Someone once said to imagine your audience is in line at Target when your ad or article pops up — you have less than a few seconds to grab the viewers’ attention, deliver the message, and most importantly make a lasting impression that will make them want to take some action to finding out more (and/or buying a ticket).
So how long should you be making your video promos to capture someone’s attention while they’re scrolling through pictures of family and friends and laughing at memes? What exactly is the balance between leaving them wanting more and keeping it short and sweet?
The most important thing here, is to think about who your video is for — this will keep your message focused and clear, and allow your audience to receive the message without any confusion.
AUDIENCE #1: VIDEOS AIMED AT A RETURNING AUDIENCE
Let’s say you are looking to get more subscriber renewals — the viewer already has interest in what you are selling, and if they’ve had a great experience in the past, they will likely be excited to find out what else you have to offer. For this particular audience, a video of about 60 - 90 seconds is appropriate. Be aware that anything longer than this may not be effective.
AUDIENCE #2: VIDEOS AIMED AT NEW SINGLE TICKET BUYERS
If single ticket buyers don’t know much about who you are, let alone what you are offering — you have an even shorter amount of time to get your message across. Likely no longer than 30 seconds. These types of videos need to explain what value the new customer will be getting very early on, and keep things short and sweet
AUDIENCE #3: GENERAL AWARENESS VIDEOS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA ADS
Likely most of you are using Instagram and Facebook sponsored posts to share what you have to offer for all types of audiences. These ads may need to be even shorter, anywhere from 5-15 seconds and will need to have the call to action running throughout the video, instead of on an end card. In the instance of using Social Media ads, you don’t want your possible new customer to have to wait all the way til the end of the video to decide if they are interested in “swiping up.” If they don’t know when the performance is after 1-2 seconds, they may have already swiped past your ad.
These are all important things to think about. However, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to making promo videos for what you are offering — and of course, it’s always great to experiment with longer and shorter videos to see what works better for your audience. Just always remember that most people are looking to social media for short spurts of entertainment or ads, so the shorter, usually the better. Always be respectful of the viewers’ time and they will thank you for it.
Contact us at www.cinevative.com for more info.
