Transcription
How long should your videos be? Well, I've heard this question a lot after growing three channels to 100,000 subscribers and one channel to over a million subscribers. And this video is not going to be very long because the answer is very simple.
The short answer is your videos should be as long as they need to be and as short as they can be. The more detailed answer is that YouTube sends traffic to the videos that are most likely to keep people on the platform for as long as possible. Why? So that people watch more ads and so YouTube makes more money.
Why does this matter? Well, "how long should my videos be?" is the wrong question to ask. A better question would be, "how do I keep my viewers watching for as long as possible without them clicking off?" And so, it's not just about total watch time. For example, if people watch 10 minutes of a three-hour video, that's a great average view duration, but it's not a great average view percentage. And so, a 10-minute AVD is pretty good, but a 5.5% average view percentage is pretty bad. And if people watch 10 seconds of a 10-second video, that's a great average view percentage, but it's a bad AVD. So, it's a 10-second AVD. That's terrible. But 100% AP. So, that's great, right? But both these performances are pretty bad. So, it's not just about one metric that you want to max out or else you would just make eight-hour videos, right?
And so, here's the real power of YouTube. So, like it's way easier to get views on Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook, right? Why go with YouTube? Well, the reason people make YouTube videos in the first place is because your viewers can spend a lot more time with you. Um, this is if you make educational content and want to grow your personal brand. If that's not you, don't watch this video. You'd have to watch a hundred shorts to get the same time with a creator as one 20-minute video. That's why people make YouTube videos.
But this doesn't mean you should stretch out all your videos to be eight hours. Because if the value per second is less than someone else's 8-minute video, then viewers will watch that video instead and YouTube will send traffic their way. So if somebody made an 8-hour video on how long your YouTube videos should be, you probably wouldn't watch that video.
And here's three qualifying questions to ask yourself to get the result this video promises. Do I need to add more information? If yes, you can make it longer. And if no, don't add for the sake of adding. Don't add just to make it longer. And if your video doesn't promise a result and it's just about a mindset shift or a point you want to make, does this video make the point without more information? If so, don't add more information. If the viewer follows the steps, but I remove X, will they still get the result? If yes, remove it. You don't need it there. That means it's unnecessary. And if no, don't keep it for the sake of the video length. And the last question you should ask yourself is, can I say this section in less words and get the same point across? When you're looking at the plan of your video, your script, however you do it, can I say this in an easier, shorter, simpler way? If so, yes, rewrite it.
And so, we're basically back to this. Your videos should be as long as they need to be and as short as they can be. Five.