Explainer Video Duration: Concise VS Lengthy

Research shows that humans’ attention spans are getting shorter thanks to the advancement of technology. According to Wyzowl, the notoriously ill-focused goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds, while humans only have 8 seconds.

Not very pleasant isn’t it being compared to and losing at the same time to a goldfish?

As businesses trying to survive in this advanced world, you have to be familiar with online advertising tools, such as explainer videos.

Generally, explainer videos are videos that can help explain a product, service or anything you’d like to introduce or sell to the world. Due to the rising popularity of digital and online sources, online videos are one of the most effective ways for businesses to target particular consumers.

As business owners, no, you don’t have to create your own videos because there are companies out there that can do it for you. But it is also not impossible to make your own.

So what’s an ideal length for explainer videos?

The KISS Principle

Depending on how much information an individual/company wants to deliver, the length of the video also varies. The KISS principle is an abbreviation for Keep It Stupid Simple.

Disclaimer: We are not telling you to make an 8 seconds video!

However, do make your video as engaging and easy to understand as possible, especially in the first 8 seconds. As a start, you need to have an interesting thumbnail and title, also known as clickbait-ing technique.

Audience Engagement VS Video Length

As you build your audiences’ curiosity and interest, they will then click on your video and start watching. The longer they stay on your page, the less likely the visitors leave your page until their curiosity has been answered.

According to ReputationDefender, social videos (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook) are most likely to have an under 1-minute ideal length for video content.

Long story short, most of the time anything after the 2 minutes mark is considered too long.

However, do not decide the length of your explainer video based on other videos. Just because what worked for others doesn’t mean it will work for you too. You know your product best, you decide how long your video should be.

Facts & Figures

A popular video sharing platform, Youtube, has a feature called Youtube Analytics. This feature calculates viewers’ duration time and produces a report showing the length of the video that viewers actually watched.

The example below shows out of the 2 minutes 49 seconds video, the average viewers watched only 1 minute 52 seconds of it, which translates to only 67% of the video were watched. 67 % does not sound like a lot but if you view it from the time perspective, it is already close to 2 minutes.

The number above exceeds the 8 seconds of humans’ attention span, but it does not exceed the 2 minutes mark. It means the first 8 seconds of the video is engaging enough for the viewers to keep watching, but the contents might be irrelevant to some viewers or they just get bored and decide to leave.

Take Note: The longer your video means the harder it is to manage your audiences’ engagement. As a result, the remaining information that you put towards the end of the video is not being watched.

What Happens After The 2 Minutes Mark?

If you managed to keep your audiences’ attention longer than 2 minutes, congratulations!

But why would anyone break the 2 minutes mark rule?

Obviously, if you make an explainer video that is longer than 1–2 minutes, there must be a lot of information that you’d like to share.

Powtoon.com said,

“A three-minute video is helpful to those businesses who not only want a better detailing on every aspect of their video but also want to back it up with facts, figures, live quotations, and customers feedback”

There are businesses that need to use this type of video, such as those involved in the banking and insurance sectors. These types of videos are normally used internally within the business due to its complex nature.

Always remember the target audience of your video and how effective your method of communication is.

As an example, you cannot force teenagers to crunch a lot of facts and numbers on an investment video explainers that is 3–4 minutes long. First, it’s irrelevant, second, it’s too complicated and they won’t benefit anything out of it.

Tips in Deciding The Length of Your Explainer Videos

1) First Impression Counts!

There is a saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”, however people still do, everyone does and admit it you do too. I mean who doesn’t?

If an item does not spark any interest, you probably won’t lay your eyes on it, let alone willing to go into details.

30 % of viewers are willing to wait 30 seconds before deciding if they want to watch the video or move on to other activities. Therefore try to gain their interest within this time period, otherwise, you will lose the next 45% of viewers by the 1-minute mark.

2) Remember the 8-second rule!

This includes creating an eye-catching thumbnail and title. Even if not all of your videos may relate to the title, but at least you still get your audiences’ attention and they will click on your video.

3) Everybody HATES Loading Time

Imagine this, you saw an interesting image and title, and you got curious about what the video is about. So you decided to click on the video and got all excited and it starts loading (which is very normal).

Fifteen seconds later, it’s still loading…

By then you’d probably either refresh your webpage or you’ve lost interest in the video and decided to move on.

UMASS’s researchers concluded that video abandonment rate increases by 5.8% for every second you have to wait longer than 2 seconds. Not only people hate to wait, but it also adds up to the length of your video too. If someone watches a 3-minute video and it takes 1 minute to load, they spend 4 minutes just for that video.

Time flies when you’re having fun but feels like an eternity when you’re bored.

4) Deciding Your Content

In the video-making process, you need to decide what you’d like to achieve in your videos and which age groups are your target market. Engage your audience on a storyboard so that they can relate to the story.

If you want to entertain your viewers, your videos may be longer or shorter than 3 minutes. But because it’s most likely to be fun and entertaining people will watch it anyway.

Besides, if you want to educate the audience on something, you need to straight away get to the point of your audiences will lose interest. Because these types of video contents are heavy on the brain. This video can be both long and short but aim for short and concise.

If you want your audiences to take an action (purchase your product, join a membership, etc.) make the video as short and summarized as possible. Showcase the benefits of your products so that the audiences get highly attracted and curious about your product.

If you’re asking your audiences to spend their money on your product, why would you disinterest them by wasting their time?

What do you think about the duration regime of explainer videos? Do you prefer to watch long, comprehensive instructions or concise and short ones?

If you’re thinking of making an excellent explainer video but you don’t know where to start, contact us.

Otherwise, we’d like to hear your video length preferences in the comment box below!😊