How long should an Intro be?

[TheDutchTexan]

Less than 5 seconds. You do not want to bore people with the same footage every time if it's longer than 5 seconds. I now work it into the video as kind of a transition between a vlog portion (in case of my cars and coffee stuff) or to signal the start of the car review after showing a teaser of the most exiting part of the car review I filmed. But even before not many people clicked off because of the intro, it is nice and short.

 

[KatyAdelson]

I moved this to the strategy discussion forum.

 

[MASE]

I only like the ones that give a hint of the ending. This is a strategy used in flim. In this way, at least in vlogs, you are still apart of the story. It's so easy to click off an intro that is obviously an intro..Also think of Netflix. Instant viewing and ability to skip to the show. You don't want people skipping through your video..

 

[6StringMadMan]

Intros can be absolutely horrible for bounce rate. I would keep it as short as possible.You only have 3-5 seconds to grab the attention of a new viewer before they decide to click one of the other videos that YouTube has displayed on the page (both in search and your watch page).

 

[FireShock]

I would say 5 second is a nice sweet spot. One thing I would add maybe as an extra don't add bad annoying music to it. I have watched so many YT videos with nice intros, but god awful music attached to it.

 

[Jealous Lawn Care]

definitely <5 seconds

 

[Zaland Adams]

If anyone's intro is longer than 10 seconds I will not even watch the rest of the video, it's really obnoxious. I usually try to keep mine max 4 seconds.

I just subscribed to your channel after discovering it through someone else, then when I came on here I saw you, that's just so amazing lol!

 

[Philip Jensen]

I agree with the short intro, 3-5 seconds max.

To add to it, I would never start my video with an intro. Start it with a "hook", something catchy/funny/weird/exciting/a glimse from later in the video or a CTA (call to action). Then you can add your intro after 10 or 20 seconds.

Imagine loosing a viewer, not because they didn't like your content. But because they didn't like your piece of motion graphic and they never got to see your content because they left after 5 seconds.

In 2016 videos played an average of 9 seconds. (So I've read, don't know if its true, but it is provocative.

 

[tizzer65]

Mine is 8 seconds long, I would definitely shorten it but I really like it lol. At the end of the day it's all a balance of creating the best content but also content you love. That's my humble advice anyway.

 

[PlayStationGamer15]

Well mine for a walkthrough is a simple title screen with my username and then the game and part number. Only 14 seconds, I will likely keep it for the rest of the game. Just long but short enough so viewers can see it.