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Ah, the age old question – how long should your TikToks be?
Just like the rest of social media success, figuring out your ideal TikTok length is a little guesswork, a little data science, and a little personal luck and magic.
Video length is certainly important, you have to know the basics to set yourself up for success.
Here is the ultimate summary of TikTok video length:
The best length for a TikTok is between 5 and 60 seconds. In 2021, TikTok internal data said the ideal time was 11 to 17 seconds, however, this is now outdated for most niches. If your video is all music or trending sounds, aim for shorter, if it’s you speaking, up to a minute.
However, once you know the most important guidelines, you still have to focus on creating interesting and engaging content.
In this article, I will explain how you’ll find your exact sweet spot between 5 and 60 seconds, and why anyone who tries to tell you they can be more specific than that without knowing what type of videos you’re making is wrong.
The Length Of Your TikToks Can Determine Virality
Let’s be clear: the length of your TikToks greatly affects your virality.
In general, beginners tend to start by making videos too long.
In fact, if you are having trouble getting views, one of the first things I tell people is to make their videos shorter.
It’s not really anyone’s fault that this happens, it’s just part of the learning process.
As we’re learning how to make content and create videos, we often don’t know how many details we can exclude.
As a viewer it may be obvious that a certain section of the video ran on too long, or that that list only needed 3 bullet points instead of 7.
But as the person on the other end of the process, these choices aren’t always clear.
This leads us to the first important rule in TikTok video length:
Keep Your TikToks Under 60 Seconds
Unless you are very experienced making videos, or you don’t care about getting views, this is the golden rule.
Next time you’re on your FYP, scroll through and see how many videos are over a minute. I bet it’s less than 1:10, and depending on your feed could be almost non-existent.
Do not tempt fate, do not go against this advice.
Keeping your TikToks under 60 seconds is a tried and true method that many, many content creators follow.
My friend Alexia has a whopping 1.2M followers and she has found that it’s never worth it to create videos over 60s.
Just don’t do it!
Shorter Does Not Always Mean More Views
Now, once we’re in the 5-60 second time range, people can sometimes have the opposite instincts.
You’ll see threads of people losing their minds over whether 5 or 7 seconds is the better length, or people saying, ’13 seconds is what the algorithm wants this month.’
Just like how I don’t want you to freely point the camera at yourself and record 4 loose minutes on your thoughts about life, I also don’t want you to try to cram out a complex thought in 14 seconds.
If you’re someone who has always kept their video lengths under 20 seconds, I’m here to tell you it’s totally fine to expand.
And this brings us to my most important point:
Experiment With Different Video Lengths
If you haven’t made a bunch of different types of videos at a bunch of different types of lengths, then you don’t know what your optimal length is!
I have videos at every point in the 5-60 second time frame that have gone viral.
Once you’re in the optimal time frame, video length has helped you as much as it can.
What’s going to make your videos go viral past that is the content of the video.
This means you need to be making creative, artistic, and social media savvy decisions, not just focusing on video length.
After you’ve made a couple dozen of videos in different video lengths, it’s time for the most important part!
Analyze Your Analytics To Determine Your Best Video Length
It’s time to bust open the spreadsheets.
You’re here, reading a blog article about how long your TikToks are supposed to be.
Now you’ve gotten to the point with the answer, don’t fail yourself now because it involves a little bit of work!
Look at your past videos.
Which ones got the most views? Are their trend lines with video times?
Test your theories by making more videos in that length! Are your theories confirmed or denied?
Experiment With Longer Videos Once You’re Experienced
Most of us have heard the addage, ‘you have to know the rules before you can break them.’
TikTok video length is another part of life that falls into this category!
Once you’re experienced and you know your peak video timing, there’s no reason why you can’t break the rules.
Social media and TikTok isn’t all about ignoring your creative instincts to create content for an ever-hungry audience full of gaping mouths.
Once in a while it’s about something else!
And that something else is when you just want to publish something that can’t be under a minute.
Relax, inhale, and give yourself permission to create a video that probably won’t perform the best, but that is going to express yourself the best.
If Someone Tells You There’s One Best TikTok Length – Don’t Listen
I have two overall rules I want you to remember about TikTok, reel and overall social media video length.
1- Keep it under 60s
2- If someone tries to give you some tiny length like ‘only 13-18 seconds long, but really it needs to be 16.4s’, don’t listen to them!
People are writing articles with that specific of a time to seem like they know something the rest of us don’t, and to try to win google’s algorithm when people click because they’re scared of losing out on this secret information.
No one, no one, absolutely no one can tell you the precise amount of time your videos should be without knowing what your niche is and what type of content you’re making.
If they try, just see them for the internet grifter they are.