Planning great video content: Ideal video length

When you’re planning your next video project, one of the big considerations you’re going to make is “how long should my video be?” and it’s a question we’re asked by pretty much every client we ever work with. Now, we all know there is a whole load of statistics online that you can find that would tell you that “this” is the ideal video length and “this” is where people start to click off. The issue you’re going to face with those statistics is that they consider one thing, and that is that all videos are amazing and that the human psyche says that I cannot be bothered to watch anything for longer. What we would suggest is that you ask yourself these three questions – Is it engaging? Is it interesting? And is it informative? And your content can then dictate the length of your video.

We’ve all watched something that’s way too long and we’ve clicked off after a minute, not because we can’t be bothered to watch anything for longer than a minute, but because it no longer engaged us as the viewer. But we’ve also all seen videos that felt thin, so you get to the end of the video and you feel like you’ve actually learnt nothing. And that is the danger that you may have if you try to make the video fit within a time parameter, say under a minute, when you’ve actually got more to say, and you strip back all the important information in order to fit the 60 second video. So if you’re asking those questions throughout the writing process, or throughout your briefing or throughout your thinking process – engaging, interesting and informative – then you’ll end up with great content that will dictate the length of the ideal video.

If you want to chat about your video project ideas or ask the next question, you can contact us online. Visit the website at perpetuaproductions.co.nz, you’ll find a whole bunch of other tips there as well. See you again soon!