How Long Should Your Video Be? A Guide by Platform and Purpose

The client wants the video "as short as possible." The marketing team wants it under two minutes. Someone in the meeting read an article claiming attention spans are eight seconds and now the whole project is spiralling.

I have been in this meeting a hundred times.

Here is what I tell every client. The right length is however long it takes to say what needs saying in a way people will actually watch. That sounds vague. It is not. It just means you need to stop thinking about length and start thinking about purpose.

Thirty seconds of passive scrolling attention and thirty minutes of active learning are completely different asks. A LinkedIn case study and an Instagram Reel live in different universes. Treating them the same is how you end up with a video that fails everywhere instead of working somewhere.

I have been making video in Auckland for over twenty years. Health brands, tech companies, NGOs, educational institutions, government agencies. What follows is not theory. It is what I have seen work.

Why "Shorter Is Better" Is Lazy Advice

You have heard the goldfish thing. Humans now have shorter attention spans than goldfish. Eight seconds. It gets repeated at every marketing conference and in every client briefing deck.

That statistic is completely made up. It was attributed to a Microsoft study that never actually measured attention spans. Researchers have debunked it repeatedly. It refuses to die because it makes a great slide in someone's presentation.

Meanwhile, people watch three-hour video essays on YouTube. They sit through ninety-minute documentaries. They binge entire Netflix series in a single sitting.

Now, before you say it. Yes, entertainment is different from brand video. Nobody stumbles into your case study the way they stumble into a true crime documentary. But the principle is the same. People do not leave because a video is long. They leave because a video is boring. A thirty-second video that delivers value gets watched. A ninety-second video that wanders gets abandoned at fifteen seconds.

Length is not killing your video. Pacing is. We will come back to that.

Sometimes Short Is the Right Call

Before I go platform by platform, let me be clear. I am not saying every video should be long. Sometimes short is exactly right.

Instagram Reels and TikTok have hard caps or algorithmic preferences for certain lengths. Teasers exist to push people toward longer content elsewhere. Simple announcements only need to say one thing. Shorter video costs less to produce well. And short versions let you test messaging before committing to a bigger production.

Short is a valid strategic choice. What it should not be is a reflex driven by a fake statistic about goldfish.

LinkedIn Video Length: People Will Watch If You Give Them a Reason

LinkedIn has quietly become one of the most effective platforms for B2B video, health sector campaigns, NGO awareness work and thought leadership. It is also where I see the most wasted potential.

Format: 16:9 (horizontal) works best. 1:1 (square) is fine but less common.

30 to 90 seconds for quick insights, campaign teasers and event highlights.

2 to 3 minutes for case studies, client testimonials and project overviews.

5 to 10 minutes for educational content, panel discussions and documentary excerpts. At this length you need significantly more supplementary footage (cutaways, location shots, graphics) to keep things visually interesting.

Here is what people get wrong about LinkedIn. They assume nobody will watch anything over a minute. That is not true. A healthcare administrator will watch six minutes about mental health service delivery if the information is useful. A sustainability manager will sit through an eight-minute case study about carbon reduction if it shows real outcomes.

The trick is simple. Answer two questions in the first ten seconds. What is this about? Why should I care? Do that and people keep watching.

What kills LinkedIn video is not length. It is vagueness. Generic brand pieces that take forty-five seconds to say absolutely nothing. Promotional content dressed up as insight. Videos that bury the actual point under a mountain of branding.

Instagram Video Length: Earn Attention Every Three Seconds

Instagram has multiple formats. Each one plays by different rules.

Feed posts: 1:1 (square) or 4:5 (vertical). Aim for 30 to 60 seconds. Anything past 90 and people are gone.

Reels: 9:16 (vertical, full screen). Sweet spot is 15 to 30 seconds. Can stretch to 60 if the content genuinely earns it.

Stories: 9:16 (vertical, full screen). 15 seconds per slide. Chain 3 to 5 slides for 45 to 75 seconds total.

Instagram is passive scrolling. Nobody opens the app thinking "I would love to learn about that NGO's community programme." They are killing time. They are looking for something that catches their eye for half a second.

If you are putting health services, educational programmes or campaign content on Instagram, you need to earn continued attention every three seconds. Strong visuals. Tight editing. Clear narrative. Zero wasted moments.

That does not mean dumbing down the message. It means respecting the platform. The audience is there for fast, visual content. Give them that or they scroll past.

Website Video Length: Go Deeper Than You Think

Your website is where people come on purpose. They searched for you. They clicked through. They are already interested. This is where you stop worrying about grabbing attention and start thinking about holding it.

Format: 16:9 (horizontal) standard. Responsive player adjusts to device.

Homepage hero video: 60 to 90 seconds. Two minutes maximum. Who you are, what you do, why it matters.

About page video: 2 to 3 minutes. Can stretch to 5 if the story is worth telling. Your approach, your team, your values.

Service explanation videos: 3 to 5 minutes. Up to 8 to 10 for complex services.

Case studies and project documentation: 4 to 6 minutes standard. 10 to 20 minutes for documentary-length work. For nonprofit projects specifically, see documentary approaches for NGOs on how to handle length decisions.

People who click on a case study about mental health service delivery want depth. A potential client researching your approach to sustainability reporting wants a real explanation, not a highlight reel.

The mistake I see constantly is clients cramming everything into ninety seconds because someone told them websites need short videos. If the content warrants four minutes, make a four-minute video. Your audience came looking for substance. Give it to them.

Conference Video Length: A Completely Different Game

Everything changes when you have a captive audience.

Format: 16:9 (horizontal) to match projector and screen setups.

People are sitting in a room. They chose to attend your session. Nobody is scrolling. Nobody is half-watching while they make lunch. You have their full attention. Use it.

Presentation support: 2 to 4 minutes per video segment.

Documentary screening: 15 to 30 minutes.

Campaign launch: 8 to 12 minutes.

Case study deep dive: 10 to 15 minutes.

The content can breathe here. You can let moments sit. You can build toward emotional impact instead of frontloading everything into the first five seconds.

I have screened twenty-minute documentaries at mental health conferences where the room was completely still. People watched every second, engaged emotionally and stayed for the conversation afterward. That same video would die on Instagram. But in that room, with that audience, the length was exactly right.

Training Video Length: Teach Properly or Do Not Bother

Educational content plays by its own rules because the goal is knowledge transfer, not engagement metrics.

Format: 16:9 (horizontal) standard for most learning platforms.

Single concept explainer: 3 to 5 minutes.

Multiple concept explainer: 8 to 12 minutes.

Complex process: 15 to 20 minutes.

Individual training lesson: 10 to 15 minutes.

Full training module: Multiple segments of 20 to 30 minutes each.

Demonstrations: However long it takes to show the process properly.

I filmed training content for a health technology company explaining new clinical software. Each module ran fifteen to twenty minutes. Way longer than any marketing video should be. But these were staff who needed to actually learn the system. Rushing through it in five minutes would have been a waste of everyone's time and money.

If the audience has chosen to learn, give them a thorough explanation. Brevity for its own sake is not a virtue here.

Before You Decide on Length, Answer These Questions

Who is watching and why? Someone scrolling LinkedIn during their lunch break is in a completely different headspace from someone who clicked through to your website case study page. The first person gives you seconds. The second gives you minutes.

Where will they watch? LinkedIn is professional. Instagram is casual. Your website is deliberate. A conference room is attentive. Each context sets different expectations.

What do they need to walk away with? Simple awareness, deep understanding, emotional connection and practical knowledge all require different amounts of time. Know which one you are after.

What happens if they bail halfway? Some videos need to land the message in fifteen seconds because most viewers will not finish. Others are built for people who will watch every frame. Design for the right scenario.

Including length in your brief to the filmmaker from the start helps scope the project properly. It also prevents the "can we just make it shorter" conversation in post-production, which is never a fun conversation for anyone.

Video Pacing Matters More Than Video Length

This is the thing most people miss. They obsess over runtime when they should be obsessing over pacing.

A ten-minute video with tight pacing and clear structure will hold attention better than a ninety-second video that meanders. Every time.

Good pacing means every shot serves a purpose. Every sentence adds information or emotion. No filler. No repetition. Visual variety keeps things moving. Sound design supports momentum. Clear beginning, middle and end.

When a video feels too long, the problem is almost never the runtime. It is that nothing is happening. Shots linger without reason. Interviews repeat the same point three different ways. Footage sits on screen doing nothing.

Tight editing makes any length watchable. Loose editing makes even a thirty-second video feel like it will never end.

So How Long Should Your Video Be?

As long as it needs to be to deliver value without wasting a single second of someone's time.

If that is thirty seconds, make a sharp thirty-second video. If that is eight minutes, make a compelling eight-minute video. Match the length to the platform, the purpose and the audience. Make every moment earn its place.

And the next time someone in a meeting says "can we keep it under two minutes," ask them why. If the answer is goldfish, you already know what to do.