Are longer videos better than short videos?

[AnswersRule]

Some of the best channels out there started small by making short videos almost like a teaser/trailer of their future content then as time went on they started creating longer videos for more watch time, etc. CinemaSins, Domics, etc. did this. Then there are channels who went longform right off the bat.

Is one approach better than the other?

I would love to know your thoughts/experiences.

 

[KatyAdelson]

I moved this to the strategy / technique advice forum.

 

[Dave2017]

I think it´s fine to start with short videos. I did this in the beginning. If you can make a short and good video to get people interestet in your content it would be perfect But as you go along you find out how important watch time is to YouTube(just like you say) and then it´s good to make longer videos. But it also depends what you mean by long. I think my longest video is about 10 minutes and i usually keep them from 4-6 min.

 

[chubbybots]

I see short interesting videos as good gate way videos to your channel (Sort of like the elevator pitch) and then if they like your content they will want to see more longer format videos.

 

[Cephus]

I've polled my viewers and universally, they all say videos between 10-15 minutes is their sweet spot. Not sure if you'd consider that long or short. I know that if I upload a longer video, something 30 minutes or more, it performs dramatically worse than something in the 10-15 minute range. I also know that as a viewer, I'm just not interested in long videos unless it's something I really want to see, I just don't have the time to spend on them.

 

[Steverd]

People can have short attention spans. Most of my videos are 4-10 minutes longs.
Then a few shorter and a few longer. I never consider the length when film or editing.
The end produce is whatever it is.

 

[Courtney Candice]

In beginning I started making really short videos and it worked. I don’t think videos should be really long anyways because people have short attention spans

 

[Hirudov]

I made a poll on my channel if to make longer or shorter videos and 84% of the people who voted said longer videos are better.

People have short attention spans for topics that are not interesting for them, but if they watch something that they love, at the end they still want more and more. Even now when I started making some videos longer than 10 minutes, some comments say that I went over some parts way too fast. The short attention span is a myth. If people still had short attention span, I guess there won't be anymore movies or sitcoms made, just 1-2 minutes clips.

 

[Lightsen]

depends if the longer video is just a padded out short video, because those are incredibly boring.

 

[EVO]

Most of the daily creators I follow upload between 10-20 minutes. I think the sweet spot for me as a viewer is around 12 minutes.
I personally upload 10 min videos just to take advantage of the multiple advert placements.
I would say that some of the infrequant upload channels I follow upload anywhere from 1-30 minutes. I want more than just 1 minute and 30 minutes is too long.