How Long Should Your Video Be?
The video length debate continues to rage. In the past, we allowed the medium to control length, but now you can publish a movie-long video if you want.
Today we have the advantage of data to show not only if someone clicked on the video, but if they completed the entire video. Completion rates fall as the length of the video increases.
What’s important to remember is that even at 10 to 20 minutes, you still have 44% of your audience — and that may be the key decision-makers who are most likely to buy into your story.
Now, we should spend more time analyzing the venue where the video will be shown to determine length. For example, a fundraising video shown to a large group of potential donors can run eight minutes. A video shown on a website that will be watched at work should be around one to two minutes.
The video completion rate across all video types, according to Vidyard, is 52%. So only half the people will stick with your video, no matter what length. So tighten up the content and increase your reach.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
