How Long Should Your Explainer Video Be?

How long should your explainer video be? If you get the length right, you could get higher engagement on your videos and win more sales! Get it wrong and you risk viewers turning away too soon. We’ve put together a video summarising a large video engagement study and the findings that will help you to decide the right length for your explainer video!

Video Transcription

How long should I make my Explainer Video? is a question we get a lot here at Spiel. And it’s a good one because, if you get your explainer video length wrong, it’s likely you’ll struggle to engage your audience with its key message!

To help you answer the question ‘How long should I make my Explainer Video?’ we’re going to refer to a comprehensive study conducted by video whizzes Wistia. In it, they measured how video length affects engagement by examining a whopping 564,710 videos and more than 1.3 billion plays!

And from it, we can learn some direct and actionable steps that can improve the engagement of your videos.

The first 30 seconds

To start with, in the first 30 seconds, video engagement drops on average from 100% to roughly 70%. With 30% of the audience tuning out, it’s the sharpest drop off any point in the video.

So it’s key to grab your viewer’s attention from the very beginning and ensure those first 30 seconds are particularly engaging if you want to minimise this drop.

Some of the best ways to accomplish this are by having a great hook at the beginning and to avoid starting your video with your brand logo and a boring introduction for your company that drags on way too long.

Think of ways you can really connect with your target audience from the offset.

Between 30 seconds and 2 minutes

From there, video engagement interestingly drops very little from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

The data suggests that, if a viewer watches the first 30 seconds of your video, they’re likely to keep watching it until the 2-minute mark.

The main takeaway to remember here is: Keeping your short videos between 30 seconds & 2 minutes is the safest strategy for minimising drops in engagement.

Between 2 minutes and 6 minutes

Moving forward, however, after 2 minutes the drop off is quite sharp. And this continues all the way to the 6-minute mark. Is by that point, according to Wistia’s study, 50% of your viewers on average will have stopped watching.

If you are creating a longer video, be aware that there’s likely to be a larger drop in engagement between 2 and 6 minutes. So make sure this section of the video is as engaging as possible to keep your viewers watching.

Between 6 minutes and 12 minutes

Between 6 and 12 minutes, however, there’s again surprisingly little change in engagement. So, if viewers watch 6 minutes, according to the data, they’re likely to stay for 12.

If your video needs to be longer than 6 minutes, you won’t have to worry too much about a drop in engagement from the 6th to 12th minute. So whether it’s 6,7,8 or 12 minutes long, there’s no need for concern as long as the content remains relevant for your audience.

Between 12 minutes and 20 minutes

Finally, after 12 minutes, engagement starts to decline sharply again until the 20th minute, where the Wistia study ends. But interestingly not as sharply as between minutes 2 and 6.

So, ideally, in most cases, try to keep your long videos below the 12-minute mark to maximise audience retention, unless you really have to make them longer.


Now that we’ve examined the results of the Wistia study, let’s return to our original question: How long should Explainer Videos on your website be?

Well, when talking about explainer videos on your website specifically, I suggest keeping them below 2 minutes in most cases. This is because explainer videos are not supposed to be in-depth guides but rather introductions to your products or services and key messages.

If you have multiple offerings or messages, consider creating multiple shorter videos.

And then adding them to the relevant landing pages on your website rather than just having one long explainer video that tries to cover everything.

If your explainer video needs to explain a more complex subject, still try to keep it as short and succinct as possible in order to engage as many viewers as you can.

However, if it absolutely must pass the 6-minute mark, then you don’t really have to worry about a significant drop in engagement until 12 minutes.

I advise against making your explainer videos longer than 12 minutes as this generally isn’t their purpose.

Bonus tip!

Make sure you A/B TEST YOUR EXPLAINER VIDEO by experimenting with different lengths to see what works best with your customers!

Final words

This is by no means the final word on Explainer Video Length, so remember to subscribe to our channel so you get notified when we post new content on Video Length for different social media platforms.

If you’re interested in an Explainer Video for your business, get in touch with us here at our explainer video company Spiel to see how we can help.

And don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel for the latest in video marketing from Spiel.

Thanks for watching!