Does length matter? It does for video!

Dec 14 2009

Check out the more recent 2012 video length data we've now posted!

We've always touted the message "shorter videos are better". They tend to get straight to the point and hold attention better than a drawn-out message. We've certainly noticed measured improvements when tightening up our own marketing videos. But are longer videos inherently less engaging than shorter videos?

Now that we have a wealth of video tracking data at our fingertips, we thought we'd put the old "shorter is better" theory to the test.

The Initial Test

30v90

We worked with one of our customers who has been testing two variations of the same video. The red line in the graph above represents the engagement of their 30-second video. The blue line is the engagement graph for a 90-second video. It's expected that these two videos would have different engagement graphs, but what's odd is that the first 30 seconds of both videos are identical!

Even though viewers were exposed to the same exact content, the drop-off rate of the 90-second video was much higher. By the end of the 30-second video there were about double the number of viewers than at the same point in the 90-second video.

A Wider Look

Our initial test got us thinking. Does this hold true on a larger scale? We decided to look at completion percentages across the thousands of videos we host.

We were right! Shorter videos are more engaging than longer videos, but there are some other unexpected trends. The average 30-second video was viewed 85% of the way through, while the average 2-minute video was viewed on average 50% of the way through. That is a very fast viewership drop-off. But what's surprising is that the average viewing percentage stays quite consistent for 2-minute videos to 10-minute videos. That means the time spent watching is increasing almost proportionally with the video length during this period. Take a look:

minutesviewed

What does this mean?

The data is quite clear, shorter videos are more engaging than longer videos. For videos 2 minutes and under, you should strive to make your content as short and punchy as possible to guarantee the highest engagement. If your video is 30 seconds or under, it's very likely that most people will watch it all the way through.

If your message is more complex, be comfortable taking the time to explain it, but understand that half of your audience won't make it to the end of the video. With this in mind, you would be well served to front-load your video with the most important parts of your message.

Understanding the relationship between video length and viewer engagement can help you ensure that your audience is getting the most out of your videos.

Chris (89 Posts)

Co-founder and CEO of @wistia. My obsessions include: marketing, analytics, IPAs, coffee, evolutionary health, and ping pong. Say hello!

Tags: video analytics, video length, viewing habits

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Managing Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

http://www.uplandproductions.com/ David Truog

Interesting patterns. Could you provide more detailed data about this? Especially: What kinds of videos were these? Instructional? Commercial? Entertainment? Something else? And how many were there? And who were the target audiences?
http://curecrm.com alex schliker

this is great! i arbitrarily chose 1 min for all of my into videos… looks like it was a good call!
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http://www.furryfashionista.com Trish

Very good to know! Thank you for the statistics!
http://www.prolaunchmanager.com Rory

The test was done using the exact same content

However the big unanswered questions are…

Was the opening on both videos identical ?
or
Was the same content just spread out over different time lines?

Long copy sales letters test better than short ones. The more you tell the more you sell. It has proven that long videos also have good conversion rates

So

How did the viewer know the length of the video he or she was watching?
Brendan

Hi Rory,

Thanks for the comment! The first 30 seconds of each video was identical.
I agree, if that wasn’t the case, this whole exercise wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.
http://www.mediascend.com Stephen Potter

Great insight. Thanks for sharing this. We make videos for businesses and always urge them to go for short and sweet. This data helps us convince them.
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http://www.character-online.co.uk lightningad

I edit tv ads for a living. Many of those ads are reversioned ones from overseas companies. Most markets around the world tend to sell tv ad slots in 15/30sec chunks, but here in the UK you can buy 10/20/30sec slots etc.
So to maximise our spending, we always try to reduce a 30sec ad down to 20 seconds.

In the four+ years i have been doing this, i have not had a single ad that was not improved by removing 10 seconds of material.
http://www.channel1.com.au Video Production Melbourne

Great post. As a producer of workplace training videos, the days of producing traditional 20 to 25 minute length training videos are long gone. Apart from being so time poor, training departments having to compete with other areas of their organisation for staff attention, and not to mention the attention spans of individuals… depending on the content, 3 to 4 minute videos are the most popular and is a formula we know works. We even produced a series of 60 second training videos that companies use for online training.
http://www.rockmanscreativemedia.com.au/ Josh Rockman

GREAT data, wonderful results to show my clients! I tell my customers that they are better off leaving viewers hungry for more than being bored and turning off half way. The idea of a promotional video is to get the viewer to make that initial contact. People buy from people not from videos!! A good “call to action” and contact details at the end of short, powerful video is the key!
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http://www.arbourmedia.com PRW

Well, it might be the video length, but the audience is at least as (probably more) important in the circumstance you are attempting to to test. Time is one variable, but so is relevance to the viewer.

My guess is that viewers are making a decision on relevance in the first few seconds and assume, if they see the video goes on a bit, it’s not going to get much better and bail. If they see a length that’s short, they are more willing to suffer through till the end.

Watching a shorter video through to the end in no way tells us about the the impact of the piece on the viewer. Having an impact on the viewer is the point. If you have a good story people will watch it. The problem is, many web videos have no compelling story to tell at all.
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http://www.accelerateyourmarketing.com Ryan Steinolfson

It is so hard to make a point in 30 seconds.
Jonathan Drake

Would like to see the same test done with the player controls taken off the player.

If people do not know the amount of time it may/should be a longer engagement

cheers
Jonathan

ps
Another way to do it is put 2+ videos together and have each video be 30 seconds. Then have them loop to the next video in the “series”
http://www.shawnlam.ca Video Production Vancouver

Finally, some data to share with clients who think that a 15 minute video is better than a 10 minute video. I found it very interesting that the percentage completion was about the same between 2 and 10 minutes and I appreciate the logic of front-end loading the video, rather than saving it for the end.

I guess the old saying holds true for video: “Tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you told them”.

Thanks WISTIA!
http://ezvideoguy.com Randy Barnes

Thanks for sharing – this will be discussed at our group this month meetup.com/atlyoutube – this is why I dont waste 9 secs on an intro but dive right in with the content.
http://www.promojones.com Derek Jansen

Good to find some solid data on this topic (as opposed to speculation and heresay). I personally always try keep my videos under 3 minutes (which can be tricky of course), but it does correlate with this data in terms of effectiveness.
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http://www.pinefreshmedia.com.au/ Video Production Melbourne

Definitely agree that getting straight to the point is necessary. Obviously context of where the video is found is going to effect what kind of experience the user is after to begin with.
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http://launchsparkvideo.com LaunchSpark Video

As a creator of animated web videos, LaunchSpark Video always recommends a 30-90 second video. The content has to be EXTREMELY engaging for anything longer than that. This is for explainer and promotional web videos; instructionals and tutorials can be longer, with the length depending on the use and audience.
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http://www.oramd.com/ Taylor Clark

We noticed something similar when testing a shorter, more sensational promo video versus a longer, more informative video. We’ve never tried a 30 sec video, but now it will be worth testing to see not only the view stats, but the conversions that come from it.
http://www.360cloudsolutions.com Jordan Krizman

Does the fact that a viewer stops viewing a video necessarily mean lower engagement?

If a viewer stops viewing a video,
it can be because of 1 of 2 reasons:

1) he is disinterested
2) he came to get info, he got what he needed and left

Picture how you shop for items in a retail store.
Sometimes you know exactly what you want before you get there.
You may not find what you expected, so you leave.
OR you find exactly what you want quickly, and you leave.

Leaving quickly does not necessarily mean lower engagement.

Something to think about…
http://www.twitter.com/MarkACarbone Mark A Carbone

I love your post but after seeing the success rates of long form video doing so well in a number of cases if written, directed, and produced well can be 20 minutes long and still do very well.

I believe that 95% of video on the Internet is poorly done and that has a very large factor in what your stats show.

Bottom line – it’s all about great content. A better test would be to see if the same content in 1, 2, 3…20 minute scenarios does well.
http://stopdoingnothing.com Patrick Allmond

I wonder if you tell your audience up front about the agenda for the video if they are more willing to stay. My thinking is that the content they want might be the last item in your 10 minute video.
http://www.facebook.com/bbonomo Bernard Dino Bonomo

Brilliant data.. Thanks Chris.. now back to making 25min corporate videos for my clients
Moloy Dey

Hi Chris..thank you for sharing this research. I am the director at http://www.pixelgenio.com where we create promotional videos and as such I do receive a lot of information about how our videos are doing. Well you know I would say neither the too short nor the too lengthy does well. Its all about relevancy and how your are weaving your story and information.