YouTube Tips Long or short intros?

[Desocrates]

What do you all think works better, longer or short intros for videos? I feel like it may just be better to get straight to the point and not waste a huge amount of time saying what the video is about as chances are if they clicked on it they know the what it is anyway.

 

[Craig Payne]

Do you like watching long intros on other peoples videos?

 

[Bravestarr | Team TB]

Hmm, at first I thought you were asking about an actual intro like a TV show into but you seem to be asking about the first few seconds or so of the video where the creator gives an explanation of what the video is about. I guess in this case short and sweet is the best option. Like you said odds are the viewer already knows what the video is about but it doesn't hurt to give a short explanation considering you never really know where the content is being consumed and thus the viewer might not always know with specifics what the content is about.

 

[Desocrates]

Thanks for the answers, I'll stick to short intros.

 

[SILTHW]

Short answer (ha!) - short. I see a lot of really big channels using longer intros, but I suspect they get away with it because they already had an audience before the styles changed.

 

[Avocado]

I usually do a 5 second title card with music. Different title card each video. Many have recommended I have a theme song and intro. Which would be much longer.

 

[Legacy]

I would always go for short intros because someone could easily click off of your video if an intro is taking a while. The first seconds of your video are important to draw the attention of your audience so that they will be more likely to stay for more of the video.

 

[Tito Tim]

I do not do an intro per se, more of a teaser.
I just recently started doing an intro. I keep it very short, 3 - 6 seconds. I try to find some oddball part of the vid to show, and hopefully get their interest. I did a review of a unli wing shop and put a 3 second clip of my wife flapping her 'wings' saying "pakpak, pakpak, pakpak" (tagalog for wings). It looked very silly so I used it as the intro, and left it in the regular part of the vid, for context.

 

[charandperry]

Our intro is just over 20secs long and we've set it as a video to appear for new subscribers to our channel too. We didn't want it to appear too long as it would appear on each of our videos and over time viewers may want to cut and get on with watching the video. Hope this helps

 

[SILTHW]

I started a 20 seconds, trimmed to 13 seconds, and now do something that is about 3 seconds long. The AVD improved every time I reduced the bumper length.

 

[Jeffrey Powers]

If you want to do something fun like the Simpson's intro (where bits and pieces change every time), then a longer intro could be a great social experiment. Otherwise, I would keep it short.

Also, make sure you have chapter markers in your video so people can skip the intro.

 

[Damon]

Neither. I don't use intros at all. Jump straight into the content people clicked to see. For my channel intros of any kind ruined watch time.

 

[Lenre2021]

Do you like watching long intros on other peoples videos?

short intro is better than a long one.

 

[EV Nick]

Depends on content sometimes NO intros, sometimes a 5 second short intro and others 10 seconds. However this is inserted AFTER I've talked about what video is about as a new sub just won't watch an intro if its the first thing they see and just won't carry on watching your video

 

[Beanie Draws]

What ever you do, don't start with dubstep I think a very breif rundown of a few seconds tends to work. You can watch most Mr Beast videos and he does like, 5 seconds of hard explaining what's about to happen, and that tends to be more for seo than anything else. I know Nick Nimmin and others used to say to put right at the front what the video was about, because YouTube and Google would scan the first 30 seconds or so of the video to determine what the video is about. If YouTube can determine if you have copyrighted music, swearing in the first 30 seconds, and can also auto caption your videos, then it's no doubt listening to what is said and shown in the first 30 seconds. BUT you don't want to stuff your intros or you'll lose your audience because if your video is too long to get to the point, most will leave, the vocal ones will say "video starts at" in your comments so people can avoid your intro entirely.

I mean really, just watch any of TubeBuddy's intros, see what they do with their videos it's a short snappy intro, or gets right to the information straight away.

 

[Duncan Allers]

Yup agreed, I use a short intro and outro and I reckon it's the way to go..

 

[Travelingwithpatrick]

Do you like watching long intros on other peoples videos?

good question. I guess some like the long intro but that’s not why they subscribed to our page. Mines is around 15 seconds and that’s it. I change it up and try to keep it short. I have seen some intros a minute king and that makes me push the video faster to get through it. I wanna see the content not the intro. So yeah keep it short for me.

 

[Craig Payne]

Mines is around 15 seconds and that’s it.

Any more than a few seconds and you lost me.

 

[The Storm is coming]

I would keep them short but make sure you just a a branding(if needed)

 

[Kindred]

I think long intros are fine if you already have a large audience but short intros grab attention is you’re still a smaller YouTuber