These statistics and best practices have always been super-useful to me for reality setting in when planning, and editing your videos.
How long do we watch online videos?
- In the first 10 seconds people will decide whether to keep watching
- The first 30 secs is the next ‘drop off point’
- Obviously more people will watch a 1 min video all the way through, than 2-3 min video etc. BUT whether 2 mins up to 10 mins, people will watch on average 50% (source: Wistia)
- The top 10 most shared video ads, they average 4 mins 11 seconds (Source: ReelSEO)
- Our attention span varies depending on what device we’re watching on:
- desktop avg 2mins
- phone avg 2.4 mins
- ipad avg 5 mins!
How can we make sure our videos are as short as possible?
- First: be crystal clear about the basics – who’s your audience, what are your key messages, what’s your call to action?
- Second: Ensure your producer does plenty of research, plenty of thinking in the shower, or brainstorming session with you, to visualise the who, where, what, duration, tone etc etc.
- Third: Make sure the producer develops a thorough Creative Treatment to crystallise the details so you don’t end up with unnecessary or missing footage and the shoots are as smooth and professional as possible
- Remember there’s not one size fits all: Many of my videos are longer than 2 mins but it’s been a conscious decision based on the audience and purpose.