| 🚨Update: We just released a new report documenting how long TikTok videos and Instagram Reels should be based on an analysis of 2,000 creator videos between July and September 2024! |
Is there actually an optimal length for influencer videos on TikTok and Instagram?
Good question. And we’d like to offer brands a more concrete answer than “It depends!”
Keep in mind that what’s “optimal” for a massive beauty creator on TikTok won’t be the same for a parenting micro-influencer on IG.
Still, we wanted an objective answer to “How long should a social media video be?”
That’s why we wrote this post to offer recommendations for brands based on:
Let’s dive in!
TLDR? Summary and Recommendations 👩‍🏫
Skip to Section 👇Short-Form vs. Long-Form Videos: What's Best for Influencers? |
Both TikToks and Reels lend themselves to bite-sized videos, right?
Not necessarily!
These formats aren’t exclusively short-form anymore. In fact, as of April 2024:
The blanket advice that 7 to 15 seconds is the “best” video length should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s a safe recommendation but not based on hard data.
Heck, just scroll through any creators’ feeds for a few seconds. Chances are you’ll see a variety of video lengths earning varying levels of engagement and reach. If you talk to five creators, you’ll get five different answers as to what’s “best.”
For example, there’s been fierce debate among creators recently on the performance of long-form content versus short-form videos on TikTok.
Here’s the truth, though: video length isn’t a one-size-fits-all affair for influencers.
That’s why brands and creators should experiment with different social media video lengths and formats instead of assuming or second-guessing. Your social analytics can likewise clue you in on answers to find the best video length for your brand.
Now, let’s dig deeper into our breakdown of optimal TikTok and Instagram Reels lengths!
Finding a correlation between TikTok length and engagement is tricky.
Especially since we’ve seen plenty of examples of TikTok influencers with varying video lengths that are successful. This video run as a Spark Ad by Nuuly earned millions of views and strong organic engagement despite being only six seconds long.
Then again, there are storytime-style videos and long-form reviews that go viral all the time. For reference, this organic video promoting Saltair earned over 6.4 million views despite being nearly three minutes long. That’s the power of user-generated content!
As highlighted in our breakdown of TikTok Spark Ad examples, “less is more” is a good mantra to stick to for the sake of holding viewers’ attention. However, longer influencer videos mean more opportunities to make an impression on viewers. Longer videos likewise result in higher watch times which the TikTok algorithm sees as a positive signal for engagement.
TikTok goes back and forth in its video length recommendations between ads and organic content. Let’s look at what we know and apply it to influencer videos:
TikTok has sent mostly mixed signals in terms of ideal video length. However, we can read between the lines of these recommendations and research to offer some actionable takeaways for brands and how long their influencers’ videos should be:
While Reels started as a competitor to TikTok’s short-form format, all Instagram videos (including in-feed posts) that are >15 minutes fall under the Reels umbrella.
And this really muddies the waters of how long Reels should be.
Like TikTok, influencer videos on Reels are all over the place length-wise in terms of engagement and view count. So, what should brands recommend to influencers?
There’s limited third-party data and research on what’s considered the best length for organic videos on Instagram.
We do know how important engagement is for Reels and the general Instagram algorithm.
The quicker a viewer gets through a video, the faster (and more likely they are) to drop a comment. By default, short-form content will typically yield better completion rates and higher engagement rates as a result.
That’s why the oft-cited advice that “Reels should be 7 to 15 seconds long” is safe.
However, it’s unclear whether this recommended length is actually “optimal.”
While third-party research on the topic of video length is limited, we do have some clues based on “official” recommendations and statements:
Instagram’s advice for brands is a simple but straightforward starting point for video length. Again, we have to read between the lines of what’s recommended and what actually sees a strong engagement rate.
If you’re searching for the ideal video length for your influencers’s videos, your head is in the right place. Maximizing the reach of your influencer marketing is the goal, right?
Hopefully, our breakdown of the best social video lengths sheds some light on the issue!
That said, keep these points in mind before making recommendations to creators:
This speaks to the value of running a high volume of influencer collabs with a variety of content. 100s of creators provide plenty of opportunities to experiment and likewise, offer a meaningful sample size to figure out the best video length for your brand.
And if you’re looking to run collabs like this at scale, Statusphere’s software can help.
Our micro-influencer platform matches brands with vetted influencers based on 250+ first-party data points. We help brands run always-on influencer marketing campaigns at scale through automated fulfillment, product seeding and creator management.
We’ve already generated 75,000+ pieces of UGC on behalf of 400+ CPG brands.
Want to learn more about how our platform works? Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can scale your influencer video strategy in a fraction of the time.