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What's the best length for a business video?
- CreativeJigsaw
- Mar 20
- 3 min read
Running time is a big consideration when it comes to video production.
So what is the best running time for a business video?
Well, it depends...!
For one thing it depends greatly on where it's intended to be shown.
Social Media Video Production
For instance, there's "The 3 Second Rule", which in this context relates to video for distribution on social media - it's generally considered to be the amount of time available to grab your audience's attention and stand any chance of them watching more.
It's said that 65% of people who watch the first three seconds of a video will watch it for at least 10 seconds, and 45% will watch for 30 seconds.
So on social media the first 3 seconds are very important. And you also won't want anything too long or you're likely to lose your audience well before the end.
Website Video Production
If it's a video to be placed on a company website the running time can be longer, and the first 3 seconds are less important - the viewer has visited your website so they're already interested.
The visitor will also be likely to consider viewing your website video as a way to glean the information they're looking for without reading lots of text.
YouTube Video Production
If you're putting a video out on YouTube you could go for a running time that's a bit longer. You might want to pay to put push the video out ahead of other videos on YouTube, where viewers are able to skip your video if they're not interested (when this happens you won't pay anything to YouTube) - if they've not skipped then they're likely to be happy to watch for a couple of minutes.
On YouTube you could also go very long, even as long as an hour for something like a podcast, as YouTube is now often consumed by people using an app on their lounge smart TV.
Business Video Production for a Live Audience
Then there's a video intended to be shown to a live audience. They're essentially "captive", they're not likely to walk out through boredom or start looking at their phones. Not for 2 or 3 minutes anyway, and of course it's still important for the video to be made in a way that engages with viewers, you still need to ensure that your video keeps your audience's attention, you don't want their minds wandering elsewhere such that your key messages fail to register.
Business Video Production for email
The running time in this case will depend on who the recipients of the emails are likely to be. If it's people who've already expressed an interest in your product/service/topic then it can be treated in a similar way to a website visitor - they may have been waiting for this information and will be happy to watch a longer video.
If, on the other hand, the email is intended to capture the attention of a new audience, a shorter video may be more appropriate.
Certainly, videos in emails have been shown to greatly improve the open rate and also the click-through rate. Even mentioning "video" in an email's subject can improve the open rate!
So, when it comes to "What's the best running time for a business video", it very much does depend.
We often suggest to clients that they make several versions of the same video and use the appropriate video in the appropriate circumstances.
Below is an example of this - we made several videos for Xplore! Science Discovery Centre's "Xplore 2.0" project. The main video has a longer running time and was shown to a live audience and emailed to interested parties, and also shown as a skippable YouTube paid-for video. It was also shared on social media (although that wasn't its primary purpose). A much shorter video was made to capture interest on social media.
As ever, if you have a business video production requirement we'll be happy to discuss options - just get in touch.
For this project the client was also very mindful of inclusivity, meaning the British Sign Language and Welsh Language versions of the videos were also made.
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