Video target length

What is the perfect video length?

Psychological studies show that information retention is higher in people when accompanied with visual cues. Many state education systems introduced visual aids and demonstrations years ago. The same is true of your customers regardless of your industry. People are much more likely to remember your video content weeks after watching it than anything they might have read on your website. Even if they can recall written information on your landing or sales page, they will remember far less of it than accompanying video. Video target length is a mystery. Whats the best thing to do? Lets talk.

This is due to the psychological phenomenon known as the Picture Superiority Effect, which was first identified in a study conducted by Ebbinghaus in 1885. The basic premise is that people learn and remember information better when it is presented with visuals (such as pictures) than when it is presented in written form alone.

A more recent study conducted by multimedia learning experts Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno in 2003 found that when learners were presented with both verbal and visual information, they were able to recall an average of 72% of the material 10 days later. When learners were only presented with verbal information, they could only remember an average of 9% of the material 10 days later.

Better content is better than shorter content

So if you want people to remember your video content, use visuals. Now, the issue is does that video need to be a good one? What is a good video? A good video is one that is entertaining and informative. It should be well-produced and engaging, with a strong script and visuals that support the information being presented. The video should also be short enough to hold people’s attention, but long enough to deliver the desired message.

When it comes to providing information, a good video will do so in a way that is clear and easy to understand. It will avoid jargon and explain things in simple terms. And finally, a good video will be relevant to your audience and offer something of value.

So those are the key components of a good video. But what about length? How long should your video be? The magic number marketing people always talk about is 5 minutes or less… but whats so special about 5 minutes? Is it important to keep you video under 5 minutes? Not so fast.
While it is true that the average attention span of an internet user is only 8 seconds, that doesn’t mean your video needs to be short just for the sake of being short. In fact, a study conducted by Wistia found that the average view time for a video on their site was 2 minutes and 54 seconds. That’s almost double the “5 minute or less” rule marketing people always talk about.

There is some debate about length. Shorter isn’t always better, after all, people watch hours of streaming series content every night, those are far longer than the target 5 minute length.

Does length really matter?

So what does this mean for you? It means that if you have a video that is longer than 5 minutes, don’t automatically assume it’s too long and will turn people off. As long as your video is interesting, informative, and relevant to your audience.

Let’s start a new way of thinking, let’s make something good. Something that is well done, meaningful and to the point. If you want a high-quality video and you live anywhere in the world, House of Sticks can do it. We’re based in Dallas, Texas, but we travel anywhere. We’ve done work in over 30 countries. We specialize in high quality, creative video production, and we’re passionate about telling stories that make a difference. If you have a story to tell, we want to help you tell it.

There you have it, we’re the best. Give us a call or fill out the quote for below.