YouTube Question Best length for videos?

[Weird Nashville]

So I'm wondering what you guys have selected for your average length of a youtube video?

I've been shooting at under 15 minutes as I am under the belief that the average Youtube viewer may have a short attention span. However, I have several videos coming up that will definitely push past 30 minutes in final editing. Do I split them logically up into two videos or more videos?

Doing so seems like a no-brainer since instead of one view for the channel I get two or more. But the again, I may have more people who simply don't even look for part 2 as they may have simply gotten here form their home page and one one part was offered.

Also, is it advantageous for monetization purposes?

What are you guys doing?

Jim

 

[Yours Truly]

Ok. This is a good question! I am definitely no expert in this, but I personally feel like a video should minimum be 10-12 minutes. I have several videos on my channel thta are 6-8 minutes just due to lack of content to shove in there, but my videos that are 10-12 minutes long perform best. I had a similar situation to you where I made 7 recipes and divided them into 2 videos, mainly due to not being able to cook 7 recipes in the same week. The first video got over 1k, so I figured part 2 would be just as popular, if not more popular. The 2nd video only ended up getting 20ish views. Thumbnails were quite a bit different, but the titles were similar, tags were similar, etc. So if you post one half of the video and it's successful, doesn't necessary mean that the 2nd half will be successful. I would say post the long video!

 

[My Teaching]

It Must Be 10 to 15 minutes as Viewers would not leave the video early but if the video length is more than 15 minutes They will personally feel boring in that case

 

[MattCommand1]

Jim,

One of the mistakes I made is listening to the wrong people because my circle of people that understood YT was nearly non-existent when I started out. I fell for the notion that people's attentions are so short, they will not bear watching any videos more than 5 minutes. That may be true on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, but untrue on YT. If the content is good, you take the time you need. From a monetization point of view (which I am not there yet), I hear that you need 8 minutes to get 2 ads in. That is one consideration.

But because I have been willing to try different things, experiment, collect more data, and listening to more experienced Youtubers in my genre, I am comfortable going as long as I need to whether it be 5, 10, 15, 20, or even 30 minutes if need be. My limiting factor is the time I have to edit.

I have one "video" that is just a photo of me, a book cover, and chapter titles. But the entire content is AUDIO only and labeled as an "audio podcast" that goes for nearly 20 minutes. I named this by design to let viewers know it would be an auditory experience, not a visual one. I wished I could have put in a better visual component but it was too much for me to take on because I was reading from a script but trying to sound "natural". I was pleasantly surprised because it is was "off-topic" but it is a great performer for me towards my 4,000 watch hours. The retention of this mostly "audio-only" video is very high.

I have become comfortable going 10-15 minutes as necessary because my analytics tell me I am often rewarded for it.

And if you are doing Star Trek videos and the content is good, serious fans will stay with you the entire way. If you want to help viewers who may not want to sit the entire video, put in timestamps / video chapters. But I see no issue going 30 minutes if you are serving meat & potatoes along the way. I say, go for it!

If you are nervous, do one video at 30-minutes and monitor the performance. The beauty of having your channel is being able to experiment.

 

[MattCommand1]

The first video got over 1k, so I figured part 2 would be just as popular, if not more popular. The 2nd video only ended up getting 20ish views. Thumbnails were quite a bit different, but the titles were similar, tags were similar, etc. So if you post one half of the video and it's successful, doesn't necessary mean that the 2nd half will be successful. I would say post the long video!

You make an excellent point and observation. I just saw this last night. One guy posted 7-parts to a video series I am watching. I understand why he did it but I also saw the stats. It is exactly as you said, people who come for Part 1 don't always go to Part 2 or Part 3, much less any further. I think he lost a lot of view time because he split it up into 7 parts vs. putting it all in one video with video chapters / timestamps. Every subsequent part of the overall video series had fewer viewers.

If he put all 7 sections into one video, I would come back as many times to that video as necessary to finish it because I was invested in learning the content.

I am not saying there aren't situations where you NEVER split into multiple parts but it would have to be an exceptional reason. Otherwise (for me), I am all in for that one video.

Another thing that a lot of people may not realize, a lot of people know that the majority of YT viewers do it from their phones but many do not know that people don't actually WATCH the entire time especially if they are driving, walking, working out or concurrently engaging in another activity. They are mostly LISTENING.

In some contexts, it is actually more important that viewers LISTEN than to WATCH but that is way outside the scope of this discussion.

 

[Super Cooper Hobbies]

What you want is to provide the most value in the shortest amount of time. So don't beat around the bush, get all the info in, but just make it as long as it needs to be.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I aim for the 19-23 minute timeslot... I keep my fingers crossed at getting picked up by a network and this is the average run time for a 30 minute episode of television. That having been said, I let my video itself dictate how long it is. I try to keep things punchy and interesting and if that means it can only be a 4 minute video I make it 3 minutes.

As an aside the average video on YouTube with the best performance is between 10 and 16 minutes long.

 

[Charlotte_Brigestone]

Hi everyone I am interested in creating my own YT channel and so I ponder about what is the best video duration to make from the beginning. I see that all has different points of view I thought that video shouldn't be too short but also it definetely shouldn't be too long and boring. That is why I am leaning towards 15-20 minutes video for a start. And when there is enough amount of short videos they can be combined into themed playlists. By the way, I even found Youtube playlist duration calculator. This will help me to monitor the length of the whole content at my channel.