How to Determine the Optimal Video Length for Your Marketing Videos

According to the latest data, 85% of businesses use videos in their marketing campaigns, and 89% have found them to provide excellent ROI. But despite such immense popularity of video content marketing, one question has haunted beginner and professional video marketers alike for years now — what’s the optimal video length? How do you find that sweet spot? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer.

To even begin getting to the bottom of it, let’s look at some data.

As you can see from the graph above, more than 50% of users stop watching a video by the 60-second mark. Considering the above, most professionals come to a consensus.

As a rule of thumb, it is best to keep your videos under two minutes.

However, there is much more to it. Just because sub-two-minute videos are, on average, the most optimal solution, that doesn’t mean long-form videos can’t perform well. 

What we’re saying here is that there is much more to optimal video length than raw statistics.

What to Consider When Deciding How Long to Make Your Videos

As much as we’d all love to hear a single answer to our dilemma, there is no one. Like most things in life, there are various factors to consider when deciding how long to make your videos. Here are some of the most notable ones:

• The type of video you’re making — There are many different types of videos out there, so it should be unsurprising that their ideal lengths should vary. For instance, it should be jarringly obvious that an introductory video should not be as long as a product review. That is why you should adjust your video length goals to the type of content you’ll be producing.
• Your video’s objective — Setting goals is essential to success, and various goals will affect your video’s length differently. Let’s compare video ads and explainer videos as an example. The former’s objective is to entice a consumer to buy a product, so it should be snappy but meaningful, while the latter’s goal is to help someone solve a problem. You can probably guess which one should be longer!
• Whether your target length complements your video’s topic — Not all topics warrant 15 minutes of screen time. But you cannot cover all topics in a 60-second video either. That is why adjusting your video length to the topic at hand is crucial. Only make your online videos as long as the topic you’re covering warrants.  
• The platform you’re making the video for — Depending on your platform of choice, your video length limits might differ. Various video and social media platforms have different maximum video length limits you’ll have to abide by, so you won’t have much choice in this regard.

As you can see, many factors can influence your video’s length. But despite our not having a concrete answer to this dilemma, there are video length recommendations for various channels and video types.

Let’s begin with social media videos!

Best Video Length for Social Media Videos

If you’re looking to start a successful social media video marketing campaign and want video length guidelines and recommendations for each of these platforms, here’s everything you need to know!

Facebook Video Length

Facebook is one of the social media platforms with the highest potential reach, so it’s likely the first choice for most marketers.

When it comes to Facebook’s video length limits, the platform is quite generous. Native Facebook video and Facebook video ad length is capped at 240 minutes (4 hours). 

But don’t get carried away just yet! Just because you can make longer videos doesn’t mean that’s the right move. Quite the opposite — according to Vidyard, in-feed Facebook videos between 24 and 90 seconds perform the best. And when it comes to video ads, the golden rule of video advertising is the shorter, the better! So keeping your Facebook video ads at around 5–10 seconds would be optimal.

Finally, when it comes to Facebook story video length, these are capped at 20 seconds. For marketing purposes, we believe 5–10 second Facebook stories would be ideal.

Facebook Video	Max	Recommended
In-Feed (Organic)	240 Minutes (4 Hours)	24–90 Seconds
Video Ads	240 Minutes (4 Hours)	5–10 Seconds
Story	20 Seconds	5–10 Seconds

Instagram Video Length

When it comes to Instagram max video length, it varies drastically depending on the video type.

Regular Instagram video and Instagram video ad length is capped at 60 seconds. But what’s the optimal video length? According to HubSpot, the sweet spot for Instagram videos is 30 seconds. That length perfectly complements the platform’s fast-paced content but is still long enough to allow for sufficient engagement time. When it comes to Instagram video ads, we’d recommend making them no longer than 15 seconds.

When it comes to Instagram story video length and story video ads, they are capped at 15 seconds. There is no single rule to follow regarding the length of your stories, but we’d recommend making them no shorter than five seconds. And in the case of story ads, 5–10 seconds is ideal.

Instagram IGTV is still new, so it hasn’t received much traction in the marketing world yet, so we don’t have any recommendations on the perfect video length. But do know that IGTV video length is capped at ten minutes. However, you can increase this time to up to one hour by sending a manual request.

Finally, the Instagram Boomerang video length can only be 1 second.

Instagram Video	Max	Recommended
Video	60 Seconds	30 Seconds
Video Ads	60 Seconds	<15 Seconds
Story	15 Seconds	5–15 Seconds
Story Ads	15 Seconds	5–10 Seconds
IGTV	10 Minutes (1 Hour if Requested)	Custom
Boomerang	1 Second	1 Second

Twitter Video Length

Twitter’s video length limit is decently high, sitting at 140 seconds. This social media network focuses on easily digestible, short-form content, so it makes sense that the maximum Twitter video length is not that high. The same limits apply to Twitter video ads.

Regarding the recommended video and Twitter ads video length, we suggest sticking to short-form videos due to the platform’s fast-paced nature. Keeping your videos between 20 and 45 seconds should be perfect.

Twitter Video	Max	Recommended
In-Feed (Organic)	140 Seconds (2 Minutes 20 Seconds)	20–45 Seconds
Video Ads	140 Seconds (2 Minutes 20 Seconds)	20–45 Seconds

LinkedIn Video Length

The maximum video length on LinkedIn is pretty generous, sitting at ten minutes for in-feed videos. Such a high video length limit on LinkedIn shouldn’t be surprising since the platform is business-oriented, meaning that most users are willing to engage with videos longer to gather additional information. However, you still shouldn’t aim to hit that length cap most of the time. Ideally, you want to keep the length of videos on LinkedIn between 30 seconds and 300 seconds (5 minutes).

When it comes to LinkedIn video ads, the limit imposed by the platform is 30 seconds. Our recommended video length for LinkedIn ads, though, is near the half-way point. Why? Because the most successful video ads on the platform are up to 15 seconds long.

LinkedIn Video	Max	Recommended
In-Feed (Organic)	10 Minutes	30–300 Seconds (5 Minutes)
Video Ads	30 Seconds	<15 Seconds

YouTube Video Length

YouTube video length limit is incredibly high, sitting at a whopping 12 hours! But just because you can go wild doesn’t mean you should. There is little to no demand for 12-hour-long video content! But how do you decide how long to make your videos then?

The answer is — it depends. Different content niches have different standards for video length. For instance, tutorial videos won’t be the same length as unboxing videos. The same applies to all other varieties of YouTube content. So there is no single best length for YouTube videos.

Although the average YouTube video length is 11.7 minutes, we recommend keeping your videos under two minutes if you’re a B2B marketer. This length has proven to be the most effective for this particular niche. If you’re looking for length recommendations in other niches, though, you’ll have to do some further research on best YouTube practices in your niche.

When it comes to YouTube video ad lengths, the maximum for non-skippable ads is 15 seconds, while the limit for skippable ads is as high as six minutes. However, we’d recommend making the former no longer than six seconds, while the best length for the latter is between 15 and 20 seconds.

YouTube Video	Max	Recommended
Native Video	12 Hours	<2 Minutes (B2B Content)
Video Ads (Skippable)	6 Minutes (60 Seconds for YouTube Kids)	15–20 Seconds
Video Ads (Non-Skippable)	15 Seconds	6 Seconds

TikTok Video Length

This video app is still young on the market, so there isn’t much video variety yet. TikTok’s video length limit currently sits at 60 seconds for native videos. However, you can upload longer videos if you record them outside the app.

If you’re a brand willing to try your hand at social media marketing on TikTok, we’d advise you to keep your TikTok content 5–15 seconds long. That is because the platform is incredibly fast-paced and caters primarily to users in the 16–24 age bracket. Younger generations have shorter attention spans, so keeping your video length to a minimum is optimal.

TikTok Video	Max	Recommended
Native Video	60 Seconds	5–15 Seconds

Pinterest Video Length

Pinterest is a self-proclaimed “discovery platform,” and it’s highly focused on visuals. With that in mind, it should be unsurprising that shorter videos perform better on it. Although the Pinterest video length limit is 30 minutes, there are few instances where you would want to go that far.

For the optimal user experience and best engagement on the platform, we recommend keeping your videos 15–30 seconds long. Oh, and don’t forget to spice them up with a clickable thumbnail!

Pinterest Video	Max	Recommended
Native Video	30 Minutes	15–30 Seconds

Snapchat Video Length

As the platform’s name suggests, Snapchat videos are brief. Although Snapchat’s video length limit used to be ten seconds, with the introduction of its brand-new Multi-Snap feature, the maximum Snapchat video length has increased to 60 seconds. 

Despite having this feature available, if you intend to market your brand on Snapchat, we would advise you to stick to the original 10-second limit. If you don’t, Snapchat will fragment your longer videos into multiple shorter ones, which will make it harder to get your brand’s message across.

Snapchat Video	Max	Recommended
Native Video	60 Seconds	10 Seconds

What’s the Optimal Video Length for Different Types of Videos?

Now that we’ve covered the best video lengths for various social media platforms, let’s look at some video length recommendations for different types of marketing videos.

Landing Page Video Length

Embedding a video on your site’s landing page is an excellent way to boost conversions, but how long do you make it? 

Considering that most site visitors will bounce within ten seconds of reaching your page, you will need something to engage them quickly. That is where a 30–60-second video can do wonders! 

If you make it any shorter, you will be hard-pressed to provide enough information to get them interested, while making it longer will reduce the likelihood of your visitors staying until the end to hear your CTA.

Oh, and ensure you put your video above the fold. Less attentive users won’t even bother scrolling down the page to reach it!

Landing Page Video	Recommended
Embedded Video	30–60 Seconds

Email Video Length

Did you know that including the word “video” in your email subject can boost your open rates by 6%? Also, emails with videos have been proven to improve clickthrough rates by as much as 300%! That’s right, but how long should you make your email video?

There is no correct or wrong answer here, but we recommend keeping it between 45 and 60 seconds. Few people will be willing to stick around for long reading (or watching) an email, so finding the middle ground is ideal. Feel free to adjust this number as you see fit, depending on what results you get.

Email Video	Recommended
Embedded Video	45–60 Seconds

Sales Video Length

Video can be an incredible addition to various parts of your sales process. From cold outreach to follow-ups on potential prospects, you can use video to deliver more engaging pitches and boost your conversion rates. But how long should you make these videos?

For cold outreaches, the shorter the video, the better. We recommend making these up to 30 seconds — that’s the perfect length for breaking the ice while not overbearing!

When it comes to follow-up videos, you will need to make them longer as you will likely be answering some questions. We wouldn’t strictly limit their duration — make them several-minutes long if needed to answer your prospect’s pain points.

Sales Video	Recommended
Cold Outreach Video	<30 Seconds
Follow-Up Video	>1 Minutes

Explainer Video Length

One of the most useful and most searched videos on the web are explainer videos. These can be invaluable tools on your customer’s journey and lead to higher conversion rates. Since explainer videos serve to help your consumers solve a particular problem, you should make them no longer or shorter than necessary to do that. Most of the time, 60 to 120 seconds should suffice.

Explainer Video	Recommended
Embedded Video	60–120 Seconds

Testimonial Video Length

Video testimonials are excellent social proof for your business, so including some on your site can be an excellent asset. But how long should they be?

Answering this question is tricky — it primarily depends on what your customers have to say. There is no particular length we’d recommend as long as you keep everything in them relevant to your brand. So whether the testimonial is as short as 30 seconds or as long as a few minutes is entirely up to you and your customer!

Testimonial Video	Recommended
Embedded Video	Depends (>30 Seconds, <10 Minutes)

Case Study Video Length

The length of case study videos can vary drastically, and it will entirely depend on the topic matter. However, considering that the people searching for these will already be near the bottom of the funnel, they are unlikely to mind longer videos.

So we advise you to make your case study videos longer to cover the subject matter better. Just don’t overdo it! You should still try to keep case study videos under ten minutes, if possible.

Case Study Video	Recommended
Embedded Video	<10 Minutes

Product Video Length

If you have an e-commerce website, you’d be remiss not to have some product videos, as these can boost your sales by up to 144%. These will usually entail a brief product demo or tutorial. But how long should product videos be?

That will mostly depend on your product’s complexity. Some products (like SaaS) might warrant a lengthier video, though we believe it’s best to keep them between two and five minutes.

Product Video	Recommended
Embedded Video	2–5 Minutes

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