 

Part of why these questions are so important to ask early on is because it affects your marketing video length. This affects many factors of production, budgeting, and distribution, so it is important to pick the perfect length. But how do you do that?

My name is Hannah Robertson, Force Media’s copywriter with years of writing experience. Today, I am going to help you pick the perfect marketing video length for your business’s needs. 

Before you can decide your video’s length, you should first answer some of those important questions:

1. Why are you making this video?
2. What budget are you operating under? 
3. How will you be distributing this video?

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1. Why Are You Making this Video?

This is an age of fleeting attention spans. For that reason, it is smart to make your marketing video as short as you can to reach your intended goal. For some videos, 30 minutes may be as short as you can make it, while others don’t need any longer than a few seconds to get its point across.

Every video and every business has different needs, so there are a wide variety of goals that could influence your video length. Some examples of goals may be:

• to entertain;
• to persuade;
• to inform.

But all of these goals, of course, want the same result: business! Knowing which goal works best for you will often come down to your target audience and what they respond to. 

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2. What Budget Are You Operating Under?

The longer the video, the more it is going to cost. Why? Because you are paying for your crew to work more hours. Further, you may even need more crew members in the event of a much longer video, which can add to costs as well.

For more information on industry-standard crew rates, check out our blog “How Much Will Your Media Marketing Crew Cost?”

Furthermore, certain distribution methods like TV advertising charge more for longer videos, so your budget may affect your distribution plans. 

In general, be conscious of your budget and how much you are willing to spend on extra footage. Sometimes, this can be a worthy investment depending on the video, its importance, and the money it will save or earn you!

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3. How Will You Be Distributing This Video?

From social media to television ads, there are many platforms that your video could attract customers from. Once you have a strong enough understanding of your target audience, you can determine which of these platforms works best for you.

If you’re feeling stuck, check out our blog post “Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Business Be On?”

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Now that you have an idea as to what platform might work best for you, it is important to consider how this choice influences your marketing video length.

‍TV Ads: Time is money… literally! As mentioned before, the bigger your time slot, the more you can expect to pay for TV ads. That said, you may need to narrow your goal to shorten your video and therefore operate within your budget.

Social Media: Front-end advertising is free, but marketing video length may affect your reach. For example, Instagram videos over 60 seconds in length are no longer considered “reels,” which excludes you from the easiest way to reach new users. Be sure to research your chosen platform to see exactly how video length may affect distribution.

Your Company Website: Since website creation platforms only allow very limited file sizes, it is not a common practice to embed a video directly onto a website. Instead, most creators upload videos onto social platforms like YouTube or Vimeo and then upload the link to their company website, which is also a great way to make viewers aware of your content on this other platform. That said, length does not affect a video's ability to be on your website unless you are set on embedding it directly onto the site.

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Whatever platform you decide to distribute your video on, be sure to research your options thoroughly before making a video with a length that doesn’t meet your needs.

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Examples

Now that we’ve covered the three main factors influencing video length, let’s check out some goals and lengths in action! 

Short Video

Coming in at only 3 seconds, this video’s purpose is primarily to inform viewers of the displayed product and its discount. 

While this video could have been a simple photo, there are several benefits that come from this being a video instead:

1. Platform. This video was made specifically to be shared on Instagram, which means that a short video is eligible to be shared as a reel. Instagram reels are more likely to reach new users than pictures on this platform. 

2. Directing the eye. These simple animations make the picture less overwhelming, as it encourages viewers to look at one piece of the picture at a time. Viewers are far more likely to notice each element when they each get a second of attention.

As we can see, the video achieves its goal in as little as 3 seconds.

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Medium Video

The purpose of this video is to persuade viewers to work with Weidmann Remodeling Group. 

To do this, the video aims to invite viewers into the remodeling experience and specifically what it is like to remodel through Weidmann Remodeling Group. For this reason, the video needs to be long enough to accurately set expectations but not long enough to deter clients from watching the whole thing, making four minutes the perfect length.

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Long Video

While this video is 26 minutes long, every second is of value in order to inform the viewer of what they need to know about this complicated surgery. 

The investment of this video ends up saving the doctors at Woolfson Eye Institute nearly 26 minutes with every patient curious about this surgery, making the added cost of the video entirely worth it.

Conclusion

Key takeaways:

• Before deciding video length, it is important to first consider how much time is needed to reach your intended goal. Common goals include informing, persuading, and entertaining. A video does not need to be long to reach its goal!
• Similarly, if you do not have the budget to reach your intended goal or sharing methods, it is important to revisit your intentions for the video.
• Marketing video length affects the cost to share the video on television, the reach of the video on social media platforms, and your website upload options.

Every video has different needs and, therefore, different video lengths. Knowing what you hope to accomplish with the video, what budget you are working with, and how you hope to distribute the finished product will help you determine what length works best for you. 

Still unsure? As a marketing agency cross trained in media production, our team at Force Media is a great resource for finding the perfect video length. For personalized assistance for your perfect marketing video, request a quote today! For more examples of marketing videos  of all lengths, budgets, and goals, check out our portfolio.

There you have it! Now you know which factors affect video length and which lengths work best for different goals. I hope you enjoyed reading, and we hope to see your application soon!

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