How Long Should Your Videos Be?

It’s a question we get A LOT!

When it comes to branded content, the “right” length depends on your story, your audience and what you want to achieve. But there are industry norms, and understanding them helps you make better decisions on your creative needs.

🎬 Story First

If your main video leans toward a (human) story, it deserves room to breathe and to have some depth for viewers to connect on a deeper level. These videos rely on emotion and pacing so there's some impact on the viewers.

From experience, 2–3 minutes is the sweet spot. It's enough time to establish the character(s), understand the tension and show a clear outcome.

If it's any shorter, you risk cutting the emotional thread too soon. Any longer, and viewer-completion rates start to fall. Unfortunately, our online attention spans are SHORT! It's a crowded place :) (I personally hope this will change one day as there have been many, many human stories which could easily have been longer.)

And of course, the client goals matter too. They’re investing in this production so it needs to deliver creatively and in performance.

⚙️ Maximising Value From Every Production

To make the most of a shoot, we must think beyond one main video.

Start with your hero film which is the main 2–3 minute story. Then, build out shorter cutdowns tailored for different platforms: perhaps a few 30-second versions for social media, maybe even a 15-second teaser for ads as well. We've even done 60 second versions as TV commercials.

This approach stretches your production investment and keeps your brand present across multiple channels.

📱 Sweet Spot for Social Shorts

So, how long should a social media short video be?

Technically, platforms like Insta, LinkedIn and Facebook allow more than 60 seconds. But in practice, 20–30 seconds tends to be the real sweet spot. Short enough to hold attention, long enough to deliver a message with meaning.

But please don’t underestimate the craft involved in editing such a short format. Cutting a story down to 30 seconds without losing its heart is one of the hardest things to do well. Every frame and every second has to count!

✂️ The Takeaway

There’s no video-length-police! Just your audience's attention span. But here’s a general guide to hold their attention until the end of your video:

• Docu-style / brand story: 2–3 minutes

• Social shorts: 20–30 seconds

• Teasers: 10–15 seconds

  
  

Ultimately, it’s about designing your story to fit where it lives. A great 30-second film can make more impact than a five-minute one that loses your audience halfway through.