"How long should this video be?" comes up on almost every project, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on where it's going to live. A video that performs great on YouTube can flop on Instagram, and a video built for a paid ad has completely different rules than one built for your homepage. Here's the real breakdown, by platform.
General engagement: 30 to 90 seconds. LinkedIn ads specifically perform best around 30 to 60 seconds. Thought-leadership or interview-style content can stretch to 60–90 seconds, but performance measurably drops off past the two-minute mark. If you're posting native video on LinkedIn, this is the platform where a slightly longer, more substantive video is actually rewarded — as long as it earns every second.
Instagram and Facebook feed
Organic feed posts: keep it under 60 seconds. Paid ads on these platforms are far shorter, typically 6 to 15 seconds, because you're paying for attention in a feed where the scroll is fast and unforgiving. Reels specifically perform best around 15 to 30 seconds, with 60 seconds as a hard ceiling before drop-off gets steep.
YouTube
This is the one platform where longer content genuinely works, because the intent is different — people go to YouTube to watch, not to scroll. Explainers and promo videos still do best around 60–90 seconds. Tutorials can run 2 to 5 minutes. Deep-dive or documentary-style content can go 7 minutes or more, as long as it's actually earning that runtime. YouTube Shorts follow the short-form rules: 15 to 35 seconds, 60 seconds max.
Paid ads generally
Across most paid social platforms, 15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot. You're paying for every second someone watches, so the goal is to make the point and the ask as fast as possible, not to tell the whole story. What matters even more than the length is what happens in the first three seconds.
Your website homepage
There's less hard data here because it's less about a platform's algorithm and more about your visitor's patience. In practice, 60 to 90 seconds is the range that works for most homepage brand or explainer videos — long enough to actually explain what you do and why someone should trust you, short enough that it doesn't ask more of a first-time visitor than they're willing to give.
The general rule, if you only remember one thing
Across formats, the 30-second to 2-minute range is the one most marketers rate as most effective for general marketing video, and that lines up with what we see on client projects. The exception is always paid ads, where shorter almost always wins, and long-form platforms like YouTube, where the right content can earn a longer watch.
If you're not sure what length fits the specific video you're planning, that's a five-minute conversation, not a guessing game. Talk to us before you shoot, not after.
Not sure what length fits your project? That's a five-minute conversation.
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