How long should an animated explainer video be? If you do a quick search, you will find all sorts of answers to this question. The best answer is as long enough to deliver your point.
The most optimal length for an explainer video is 1 to 2 minutes long. When it reaches more than 2 minutes in duration, the average views drops from 77 % to 57%.
In this post, we find out the optimal length of an animated explainer video and why the time duration or length is important in making an effective explainer video.
Things to Remember Before Creating Your Animated Explainer Video
Before we find out how the optimal length of an animated explainer video, here are the things that you need to know in creating one.
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- Do not rely on your video. Although your explainer video is your way to reaching your target goals, you should not rely on that alone. Keep your focus to 2-3 points, use it as a way to get started or introduce your brand and have another team to do the rest of the sales and advertising. Do not bombard your viewers or audience with tons of information that aren’t necessary. Give them just enough to get their attention. If you need to cover more topics, you can always create another video for that specific goal.
- The shorter, the better. Not only it can help you save money and time during production, but also there is a higher chance that your viewers will watch more of it. Research says that as video length increases, there’s a significant drop in the percentage of the watched video. On average, a viewer is watching 42 seconds of a 60 seconds video, and 78 seconds of a 120 second video. That is why it is important to cover the essentials and be as brief as possible.
- Get to the point. Introduce your business or company as soon as possible. Use the first 5 to 10 seconds of the video to deliver your pitch. Let’s say, if you create a 2 minute video, it is likely that the viewers will just skip some content and check out the ones that gets their attention. That is why it is important to let them know about your intentions in the first place. That way, if ever they skip some parts of the video, they’d still understand what the video is all about. It’s the message that matters in the explainer video like your pitch and call to action (CTA).
Not sure where or how to start your animated explainer video? Schedule a consultation with us today to see how we can help you!
What is video length or duration?
Like any marketing video, every type of an animated explainer video always has a specific length. That depends on the pitch and call to action. It normally lasts around 2 minutes or less than 60 seconds. Again, shorter is better.
An effective animated explainer video, usually between 60-90 seconds in length, with a clear call to action at the end, is one of the most measurably effective tools when launching a company or product.
What is the best length for social media videos?
Your videos should be no more than 1 minute or 60 seconds in length, as that is the maximum limit that all social platforms limit. Hubspot suggested that 30 seconds might be an ideal time frame. Instagram videos that get high engagement and reach typically averaged about 26 seconds in length.
What about demo videos?
Whether the customers will find your product interesting or not, no one will stick around to watch a 10 minutes video. Not all users will have that kind of patience or pay that much attention and stay to watch the entire video. The ideal length for a demo video is around 2 minutes or less.
How long should a whiteboard video be?
For simple products or services, the perfect whiteboard video length is 60 seconds. For more complicated products or services, you can extend it up to 90 seconds.
Why is a short video better than a long video?
It is important to pay attention to the duration of the explainer video. This applies to all types of marketing videos.
Check out these statistics about the relationship between video length and engagement.
- Videos that lasts 2 minutes long has a higher audience engagement. Keep your videos as short as 120 seconds or even shorter than that. Within that duration, make sure you keep them engaged.
- From minute 2 until 3, the engagement drops quickly. The initial drop off is high as viewers seem to make a decision.
- From minute 6 to 12, you have more opportunity to build a connection with your audience.
- From minute 12 on, keep watching and notice the decrease of engagement from your viewers.
Not sure where or how to start your animated explainer video? Schedule a consultation with us today to see how we can help you!
What are the essential components of an animated explainer video?
Of course, you need to understand what you need to include in your explainer video to keep them engaged. Here are the essential components of your explainer video.
Content. Video marketing is a huge world. It offers you with tons of possibilities to convey your message and share your ideas. You can create educational videos, explainer videos, testimonial videos, commercial videos, product videos, behind the scenes videos, how-to videos, podcasts and so on. Don’t forget that the length of every video varies on the content of your video and its complexity.
Target audience. Understanding your target audience is essential in every marketing campaign. You need to know your audience demographics to create and deliver an effective message. Identify the type of action that you want them to take.
Context. Find out what type of device or platform your audience are using to access your video content. You need to look at their expectations as well. These are very important factors that can impact the video length.
Hubspot reported that videos under 5 minutes are widely chosen on mobile and smartphones. The ideal length of a Youtube video should be 3 minutes. Make sure you have your content (title, thumbnail, etc. ) and the platforms where you are going to promote the video ready.
Popular Videos Formats And Their Ideal Lengths
Explainer videos are perfect for startup businesses and brands. For example, companies like Twitter and Dropbox, offer services that are quite difficult to describe and are not intuitively understood by the average person. However, they are also useful for just about any business that has a message it wants to share with the world about its products or services.
Regarding the optimal length, again it really depends on the video that you want to create. And how you’d deliver your message as short as possible.
There are also some general standards for some “popular video formats”, and The Next Web has compiled some interesting data on this:
- Tutorials: ideal length between 45 and 90 seconds.
- Creative commercials: ideal length between 15 and 59 seconds.
- Crowdfunding videos: ideal length would be an average of 2.5 minutes.
- Testimonial videos: ideal length between 60 and 119 seconds.
At Animation Explainers, the ideal length for animated marketing videos: between 60 and 90 seconds. In that amount of time, we believe you can deliver your key messages with effectiveness without losing engagement.
Does video length matter in creating animated explainer videos?
Video length and engagement has a significant relationship. You only have a few seconds to generate interest in your audience. If you are able to keep them engaged throughout the entire video, that means your explainer video is effective.
Overall, shorter videos are more engaging than longer videos. That is why it is important to make your content as concise and on point as possible to reach high engagement. Know your audience and what they want.
Load your content with the most important information on the first part of the video. That way, you’ll be able to provide them with what they need to know about you and your business. Plus, you gain a better understanding of your audience and how you can make your explainer video as effective as it should be.
Not sure where or how to start your animated explainer video? Schedule a consultation with us today to see how we can help you!
What is the best length of a video?
On an average day when we were drafting this post, we found that in the top ten most popular YouTube videos, the shortest was 42 seconds, and the longest was 9 minutes and 15 seconds. The average video length was 4 minutes and 20 seconds. ComScore reported that in January the duration of the average online content video was 4.4 minutes. Basically, it seems like short video still rules the day on YouTube, but that there is a range of lengths.
Each YouTube average view duration was somewhere around 50-60% of the total video length.
Looking at many other channels that have their statistics publicly visible, losing 50-60% of your viewers by the half-way point is very common. For most videos, an average view duration in the 70-80% range is performing well.
Keep your videos short and include your call-to-action before the half-way mark.
If you are using these videos to promote a product or service and are placing your ad overlay on the video, make sure you include it in the first 10-15 seconds of the video. A large portion of your audience may never see it if you have it towards the end.
At Animation Explainers, we think the best and most optimal length for an animated explainer video is 60 seconds. However, it is still your call whether it is enough to reach your target goal or if you can include all the necessary components or you can deliver your message as short or as long as you can. It varies on how long you want your video should take based on your target audience, goals, and budget.
Animated Explainer Videos – Final thoughts
According to some studies, it seems that the ideal video length is 2 minutes. But does this mean that every single video that you develop should last 120 seconds? Of course, there are some important factors that need to be considered. It should be highly engaging but also it has to be effective. And you also have to remember that the length of your video will depend on several factors.
The sweet spot for an explainer video clip is 1 to 2 minutes in length. When an explainer video reaches 2 minutes in duration, the average view drops from 77 percent to 57 percent, and that’s a significant difference when we’re talking about different types of explainers.
Talking about explainer videos, in particular, there is a right answer between “short” and “long”. And if you complement it with some of the best practices in the explainer video production process, you will surely be able to get amazing results.
What video length have you seen the most success with explainer videos? Does it fall within these ranges? Share us your thoughts through the comments below.
