The platform allows users to post videos anywhere between 20 seconds and 2 minutes, but Twitter users are used to short updates so I would apply this brevity to your videos, keeping your content under 30 seconds.
We recommend making shorter teaser videos posted natively and linking to the full video on platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Twitter video length: < 30 secondsYou
The general rule of thumb, is that Instagram video content should be short.
Why?
Instagram users are often young, multitasking and often travelling, so have much shorter attention spans and are looking for short form content that will excite them. They are also used to scrolling quite quickly through the feed, therefore stopping for a long period of time for a video may feel unnatural.
To capture your audience's attention and stop them from scrolling past your post, your content needs to be short in length, have a good story and be visually exciting.
In-feed videos can be up to 1 minute, as that is the upper limit the platform will support, but we suggest keeping it much shorter.
Snapchat may have pioneered the short-form, temporary video content, but Instagram has taken it a step further and made it an enormous success. The feature has skyrocketed in popularity, showing a 300% growth rate in under three years and is not slowing down any time soon. Instagram Stories are a great way to grow brand awareness, show the behind-the-scenes and humanise your company. Convinced Stories are great for marketing? Good! Now, how long should they be? Videos on Stories are capped at 15 seconds, but you can post as many 15 second stories as you want or post a longer video over multiple 15 second scenes. Facebook recommends using stories with 3 15 second parts as this is the most engaging. When it comes to advertising, however, you are limited to the 15 second video length. So make sure your video is visually exciting, breaks through the organic content and captures your audience's attention. Instagram stories video length (organic): 15 seconds (x3) Instagram stories video length (paid advert): 15 seconds
Unlike Facebook Live which gives you up to 4 hours air time, the maximum length on Instagram Live is 60 minutes. You can start another live broadcast immediately after if you need longer, however you run the risk of losing viewers. Much like Facebook Live, longer is better. Shoot for at least 10 minutes to allow enough time to attract viewers and avoid running over the 60 minute cap, unless it is carefully orchestrated and communicated to viewers. Instagram Live video length: 10 to 60 minutes
IGTV (short for Instagram TV) is designed to be long form content, so generally your video should be as long as it needs to be to get your point across. Generally, your videos can be up to 10 minutes long, however larger and verified accounts can have up to 60 minutes as long as it is uploaded from a computer. IGTV video length: 15 seconds to 10 minutes (60 minutes for larger accounts)
Instagram launched it's new feature "Reels" in August 2020 to rival the ever-growing TikTok. It is the newest feature to the platform and as a result has not been utilised by many businesses yet.
Reels allows you to record and edit short videos up to 15 seconds in the app. You can record one or multiple 15 second clips to make longer or shorter videos.
Not much research has been done yet into the optimum length of a reel, but much like TikTok, as long as your videos are fun and engaging they can be as long as necessary.
Organic reach on Facebook has been declining for years. The saving grace? Facebook’s algorithm loves video! The platform has been trying to restart user growth by showing users more content from friends and family and less from businesses, with video being the only exception. Facebook tends to promote video posts further organically than non-video posts, providing businesses with a huge opportunity.
In-feed video content can be up to 4 hours long on Facebook. But just because you can upload a Lord of the Rings film, doesn’t mean you should. The most successful videos tend to fall between 24 to 90 seconds long. But be sure to do your own research and have a look at your Facebook analytics to see what length videos you audience engaged with the most. For example, Hubspot found that their audience engaged most with videos that were under 1 minute, so now cap their videos at 60 seconds. In-feed video length: 24 - 90 seconds
Facebook Stories can only be 20 seconds long and expire after 24 hours. These disappearing short-form videos are becoming more and more popular with users, as an easy way to produce video content and see the behind-the-scenes of businesses. Whilst this is a very short piece of content, use the time cap wisely. Ensure you put the juiciest bit of content in the first 5-10 seconds to capture users attention before they swipe past. Stories video length: <20 seconds
Facebook Live is a great way to connect with your audience and meet new customers. It gives your audience a chance to meet the face behind the business and understand your brand's story and objectives in more detail, ultimately helping them to become brand ambassadors. One of the benefits of Facebook Live is that it offers a long time limit, giving you up to 8 hours if you’re recording on desktop and 4 hours on mobile. Now, I am not suggesting you use all this time, but the longer your video runs, the more discoverable your stream will become. Facebook Live video length: 10 minutes to 4 hours (8 hours on Desktop) Top tip: don’t go below 10 minutes to give users enough time to be notified and tune in.
The length of your Facebook video ad depends on the type of advert you are running. For in-stream video ads (ads placed before or during other video content), Facebook recommends 5 to 15 second long videos. However, they can be up to 31 seconds. For news feed ads, Facebook recommends creating short ads that are 15 seconds or shorter as they “have higher completion rates, so you can successfully share your entire message.” They have also suggested for mobile advertising that you make really short ads. Compared to 15 - 30 second video ads, 6 second ads showed “higher brand metrics across the board.” Facebook in-stream video ad length: 5 - 15 seconds Facebook news feed video ad length: 6 - 15 seconds
