Short YouTube Q&A in which Sabri Suby answers Priyan’s question about optimal video-ad length. Sabri distinguishes between short (15–30s) branding/reminder ads recommended by platform reps and much longer direct-response ads for cold audiences that must educate and convert; he advises ad length should match how much information is needed to give a prospect confidence to take the next step.
Thanks for your question, Priyan. You have asked. Hey, Sabri, this ad goes for 4 minutes and 41 seconds. And the Facebook guys keep calling and saying 30 seconds works best. What's your take on the length of a video ad? Is there a time which works best? Basically, those Facebook guys that are calling you, they're in the world of reminding people through branding, they're typically going to recommend running like a 9 by 16 ad format, 15 to 30 seconds, that just basically reminds your market that you exist. But if you're going out there to cold audiences and you're using direct response ads and you're wanting people to basically basically not know who you are and then go from who the hell are you to shut up and take my money and educate them on all of the different things about what your product does, the problems that it solves, and why, right now is the best time to pull the trigger and actually buy this thing. Then you're gonna need to have a look at how much information is involved in order for this person to take the next step that I'm wanting to do. Typically, that conversation is gonna be the length of how many things that you need to address in order to give that person the confidence that they need to take that next step.
