Selecting the Right Video Length

When creating an online promotional video, it’s important to consider the length of the video carefully. On the one hand, you want it to be long enough to tell your story effectively.  On the other hand, it should be short enough to hold your viewers’ attention spans from start to finish.

As a general rule of thumb, videos shorter than three minutes are ideal for the web. Studies have shown that viewers are willing to stay put for a 180-second video (as long as it’s engaging, that is). Shorter videos also have the advantage of being faster to load because of their smaller file sizes and lower bandwidth requirements. 

When creating your online video, keep the following tips in mind :

• Keep your video on target. If parts of the video don’t contribute to the overall message of the piece, take them out. Same goes for parts of the video that don’t keep the storyline moving forward.  
•  Put the main message towards the beginning of the video. This will ensure that viewers get the main message of your piece –whether they watch it in its entirety or not.
• While shorter videos almost always do better than longer videos, length becomes less important when the video is fun, interesting and engaging. Hold their attention and they’ll stay engaged – whether the video is 10 seconds or 10 minutes.

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