How long should a small business video be
Between 20 and 45 seconds, for most small business videos. That is long enough to answer one question properly and short enough that most people reach the end. Watch-through rate is what every platform actually rewards, and a shorter video finished beats a longer one abandoned.
Why finishing matters more than length
Every short video platform measures what proportion of your video people watch before leaving. A 30 second video watched to the end sends a stronger signal than a 90 second video people leave at 40 seconds, even though the second one was watched for longer. This is why the same content cut shorter often reaches more people, and why padding a video to hit some imagined minimum works against you.
The practical consequence: decide the length from the content, then cut whatever does not serve it. Never film to fill a duration.
Length by what the video is for
| The video | Length | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Answering one customer question | 20 to 45 seconds | One question genuinely takes about this long. Longer means you are answering two |
| A quick tip or a mistake to avoid | 15 to 30 seconds | The value is the single point. Everything else dilutes it |
| Showing how something is done | 45 to 90 seconds | Process needs steps, and steps need time |
| Explaining a service or price | 60 to 90 seconds | People considering spending money will watch longer |
| An introduction to you | 30 to 60 seconds | Long enough to be a person, short enough not to be a speech |
The words-to-seconds conversion
Comfortable spoken pace is about two and a half words a second, or 150 words a minute. That is slower than most people expect and it is the pace that sounds relaxed rather than rushed.
| Script length | Spoken duration |
|---|---|
| 50 words | About 20 seconds |
| 75 words | About 30 seconds |
| 110 words | About 45 seconds |
| 150 words | About 60 seconds |
| 225 words | About 90 seconds |
Write to the word count rather than guessing at the clock. If your script is 300 words and you wanted 45 seconds, the problem is the script, and no amount of talking faster fixes it. Yarn times each section as it writes, which is the same arithmetic done for you.
Where the platform caps bite
The technical maximums are much longer than anything worth posting, but one of them is a trap. Instagram allows Reels up to 20 minutes and stops recommending anything over three minutes to people who do not already follow you. So a four minute Reel uploads without complaint and then reaches almost nobody new. YouTube Shorts stops being a Short at all past three minutes. On TikTok and LinkedIn the cap is far beyond the point where attention runs out.
The first three seconds do most of the work
Whatever the total length, the opening decides whether any of it gets watched. Start with the thing the viewer wants: the question, the mistake, the number. “Three things people get wrong about their hot water system” works. “Hi guys, welcome back to my channel” spends the only three seconds you were given on nothing.
This is also the easiest thing to fix. Record the same video with a different first line and watch the difference, because the rest of it did not change.
The short answer
Aim for 20 to 45 seconds, write about 110 words, and make sure the first three earn the rest. Then cut anything that is there to fill time, because the platform is counting who reached the end.
8 September 2026
Talk your idea into a video
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