How Long Should a Video Be For Each Platform?

Did you know that you can improve your engagement, just by simply adjusting your video’s length?

Engagement is considered the Holy Grail of content metrics.  Also, a reason why so many marketers spend countless hours perfecting their videos.

Too short, and you won’t get your message across. Too long, and your viewers may start zoning out. Depending on what you want to achieve, your video could be anywhere from less than 30 seconds to over ten minutes.    

So what should you prioritize? That depends on your goals. Short videos, such as those found on platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok, excel at reaching broad audiences quickly. With attention spans dwindling, concise content captures initial interest and driving engagement. On the other hand, long-form videos, often seen on platforms like YouTube or via live webinar-like formats, are ideal for building a loyal community. These extended formats allow for deeper exploration of topics, fostering connections and loyalty among viewers over time.

Looking for a golden rule that leads to quick wins? Make your video two minutes long. Across platforms, that’s a sweet spot for all videos. But of course, there’s more to the story than that.

In this article, we’re summing up the best formats for different types of  videos. So continue reading, and make sure your videos engage better, every time.

Why video length is important to help you reach your marketing goals

Great marketing is all about grabbing — and holding — your target audience’s attention.

As we know, creating videos is the way to do that! But even the greatest video is in competition with so much other content that’s vying for your viewer’s eyeballs.

Shoot for a video that’s just long enough to get across your key messages, in enough detail that your viewers will really grasp and retain it. Don’t be afraid to make your video concise, so your message really hits home.

The right length depends on many factors, like your goals and which platform you’ll be publishing on. Whether it’s for your YouTube channel, live-streaming, or any other part of your video marketing strategy, finding that sweet spot can be tricky. But don’t worry — we’re here to help!

The best video lengths for different use cases

How long should your video be? Well, it depends what you’re trying to accomplish! Here are the optimal video durations for a few common marketing, comms, and sales goals.

To help put things into perspective, we’ve defined our own main video types:

But remember — when in doubt, shorter is better! Lead with the most important content and don’t waste one second of your video’s valuable time.

Boost recruitment

If you’re trying to attract stellar new recruits and hires, you’re likely creating a company culture video. The goal here is to show off what a great place your company is to work, and all the amazing perks, benefits, and more that your people enjoy.

These videos can be mid-length to long, to give you plenty of space to paint a beautiful picture of what it’s like to be part of your team. Joining a new company is a big decision, so viewers are willing to spend more time watching a video to help them make up their mind.

Collect leads

If your video is designed to show people why they should be interested in your product or service, you’ll want to make it short, compelling, and snappy.

Lead with your key message, and make things concise enough that your viewer doesn’t have time to get bored. Common lead-generation videos might be a teaser for an upcoming webinar, or enticing people to sign up for your value-packed email newsletter.

Boost sales

Videos that help you close sales, such as product launches or demos, should be short- to medium, depending on where they live in your sales funnel. For example, if it’s the first video in an outbound sales campaign, it’s better for it to be less than a minute long. If it's a product demo video on a website, it’s better if it is less than 4 minutes long.

If it’s the first video in an outbound campaign, you’ll want it to be one minute or less. If you’re creating an in-depth demo or case-study, go up to 4 minutes (as long as you really need to).

You’re helping the viewer make a buying decision, so you’ll need to give them plenty of information, but you still need to make them engaged. Make sure your sales video is well-organized, and clearly addresses the main pain points your audience cares about.

Improve customer education

If you’re using video to share important details about your product, such as in an explainer video, it’s okay to slow down and make sure you’ve explained everything clearly.

But that doesn’t mean you need to create an epic, long movie! Keep things to a solid medium length.

However, not all educational videos have the same goals. For example, if you’re making an introductory onboarding video, that might be better on the shorter side.

Increase brand awareness

People don’t need a super-long video to get to know your brand. Make sure your brand awareness videos, such as company missions or general promotional videos, have a short or medium length. An Instagram branding video should be kept to under one minute, while on Youtube you might want to tell a longer, more detailed brand story that’s more like a short film.

The point is to provide a  memorable, positive experience for your viewers and engage them emotionally, not provide them with tons of new information.

Increase online engagement

Video-sharing is a great way to get people liking, sharing, and conversing about your brand online. And the good news is that it doesn’t take a long video to do it!

Engagement-focused videos should be short, engaging and entertaining — and watch how your audience reacts!

What are the best video lengths for social media and digital platforms?

Once you know the goal of your video, consider where you’ll be posting it. Stop before you hit ‘upload’ — first, think about the optimal social media video lengths. No matter how great your video concept is, it still needs to be designed for the channel where you will be sharing it.

The videos also need to be in line with viewers’ expectations. As we’ll explain, just because you can post, say, a 10-minute video doesn’t mean you should. For example, TikTok now allows content up to 3 minutes — but you might find you still get great results from the 15-second snippets the network is known for.

Here are some social media video tips for optimal videos! 

LinkedIn

Max video length: 10 minutes 
Best video length: 30-90 seconds

The right length for a LinkedIn video depends on your marketing goals. Overall, you want to make sure viewers are watching as much of your video as possible, since that’s part of how the platform's algorithms calculate dwell time, and decide whether or not to show your content to more people.

Shooting for brand awareness? Keep it to 30 seconds or less.

If your prospects are further along in your marketing funnel, you can go up to 90 seconds.

Another strategy would be to make a super-short teaser video, then link out to the entire piece.

LinkedIn Live Video

Recommended live stream duration: 15-30 minutes

LinkedIn Live Video enables real-time engagement with your audience, offering a dynamic platform for hosting webinars, interviews, and interactive discussions.

When leveraging the Live Video, focus on delivering engaging and informative content that resonates with your target audience. Plan your live stream to include compelling visuals, clear messaging, and opportunities for audience interaction. The duration should match the recommended range to maintain viewer interest and maximize engagement.

LinkedIn Video Ads

Recommended Sponsored Content ad duration: 15-30 seconds 
Recommended In-Stream Video ad duration: 6-15 seconds

LinkedIn Video Ads provide businesses with a powerful tool to engage their target audience and drive conversions.

When creating Video Ads, prioritize capturing attention within the first few seconds and delivering your message efficiently. Ad duration should be in line with top practices for LinkedIn videos, ensuring that the content remains engaging and relevant throughout. Experiment with different ad formats and durations to optimize performance and achieve your advertising goals.

YouTube

Max video length: 15 minutes or 12 hours, depending on if you have a verified account                         
Best video length: Varies depending on your goals; generally 2 minutes or less

YouTube is known as the home of longform video online. But smart users of the platform know their subscribers well — as they know, your marketing videos don’t need to be hours long!

For YouTube marketing purposes, the top organic videos will be 2 minutes or less. If you have a genius idea that’s packed full of content, why not split it up into many short videos, creating a webseries?

But for paid advertising, it’s a whole different story. Pre-roll ads should be 15 to 20 seconds, while bumper ads (which promote brand awareness) cap out at just 6 seconds long.

YouTube Shorts

Max video length: 60 seconds                  
Best video length: Varies depending on engagement; typically 15-30 seconds

YouTube shorts videos deserve their own spotlight as they’re the rising star in the world of short-form video content. While the platform is renowned for its longer videos, savvy creators understand the allure of bite-sized content tailored for the scrolling generation.

For YouTube Shorts videos geared towards marketing, brevity is key. Aim for videos that are 15 to 30 seconds long to capture attention swiftly and leave a lasting impression. Don't be afraid to serialize your content, turning a single concept into a series of engaging Shorts.

You can use YouTube Shorts as paid adverts too. Here, the same rules apply as standard advertising content we mentioned above: pre-roll ads should be no longer than 15 seconds and bumper ads are maxing out at a mere 6 seconds. Every second counts.

Twitter

Max video length: 140 minutes
Best video length: 15 seconds or less 

Twitter might be text-centric, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get great results with video. In fact, tweets with video have been shown to get 10x more engagement!

But remember: Twitter is all about brevity. That’s why your Twitter videos should be 15 seconds or less.

Facebook

Max video length: 240 minutes
Best video length: 1-3+ minutes, depending on your goals

Facebook is another platform that can support multiple kinds of video. If you’re focused on conversions or brand awareness, your Facebook videos should be under 1 minute, or under 20 seconds for Facebook Stories.

If you’re creating a livestream or series of episodes, you can go up to 3 minutes or more.

Instagram Feed

Max video length: 60 seconds
Best video length: 25-30 seconds 

Instagram may be owned by Facebook, but nearly all users browse this platform on a small, mobile screen. For that reason, your Instagram videos should be short and punchy.

Data suggests that the ideal duration for Instagram videos is 30 seconds, and videos with the most comments tend to be about 26 seconds long.

Instagram Stories

Max video length: 60 seconds
Best video length: 5-15 seconds

Unlike feed posts, Instagram Stories are temporary posts that disappear after 24 hours, providing a casual way to share moments, thoughts, and updates with your audience through a series of short, sequential videos and images.

Due to this, Instagram Story videos work perfectly as bite-sized segments, each lasting between 5 to 15 seconds. This increases viewer engagement without losing interest as they tap through your daily content. Whether it's a quick glimpse into your day or a teaser for upcoming content, make every second count in the Stories' swift and immersive narrative.

Instagram Reels

Max video length: 90 seconds
Best video length: 7-15 seconds for optimal engagement

While Instagram is synonymous with captivating images, Reels offer a dynamic way to share your creativity in motion. For Instagram Reels, aim for videos between 7 to 15 seconds. This duration strikes the perfect balance, allowing you to convey your message or showcase your talents while keeping viewers hooked in the fast-paced Reels feed.

Whether it's a quick tutorial, a comedic skit, or a mesmerizing dance routine, shorter videos are more likely to captivate your audience's attention and encourage them to engage with your content. The more personable and authentic you can make the Real the better – as most users view Reels in their down-time to relax.

But don’t worry, you have up to 90 seconds to make an impression with a Reel, so there's no need to feel constrained by the typical 15-second limit. Just make sure it is always as short as possible!

TikTok

Max video length: 3 minutes
Best video length: 9-15 seconds for optimal engagement

TikTok now lets users share videos up to 3 minutes, after originally boosting their limit from 15 to 60 seconds.

But super-short, snackable clips are still what TikTok is known for, so you should try to make your content 15 seconds (or less).

Website / Homepage

Max video length: Up to you!
Best video length: 30-60 seconds 

Think of videos on your brand’s website as similar to traditional TV ads.

This is your chance to offer a quick, memorable intro to who your brand is and what you do. To avoid overwhelming viewers, make sure they're between 30 seconds and one minute long. If you’re building a product demo into your website, you can go up to 3 minutes — but make sure they're not the first thing your visitors see.

Landing page

Max video length: Up to you!
Best video length: 30-90 seconds 

If you’ve successfully enticed viewers to your landing page, you’ve got an important message to share.

Here, you can go a little longer than on your homepage, since your message is probably more specific — but you should still try to make it 90 seconds or less.

Create great intros, scripts, and transitions to keep viewers engaged

There are a number of other factors that can greatly improve the engagement of your video.

Fine-tune your video’s opening. The first few seconds are when viewers decide to continue watching, or click away. Make it as suspenseful, visually appealing, and interesting as possible — what value are you offering to those who continue watching?

A good script will help you make things concise, and motion graphics or text can make your key message super easy to grasp (plus, they’re easy to add in using video makers like PlayPlay)!

Transitions are also very important! Don't sacrifice the fluidity of your video in order to make it as short as possible. Add fun transitions to between each section of your video. That sense of movement can make your video more fun, dynamic, and engaging.

To adapt longer videos to snackable platforms like TikTok, try adapting them into short ‘teaser’ versions that entice people to click through and watch the full piece. And always take accessibility and ease of watching into consideration — that means captions and subtitles so viewers can watch even with their sound off.

Still not sure? We’ve got tons more video tips, tricks, and top practices on the PlayPlay blog! 

Hit the perfect video length for maximum engagement

There’s a lot to consider when you’re deciding how to make your marketing video.

That’s why at the end of the day, the greatest strategy is to test out different lengths, and find out what actually works for your audience. If in doubt, make that video less than two minutes long, especially if it will be seen by people who are new to your brand.

Of course, length isn’t the whole story — the perfect aspect-ratio, video-editing, file-size and many other things matter too. But length is a great place to start, and we hope this handy guide will help you create engaging videos with confidence! 
To make things even easier, try out PlayPlay. It’s the simplest video creation tool, and the perfect alternative to complex, technical editing software. Plus, it’s designed especially for the needs of in-house marketing teams.